| How to Organize Your Play |
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By
Che’Rae Adams
You
organize your life, your job, your family, why
not your play? I have found that most writers
have a hard time with structure. I think for
some of them, it is because they are
unorganized. One way to test your structure and
organize your play is to create a Story Point
Chart. This chart is essential when making
absolutely sure that each and every scene in
your story is necessary and inevitable. A Story
Point Chart is essentially like creating a road
map. Some points of interest that should be
included on a Story Point Chart are: Bridges,
the Dramatic Event, and Forwards and Callbacks.
Let’s break it down:
Story Points (aka Dramatic Events) = important
facts that the audience needs to know in order
for the story to be told.
Bridges = the connective tissue that holds the
scenes together and makes them necessary and
inevitable.
Instigating Event = what causes the story.
Forwards and Callbacks =clues to future events
that come full circle for a big payoff
A story point is something that the audience
must know in order for the story to be told
effectively, and the Instigating Event is simply
what happens in the course of the play. For
example, the Instigating Event in Hamlet is that
his father is murdered and his mother marries
his
uncle. There are a lot of other significant
things that happen, but this is the main event
that the story centers around. The other events,
such as Hamlet’s father’s ghost appearing,
Ophelia going crazy, and Polonius’s murder, are
story points.
Bridges are the literal connective tissue that
connect the story points together and help you
to determine if the order of the scenes is
necessary and inevitable. In other words, the
bridges are a “checks and balances” system which
you can use to make sure everything that happens
in the play is a reaction to the prior moment.
Connecting these moments is crucial to the
success of the story, and bridges are a good way
to document those connections. Bridges are often
based in the psychology of the main character
and reflect why they make the decisions that
they make in the course of the play.
Forwards are pieces of information that the
writer tells the reader in order to foreshadow
certain events, people, places, lines, etc.
Forwards can only be effective if followed by
callbacks. Forwards and callbacks can be very
useful in preparing the reader for what is to
come, and then
reminding them of where they are in the story.
They can also have a very effective emotional
effect on the reader if used to make a powerful
point or used in a poignant moment. The power of
forwards and callbacks are what can lead to a
successful payoff.
I like to lay out a Story Point Chart like those
timelines that were in our Middle School history
books, but an outline is just as effective.
Create whatever kind of chart works for you.
Below is a Story Point Chart sample, using
Hamlet as its inspiration. The story points are
the bullet points, followed by the bridges.
Example Story Point Chart
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
• King Hamlet is murdered (before the play
starts)
Bridge: Power struggle between Claudius and King
Hamlet
• Claudius marries Gertrude
Bridge: King Hamlet seeks revenge
• Ghost of King Hamlet appears to Prince Hamlet
(AKA Hamlet)
Bridge: Confirm King Hamlet’s accusations
regarding Claudius
• Claudius holds court, where Hamlet is the only
one still in mourning (dressed in black)
Bridge: Hamlet realizes that he can only trust a
few people, one of whom is Ophelia
• Laertes says good-bye to Ophelia, as he and
Polonius warn her not to talk to Hamlet, as he
cannot marry below his station
Bridge: Obstacle to Hamlet’s source of comfort,
trust, and love
• Ghost of King Hamlet reveals himself to Hamlet
again and asks for revenge for his murder
Bridge: Hamlet focuses on his quest to find the
truth about King Hamlet’s murder
• Hamlet tells Horatio about his plan to feign
madness
Bridge: Device to keep audience in the loop and
on Hamlet’s side
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are summoned by
Claudius to help Gertrude and him determine
Hamlet’s sanity
Bridge: All trust is gone between Hamlet and
Gertrude
• Hamlet shuns Ophelia
Bridge: To get back at his parents for their
mistrust, demonstrate his insanity, and to
abandon her before she abandons him
• Hamlet hires the Players to reenact the murder
of his father in front of the whole court
Bridge: On the search for truth, Hamlet decides
to humiliate Claudius along the way
• Hamlet’s fears about Claudius are confirmed,
based on Claudius’s reaction to the play
Bridge: Hamlet seeks validation and support for
his quest
• Hamlet confronts Gertrude
Bridge: Rejected, he seeks revenge for his pain
• Hamlet, thinking Polonius is Claudius,
accidentally kills him
Bridge: Hamlet and Ophelia are both
grief-stricken and have nowhere to turn
• Ophelia goes mad
Bridge: Abandonment is unbearable
• Ophelia drowns
Bridge: Creating another obstacle for Hamlet,
which is Laertes’s revenge
• Laertes arrives to discover that Hamlet has
killed his father and Ophelia is dead
Bridge: Creates doubt; Laertes’s revenge on
Hamlet mirrors Hamlet’s revenge on Claudius
• Laertes challenges Hamlet to a duel, Gertrude
drinks poison and dies, Claudius dies, and
finally Hamlet dies.
Bridge: The tragedy of revenge, the lesson of
the play
• Kingdom is invaded
Bridge: History is explained as what happens
when “no one is minding the store”
It is important to note that the Story Point
Chart is merely a tool for the writer to
organize their thoughts. It does not necessarily
reflect the literal structure of the play.
Remember, if you cannot find a bridge to connect
two story points, then one of your scenes might
be in the wrong place.
Happy organizing!
Che’Rae Adams is the Producing Artistic Director
of the Los Angeles Writers Center
Che’Rae
Adams
http://www.cheraeadams.com
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