No new posts for a while

I'll be blogging little or not at all for the coming six weeks or so. I'm devoting as much as possible of my discretionary time to finish writing the aforementioned play, "The Sexiest Man Alive."

It's about a nominee for "Sexiest Man Alive," who in fact has low sex drive. Most of the play occurs on his wedding night.

The play will not only be a window into a couple's struggle to cope with mismatched sex drives but also reveals their attempt to address the question: How good does a marriage need to be to be worth saving? The play includes the couple's unvarnished exploration of their feelings about all aspects of their marriage, for example, children, money, career, and religion. I'll try to leaven the play's seriousness with humor.

I worry about my ability to create characters the audience will care about and dialogue that's believable, powerful and, yes, funny. But I'll give it a shot.

Let me take this opportunity to thank you for reading my blog and to encourage you to click on the words in the label cloud on the right side to read about topics of interest to you. And for longer articles, mostly about career, education, and men's issues, check my site: www.martynemko.com.

I'll be back when I can. Wish me luck.

Marty

Keys to a Great Screenplay or Stage Play

In preparing to write my stage play, "The Sexiest Man Alive," I read three fine books on the craft: The Art and Craft of Playwriting, Naked Playwriting (terrible title, fine book) and In Their Company (interviews with 50 iconic playwrights).

I took eight pages of single-spaced notes but here are the nuggets I most want to remember:

Most memorable characters are likeable, even the villains, who you admire for their brilliance, soft spot, etc.

Write for people smarter than you. Make your characters smart, if only street-smart.

Make your audience eager to know what will happen next.

Your protagonists must have arcs: the play's events must transform them.

Always keep your hero in trouble. We must see the characters under pressure, struggling, and see how they respond.

In addition to the big conflicts, a play needs dozens often hundreds of smaller ones, each resolved and replaced with another often bigger one.

Your audience must feel delight when the power shifts from protagonist to protagonist and back again.

Hitchcock described suspense as "the addition of information." Like a strip tease: a little more, a little more.

A full-length play needs more than one question to keep the audience interested. So, pose sub-questions, inner questions, side questions, thematic questions.

Write sparely. Better to show than tell. Only have your characters speak when they are compelled to.

Real characters interpret, misinterpret, and read unintended meanings into everything said to them.

Sometimes, the speaker is evading, pouting, defensive, talking to themselves as much as to their protagonist.

Constantly ask yourself not just what would your character do but what could they credibly do?

Subtext-laden dialogue (not saying what you mean) is high dialogue and fun for the audience. It's often accomplished by understatement, inarticulateness, or metaphor.

Look for opportunities to create honest spectacle. For example, I may have the husband dump a bucket of ice on his wife's crotch.

Perhaps most important, you must bring to your playwriting, all your heart, soul, humor, imagination, sensibility, history, and your life's experiences.

A Secret to Great Writing or Performing

As often, as possible, surprise the reader or listener with something different that's at least as good as the expected. Examples:

In writing dialogue, have the protagonists say the non-obvious. Of course, the dialogue must be credible and true to the character's personality.

In writing music, look for opportunities to use a non-obvious chord or next melody note, as long as it doesn't destroy the piece's ethos--don't be different just to be different.

In performing dialogue or music, look for non-standard ways to say a word or play the phrase. The classic example of this is when a furious actor whispers, or a performer allows an unexpectedly long breath between sentences.