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Craft compelling plots with this complete guide
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Do you want to join the ranks of Shakespeare, Ibsen, and Arthur Miller? You'll need to write a play with bold characters, a dynamic plot, and that special touch that makes it fit for center stage. With a good vision, a strong format, and a little luck, you'll get to experience the thrill of seeing your finished play performed. Whether you're writing a play for theatre or just for fun, use this guide to start writing your script and bringing it to life.
Things You Should Know
- Decide the genre, theme, and setting of your story. Craft your characters and what challenges and conflicts they will overcome throughout the story.
- Outline the beginning, middle, and end of your story. Roughly organize the plot points of your story into scenes and acts.
- Write your first draft and then another, following the playwriting format. Keep revising and asking for outside opinions before settling on a final version.
Steps
Section 1 of 4:
Developing the Story
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Determine the genre and theme of your play. Some popular genres for stage plays are romance, mystery, crime, adventure, and comedy. Your theme should work within your chosen genre, but it also decides what message you want to convey. [1] X Research source
- For example, common themes in Shakespeare's plays include love, power, identity, madness vs. sanity, and fate vs. free will. [2] X Research source
- Consider the key takeaways you want your audience to walk away with or the question you want to plant in their mind.
- Choose themes that are relevant to present-day society and people, since that’s who will be watching and reading your plays.
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Develop your characters. Plays are character-driven, so your characters should be believable and relatable. Choose a protagonist and identify their motivations, personality traits, and backstory. Develop antagonists that will create conflict or supporting characters that will help your character grow throughout the story. [3] X Research source
- Understand your character’s motivations and what drives their behaviors: what does your character want? What will they do to get it?
- Make sure your character demonstrates growth throughout the story and has changed in some way by the play’s conclusion.
- Avoid using stereotypes or common character tropes when developing your characters .
- Your antagonist doesn’t have to be a person. Instead, it could be a struggle within the character’s own self (e.g., a soldier dealing with post-traumatic stress) or a conflict between the character and society (e.g., a woman fighting for her right to vote in 1918). [4] X Research source
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Craft your setting and plot. Choose your story's physical setting and time period, or where and when the story takes place. Be as specific as possible, e.g., “Dr. Wilson's Family Podiatry, next to the Hillsboro Suburban Mall, just south of town, at 3:15 pm on Good Friday” rather than simply “modern-day Tennessee.” Draft a narrative arc that includes a beginning, middle, and end. [5] X Research source
- In playwriting, these stages of a story are better known as the exposition, rising action, conflict, climax, and resolution.
- The exposition should establish your play's setting, characters, and basic conflict.
- The rising action should present a deepening conflict or challenge until you reach the climax of the play, which is the tensest moment in which conflicts are fully addressed.
- The conflict of the play should underscore the theme and relate to the protagonist and antagonist: e.g., two brothers battling over their parents' will may highlight a theme of how grief may obscure what’s truly important.
- The play’s resolution should release the tension after the climax and show characters overcoming or learning to live with their conflicts.
Aaron Sorkin, Playwright & ScreenwriterTrust your unique voice and be creative. "Don't try to guess what it is people want and give it to them. Try your best to write what you like, what you think your friends would like and what you think your father would like and then cross your fingers... The most valuable thing you have is your own voice."
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Understand the limitations of the stage. Remember: you're not writing a movie . A play is an ongoing series of conversations between people. Plays aren’t a great medium for gun fights and car chases (although that doesn’t mean they’re impossible!). [6] X Research source
- Alternatively, break from traditional theatre and write a play with impossible-to-stage scenes as a way of exploring the writing itself.
- If you have no plans to actually stage the play, treat it as a different form of writing a poem .
- Bertolt Brecht, Samuel Beckett, and Antonin Artaud were all innovators of experimental avant-garde plays who incorporated audience participation and other absurdist or surreal elements into their drama.
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Section 2 of 4:
Outlining the Play
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Outline your story. Write down the beginning, middle, and end of your play, and make notes of where major plot points and conflicts are going to happen. Note when certain characters will appear or be introduced. [7] X Research source
- In addition to your main plot, add plot points for subplots that help develop the characters or keep the audience engaged.
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Break up your plot into scenes and acts. Separate each important plot point into its act, and make sure your narrative arc moves forward throughout the acts. Time the breaks between each act in a compelling way to create suspense for the audience, almost like a cliffhanger before a commercial break on TV. [8] X Research source
- Acts are like mini-plays within themselves, each made up of several scenes.
- The three-act play is most common, but one-act and five-act plays are also widely used. [9] X Research source
- As you develop your scenes, give time for scene or costume changes and for actors to get to their places.
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Section 3 of 4:
Writing & Formatting a Script
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Write an exploratory draft. Feel free to write the play out of order for now. Follow your flow of inspiration and creative energy. Don't be afraid to overwrite; you can always cut things out later! [10] X Research source
- Get into the habit of writing every day, even if only for 5-10 minutes.
- For the exploratory draft, don't worry about formatting the play or writing it "correctly." Just let out everything that needs to get out.
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Make revisions to your script. Reread and revise the script as many times as you need to. Cut scenes that meander, cut characters that don’t move the plot forward, and make the play as tight and quick as possible. [11] X Research source
- Go back through your drafts with a pencil. Circle any moments that pause the drama, and underline moments that move the drama forward. Cut out everything that's circled.
- If you end up cutting out 90% of what you've written, so be it. Fill it back in with things that move the story forward.
- Write as many drafts as it takes. There's no right number of drafts. Keep going until the play feels finished and satisfies your expectations.
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Format your script properly. The format for playwriting follows a specific structure. Mark where different acts and scenes begin and end. Include character tags with each piece of dialogue, marked with their name in all capital letters (no need for quotation marks). Add in stage directions that specify certain character actions, like an exit or a kiss. [12] X Research source
- Center act and scene headings.
- Center and capitalize character names .
- Italicize stage directions and indent them by one tab.
- Write small actions and minor stage directions in parentheses.
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Arrange a table read or other opportunity for outside feedback. Try to set up a table read with actors or friends willing to volunteer their time. Hearing the dialogue read aloud may help you hear sticking points or areas that need revision. [13] X Research source
- Reread your play from a different perspective. As an actor, would you understand your character’s motivations? As an audience member, would you be able to follow the plot of the play if you had no background knowledge?
- Get a fresh pair of eyes on your script. Ask a friend, family member, or fellow artist to read the script and give you constructive notes.
- Use these pieces of feedback to revise your script and move toward your final draft.
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Sample Scripts
Expert Q&A
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QuestionHow do you write a superhero script?Melessa Sargent is the President of Scriptwriters Network, a non-profit organization that brings in entertainment professionals to teach the art and business of script writing for TV, features and new media. The Network serves its members by providing educational programming, developing access and opportunity through alliances with industry professionals, and furthering the cause and quality of writing in the entertainment industry. Under Melessa's leadership, SWN has won numbers awards including the Los Angeles Award from 2014 through 2021, and the Innovation & Excellence award in 2020.One of the ways to create a superhero is to have someone do something they never thought of doing without thought to their own safety and well being. The urge to help and assist someone else, in itself is a superhero. Do they need to wear a cape and mask? Well that's up to you, as there are plenty of everyday superhero's that do not wear masks and capes.
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QuestionHow can I improve my play script?Melessa Sargent is the President of Scriptwriters Network, a non-profit organization that brings in entertainment professionals to teach the art and business of script writing for TV, features and new media. The Network serves its members by providing educational programming, developing access and opportunity through alliances with industry professionals, and furthering the cause and quality of writing in the entertainment industry. Under Melessa's leadership, SWN has won numbers awards including the Los Angeles Award from 2014 through 2021, and the Innovation & Excellence award in 2020.You may want to find a good writing software program. There are ones that are free and ones that cost, make sure to do your research on the programs or you can choose, software programs are not necessary to write and can you choose to write without one. Take your idea or story and write it down, from beginning to the end, this will allow you to know how you want your story to flow. You will need to make sure you know the format for writing a play as you will need to understand the formats for TV's, Features and New Media as they may be a little different regarding acts and scenes.
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QuestionWhat should be cut from a short story?KaramellCookie TVCommunity AnswerAnything that doesn't move the plot forward or reveal part of the personality of a character should be scrapped.
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Tips
- Read and watch plays as you develop your own. This research will give you a better understanding of the format for playwriting and how plays typically progress.Thanks
- You can write moments when characters come into the audience to make viewers feel more involved.Thanks
- If you feel like you’re having writer’s block, just free write. Open up a text document and start typing whatever comes into your head—don’t worry about it being completely perfect or sensical.Thanks
Tips from our Readers
The advice in this section is based on the lived experiences of wikiHow readers like you. If you have a helpful tip you’d like to share on wikiHow, please submit it in the field below.
- Consider how your setting will impact your plot and character voice. If your characters live in a forest, they shouldn't be using urban slang or have easy access to shops and restaurants.
- Don't be afraid to put yourself out there. If you have a story to share and a drive to create, then follow that!
- Writing a play should be fun. If it isn't a huge success, learn from this experience and try again.
- For the plot and premise of the play, start off with topics or settings that interest you.
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References
- ↑ https://liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/wlf/what-theme
- ↑ https://studymind.co.uk/questions/what-are-the-typical-recurring-themes-in-shakespeare-s-plays/
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2008/nov/25/theatre-writing-plays-playwright-royal-court
- ↑ https://www.servicescape.com/blog/120-story-conflict-ideas-and-examples#
- ↑ https://thewritepractice.com/story-arcs/
- ↑ https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/how-to-write-a-play-script-format/
- ↑ https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/how-to-write-a-play-script-format/
- ↑ https://penandthepad.com/outline-play-8541400.html
- ↑ https://thewritepractice.com/story-arcs/
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2008/nov/25/theatre-writing-plays-playwright-royal-court
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2008/nov/25/theatre-writing-plays-playwright-royal-court
- ↑ https://www.writopialab.org/programs/specialty-programs/worldwide-plays-festival/the-competition/standard-playwriting-format
- ↑ https://dramatics.org/how-to-run-a-productive-table-read/
- ↑ https://writingcommons.org/article/overview-of-playwriting/
About This Article
Article Summary
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To write a play, start each scene with a location and time of day, like INT. RESTAURANT — NIGHT. Below that, write stage directions that describe what, and who, is onstage. When writing dialogue, indent the character’s name at least 4 inches, write it in all caps, then write what they’re saying below their name. Once you’re comfortable with formatting, start your first draft by putting characters together somewhere significant to them, and giving them a minor challenge to confront. Keep writing until you find an external plot that allows them to confront their internal conflicts. To learn how to come up with interesting, realistic characters, keep reading!
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