WRITING WORKSHOP THREAD - if you have always said you wanted to write something but have never just got on with it, what better time than now? #KingLear and all that! This is a starting-from-scratch thread, obviously pick through what is useful for you (1/37)
I work mostly in theatre but these exercises should work for any story, but of do course adapt. This thread aims to give you your story starting point from nothing, to give a springboard. Apologies for anything that is unclear, do help each other out in comments as needed. (2/ )
Before we start let’s get our creative brains working. Set a timer for 5mins for freewriting - this is simply nonstop writing until the timer stops - no editing, no pausing to think. Write nonsense until sentences come, even if it is just the same word on repeat (3/ )
Let’s start with finding a story. List the things you talk/rant about with friends generally. Set a timer for 5mins to do this, think from as small as ‘the ratio of crisps to air in a bag’, to as big as ‘climate change’. Universal or personal, world wars to sibling rivalry (4/ )
Cross out any you know you’d be bored writing. For as many as you like, come up with questions that could be asked on each topic. Eg, with climate change you could ask ‘what can we do to slow human impact ...?’ but also ‘Should we limit the number of children people have?’, (5/ )
with something like the size of chocolate bars you could ask simply ‘Do chocolate bars really get smaller every yr while the prices increase?’ but also ‘Is Big Sugar run by aliens who are running a human experiment to see how small they can make a MarsBar before we revolt?’ (6/ )
So clearly, feel free to get creative and not just stick to conventional. This is why I recommend setting 5min timers, the first minute will be sensible everyday questions about these topics, then you will start some outside the box thinking which might be where the gold is (7/ )
Firstly, find the questions in your lists that you are interested in and you wouldn’t get bored to death writing about (or seeing someone else write about) - ie, if you’ve not found an exciting new angle on Brexit probably get rid of it (8/ )
Write out your reduced list, things that are interesting to explore and have a universality but also there is potential for a human angle. You can keep brainstorming questions and angles for as long as it takes for you to find something you’d be excited to write (9/ )
Whittling down until you find the One Q to get stuck into - you are not going to aim to answer the question, in fact the best questions are the ones with many possible answers. If you’re on twitter feel free to set up polls below to get peoples opinions on your options (10/ )
Write your ‘one question’ in the middle of a page and surround it with words that spring to mind from it. If I were to go with my chocolate alien conspiracy I might have ‘revolution’ ‘experiment’ ‘petri dish’ ‘sugar’ ‘rationing’ ‘fear’ ‘control’ … Do this for 5mins (11/ )
This is your topic and the words around it will help you later provide content and themes. You are not glued to this forever, change anything at any point if it makes sense, but starting with a core question gives you a springboard for story and anchor to go back to (12/ )
Let’s move on to character. Don’t forget the work you’ve done but don’t feel lead by it, you could have started here and come to the above later. Simply put a person together by answering the following - (13/ )
(Note: Don’t worry about any that don’t apply and don’t feel pressured to fit this to what you think your story might be, sometimes the contrasts between the two make things more interesting) (14/ )
Age, gender, race, (species?), relationship status, how they feel about their appearance, education, job, dream job, relationship to family, bad habit biggest fear, biggest secret, smallest secret (15/ )
Now write a list of ‘wants’ for them, again this doesn’t have to ‘fit’ to the story (yet). List what they want now(from as little as a cuppa up to their husbands death!), then what they want this week, this year, in 5 years, 10 years, 25 years, and finally before they die (16/ )
Now let’s think about them in the context of your chosen question. What does your character want relevant to your story - drive them through their journey? Their ‘objective’. Mine could be to defeat the chocolate alien overlords (I promise I’m not writing this awful play!) (17/ )
Now what is stopping them getting it? List all of the things. This could be internal (their own flaws, eg lack of courage) or external (eg no weapons). And of course this will change and develop, especially when we introduce an antagonist … (18/ )
(sidenote, even if you are writing a monologue you probably need secondary characters, even if we won’t meet them, as the majority of stories won’t be in a vacuum from other people) (19/ )
Create a second character following the same list of Q's you answered about the protagonist. Go through all the steps from ‘age’ up to their objectives and obstacles. The strongest stories have your two main characters in conflict as a direct result of their objectives (20/ )
If they are each other’s obstacle then something will have to give = drama. Bonus points if they are on opposing sides of the debate of your central question (21/ )
For both of your characters you will have so many options, you don’t have to pick the most obvious, and you are not limited to keeping just one ‘want’ or ‘obstacle’. Make a note of all you want to keep. If you want/need more characters follow the same process for each.(22/ )
Now that you have done this you should be able to write the following for each character ‘X wants Y but Z’, where Y is their objective and Z is their obstacle, which absolutely doesn’t have to be one word descriptions (23/ )
For example ‘Nigel wants to free everyone from the alien manipulation happening globally, but Zia already has the trust of the humans over Nigel, who she is claiming is insane’. (I can not stress enough how bad this play would be) (24/ )
Finally, for these characters, write a list of the things they actually NEED. Nigel wants to free the human race but what he needs is courage. This is the key that will allow him to achieve his goal, and he will have to learn this on his journey (25/ )
If the above doesn’t make sense think of the Wizard of Oz. (spoilers) The troupe set off WANTING to find the wizard (each for a different reason) but the journey gives them what they NEED (courage, a heart, a brain/logic), which is what they needed (26/ )
Look over everything you have, you should now have a question that your play will look to debate and at least two characters who are in conflict who will lead us through this topic. So, if you haven’t already, think about where they are - what is your setting? List options (27/ )
Lastly, before you get writing, you need to know what kicks off the story, known as the inciting incident. To do this you need to know what the ‘ordinary world’ is. For each character write a typical day before the story begins. 5min non stop each (28/ )
Now this one is pretty vague, list all of the ways (that make sense to your notes) for the world to change - what disrupts the norm so that your protagonist steps up. This can be an alien invasion, an unexpected visitor, or just their Mars Bar tasting bitter one day (29/ )
And now I think it is over to you, you have your characters and setting, the world they are in and the conflict between them (and the world) and the goals they have which facilitate your debate/story (30/ )
If you want a stricter structure to write to I tend to make sure in each scene I know what the characters are trying to get out of that moment (with something stopping them), and by the end something will have shifted - you can plot everything in advance using this idea (31/ )
Another way of roughly plotting, that can be a little more freeing, is to write a list of ‘scenes you’d like to see’ on post-its - any images, conversations, moments as big or small as you’d like. Then arrange them into a rough structure, throwing out any you don’t need (32/ )
There are great online resources for writers from @bruntwoodprize here writeaplay.co.uk/writing-resour… (33/ )
If you’re wanting to use this time to generally improve your writing craft then my top 3 book recommendations are Playwriting by Stephen Jefferys, Into the Woods by John Yorke and The No Rules Guide by Lisa Goldman (34/ )
There are some wonderful companies changing their plans for the month who are throwing opportunities out there for writers/artists, for example @papatangoTC (35/ )
And of course keep an eye on this excellent resource from @theatremagazine exeuntmagazine.com/features/covid… which is aiming to keep an updated list of resources for artists throughout these times (36/ )
Thank you all for sticking with this, I wish you all the best on improving on #KingLear with your own masterpieces (37/37)
@theatremagazine is this useful to add to your list of resources?
