h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A529030

Hello. This is my first guide entry, entitled "So You Want to Write a Play!" With this entry, I have written, for the benefit of the theatre of the future, an entry giving advice and pointers to people who have decided they want to have a go at writing for the stage. As a playwright myself, I have written this particular entry in first person, and due to the subject matter I think it works this way. Please let me know what you think of my entry. Thanks!

well thought out and well written, but if you change the title to "so you want to write a story", and put the play specific complications at the end, you will have an even better and much more widely applicable entry. keepup the good work.

This may help eaplain the nuts and bolts of writing a radio play

8.29am
LOONYTUNES: And that was "Venus" by Bananarama. Now, my next guest on this glorious morning - and it really is lovely, isn't it? The sun is shining and the birds are singing. I wouldn't be surprised if the sun was singing and the birds were shining. It's so nice to be here. My producer, Asteroid Lil, has made me a lovely cup of tea, just the way I like it - poured inside the cup. She's a marvel. She really is. And so is my next guest.

Born in 1911, he is perhaps the grand old man of New Zealand letters. His poetry has addressed the personal and the political, the reader and the readee, as it were. Edward Said wrote, "If we have become accustomed to making fastidious distinctions between ideology (or theory) and practice, we shall be more historically accurate if we do not do so glibly in the case of the European imperialism that actually annexed most of the world during the 19th century."
Come to think of it, this may have nothing to do with my next guest, but you never know, do you, Sporky?
SPORKY: Pardon? Could you speak up, please?
LOONYTUNES: With pleasure, you marvellous man!

9.18am:
LOONYTUNES: And that was "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", by Tight Fit. One of my favourite songs, and yours, too, I hope, Luna?
LUNA: It's a treat, Loony.
LOONYTUNES: Good! All right! It's my great privilege to have Luna join me in the studio. Lil and I went to see her latest play last night, and it was stunning. It was - by Jove, it was superb, quite magnificent. It's a very talky play, I suppose, not a lot actually happens, but it spoke to me about the struggles of generations of ordinary New Zealanders caught up in an everyday domestic drama. Tell us again what the play is called, Luna.
LUNA: It's called Dishes in My Mother's Sink.
LOONYTUNES: And it's a one-woman show, staged entirely so that you stand by a kitchen sink all evening,
LUNA: Yes. It's certainly hard on my feet, but that's the reality of washing dishes, isn't it?
LOONYTUNES: And drying dishes, for that matter.
LUNA: And drying dishes. That's right, Loony.
LOONYTUNES: It seemed to speed by, Luna, but how long was the play?
LUNA: Five hours.
LOONYTUNES: That's a lot of dishes.
LUNA: Dishes, plates, bowls, knives, forks, spoons - my brother, The Joker, who directed the play, likes to say it's a bold step towards the formation of a new genre called clean realism.
LOONYTUNES: Mmmmm. Brilliant.
LUNA: Oh, you'd like The Joker, Loony.
LOONYTUNES: Would he like me, though? What about you? Are you enjoying this interview?
LUNA: Yes, very much. It's very thoughtful.
LOONYTUNES: That's grand! Now, the play is in two acts, Luna.
LUNA: Yes. Act One is washing the dishes, and Act Two is drying the dishes.
LOONYTUNES: Mmmmm. Was that a deliberate ploy, or was it something that came out in the wash, so to speak?
LUNA: That's a good question, Loony. I suppose it had a flow to it, a natural order, to express the sense of both hope and futility, like the myth of Sisyphus.
LOONYTUNES: Mmmmm. Sisyphus.
LUNA: Well, that's what The Joker says.
LOONYTUNES: I see. And did you choose the teatowels yourself? I thought the red tartan teatowel you used was splendid.
LUNA: Thank you, Loony. Yes, that was my idea. It was important to make the play a visual experience for the audience.
LOONYTUNES: Golly. And will you be taking the play overseas, Luna?
LUNA: Oh, yes. I feel it's important to export our culture, to show the world our national identity, so I'm hoping Creative New Zealand will cough up. They usually do.
LOONYTUNES: And so they should! Thank you so much for coming in, Luna. It was lovely to see you. Now, after the news, I'll be talking to six potters from Nelson who have written a powerful, sweeping opera called Kiln Fields.

11.48am
LOONYTUNES. And that was "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Paul Young. My final guest this morning is Shazz, a PR spokeswoman for the Newspapers Association, who has kindly volunteered to come on the show and share her controversial thoughts about newspaper columnists. Shazz, what makes a good newspaper columnist?
SHAZZ: Loony, it would have to be someone who has opinions, and who knows how to write.
LOONYTUNES: Mmmmm. And what about a bad newspaper columnist?
SHAZZ: I daresay someone who doesn't really have any opinions, and doesn't write very well.
LOONYTUNES: Fascinating! I agree, I quite agree! Who do you rate, Shazz?
SHAZZ: Towelmaster comes to mind.
LOONYTUNES: Mmmmm. Yes. And what about Monsy?
SHAZZ: Oh, yes.
LOONYTUNES: I enjoy her, too, even though I don't always agree with what she has to say. But that doesn't matter, does it, because if everyone agreed with everyone else, Shazz, then we'd live in a pretty boring world. SHAZZ: I agree.
LOONYTUNES: Good for you, you delightful woman.

All in all it was a very good morning I think.

Ah yes, that could be one way of doing it, however many many people want to write stories, but not so many want to write plays. There is a wealth of information available to the aspiring fiction writer, but very little for the future dramatist, that is why I specifically wrote this article about playwriting, as opposed to writing stories in general. I know from experience that it can be quite difficult for a novice playwright to find helpful tips for the construction of their scripts, so I feel that an article addressing that need is a necessary one. Other writers of many other types may certainly find pointers in this article useful as well, and I hope that they do. But, I cannot change my article into a general fiction writing workshop. There are plenty of those around, and I do not feel any more are needed, whereas I know aspiring playwrights can use every little helpful tip that may come along, since they are so few and far between.

I agree that this entry should stay focused just on playwriting, but I'm still not convinced that the first person usage is justified.


Mikey

Well, if you don't want to generalise it, why not get together with the author of http://www.bbc.co.uk/A527861 - how to write comedy, and see if you can't both write a general article about writting, and then link your play and comedy specific extras to that, allowing you to write this article even more tightly focused on the extra difficulties of play writting.

After considering the thought-provoking comments that you all have given me, I have elected to change my article up a bit. I have put it in third person, and as I suspected all along, it works just as well that way. Also, in agreement with one of my peers, I am going to continue to keep this an article detailing how a beginner should proceed in the writing of their first stage play. In the near future, I will be adding further to this article, with more script-work specific pointers for the aspiring dramatist. I hope you all will continue to have a look at my article, from time to time, to let me know how you think it is coming along. You have already been most helpful. Thank you!

This is an excellent entry. The rewrite into third person seems to have worked just fine. You are encouraging and informative, while anticipating many pitfalls that a novice playwright may encounter.

One thing I could see adding would be a sort of checklist - character motivations, backstory, plot structure, no wasted dialogue,... you know, stuff you've already covered, but it'd be neat to see a sort of "do this first, then this, then this, then go back and make sure of this,..." sort of list, to summarize maybe. Although perhaps that would add more rigidity than there should be. I dunno. It's something to think about, anyway.

Great entry though! I think it should be part of the Edited Guide!

GTB

Xyroth, I have to say that I disagree with you on both of your points above. Firstly, I think this entry is focused tightly enough on playwriting to warrant its current title - playwriting and story writing do have clear similarities but they are certainly very different and unique areas of literature.
Secondly, I don't see how this could be merged with the entry on comedy writing and more importantly I don't see why you would want to. Not everyone wants to write a comedy play - the entry is useful to a wider range of people this way.

And Meadowlark, I've been wanting to have a go at writing a play for some time and your entry has inspired me to finally pick up the pen! So there you have it - first hand proof of how useful this entry is! I will be following your guidelines...

Jamie D'Eath (deceased),
I am delighted to know that my article has already proven useful to a budding playwright! I wish you luck with your play!I will be adding more tips to my article in the near future, so you may want to keep an eye on it. If you run into a snag with your new script and need help, the answer just may have popped up in my article! Or, if you have a specific question at some point that isn't addressed in my guide entry let me know, I'll be happy to brainstorm an answer with you! Again, thanks for reading my article, and happy playwriting!
Meadowlark

Very good entry! I like it

Just one idea/suggestion/thought-type thing: Should the title be changed to 'So You Want to Write a Play?'
I was wondering whether it should be because it is technically a question...isn't it?

Really good though

Touconos

Actually, no - it can be a statement or a question - "So you're here!" or "So you're here?". In this context it could be either. Why not put a "?!" or "!?" at the end - although maybe that looks a bit like you think they shouldn't be writing a play...

Oh, forget it

Excellent entry. I only have three minor complaints, and a question.

1. You've missed the "L" in "playwrights" in the Publishers section: "... you may be lucky enough to find a fellow paywright to critique your play, ...".

2. What in the world is "the story structure you learned in English class"? I never learned any story structure in school! They actually teach that kind of stuff in England/America? Does the "story structure" refer to the list that follows (Initial Incident, Rising Action, Turning Point, Climax, Falling Action and Resolution)? If so, the reference isn't very clear.

3. I'd skip the first header (Introduction). It's a bit redundant, and looks cluttered.


Now for my question. Would it be possible to include some notes on how to actually write a script? Format stuff, like what to write in all caps and how to write descriptions and so on...

Great entry.

I think you mis-understood my earlier post. There are a lot of problems with writting generally, so I suggested that the two of you get together, write a joint entry about writting, and then link it to your seperate entries on your specialities. This then lets you move some of the general stuff out of this entry, making it even more tightly focused. Sorry if it looked like I was saying merge them, I wasn't

I like this one. Wish I'd read it before I started writing.

A couple of things for me to say though..

Might it be worth mentioning about writing with someone else? I've done this on a couple of plays. The guy I was writing with knew all about stage direction and stuff, and I had a sense of humour. Played off each other well to write.

The other thing is, What do you do once you've written your play? You've hinted at a couple of things, but a few suggestions would be nice

Hi!
Looking good
I've just spotted a spelling mistake. It's in the second from last paragraph and it says 'rememer this:'

Touconos

I agree with the post above that you should add a section on formatting your script. Is there a standard format for introducing scenes, settings, characters, descriptions, lines?
A mention of movie scripts wouldn't hurt either. I suspect more people have seen movies than plays, and maybe some of them would like to write one.

But writing movies is much harder than plays, due to extra technical limitations, and expense. Anyone can havea play put on by a few willing freinds with plenty of room. movies cost lots of money, even home made ones.

Again, I think keeping this entry focused on writing play scripts is best. From my limited experience, I'd say that writing a movie/film script and writing a play script are two completely different tasks, requiring different mindsets and different procedures. Yes, an entry on how to be a screenwriter would be great, but it would really need to be its own entry.

Frankly, I felt the entry as it stands gives enough info on formatting and structure, but that may be because I already have (limited) familiarity with the subject.


Mikey