By
Che’Rae Adams
In order to further clarify your intention with
your piece, there are a few questions which will
help you focus. Get the answers down on paper
and keep them close-by during your writing
process.
1. What is your intention in writing your story?
Do you want to entertain, educate, or enlighten
your audience? Do you want to shock them, tease
them, seduce them? The answer to this question
will help you determine the tone and style of
the piece.
2. Why do you want to tell this story now?
Do you have a political agenda based on the
current political climate? Are you going through
or have you been through a life-changing
personal experience, and you want to show people
about what you have learned? Do you want to
convince the reader of something? Do you want to
change the world? Again, being clear with
yourself about your intentions can only help you
to write a good script.
3. Make a list of five themes you want to
explore in your story.
Are you interested in exploring the question of
love vs. lust, of moral dilemmas, or the mystery
of relationships? Finding the themes in your
story will help to drive it forward.
4. Make a list of five adjectives that describe
your story.
Is your story sexy, angry, mysterious, magical,
dark? The answers to this question should help
you determine the atmosphere of your play.
5. Make a list of five ways that you can show
your themes and/or adjectives instead of telling
about them.
How can you show on the page that your story is
about the mystery of relationships and that your
story is sexy? Effective storytelling requires
that you show as much as you can in lieu of
telling on the page. This exercise will help you
tell the story through action instead of
exposition.
Here is a chart that you can fill in for your
project: (Click
to open)
Excerpt from
Writing is Hard and Other Whiny Baby Comments…An
Objective Approach To Your Own Work by
Che’Rae Adams with additional material by Jon
Bastian & Colm Byrne & Illustrations by Maxwell
Straigh
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