The Play

I finished the first rough draft of my play a few hours ago. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, considering I haven't read a lot of plays. Although it's still a rough draft, and I'm sure it could use a lot of improvement. 

I don't think I had a writers block, though. I think it was more like I couldn't figure out the story, and didn't know what kind of story would fit a ten minute play, so I read some ten minute plays online, and I finally got an idea. I really liked this play: Sun Dried. It really appealed to me as a writer because it was about a struggling writer. I was surprised by how much you could get out of a ten minute play, although I really shouldn't have been. I mean, they're really like short stories, but with more action and stuff going on. There isn't as much info given, and what information is given, is given through word of mouth. 

I think what really helped me get into writing this, is knowing a little of my characters. A person might think this is obvious, but it's really not when you're trying to figure out a plot. When you are writing about a plot, all you're thinking about is how a character goes from point A to point B. Like Justine Lee Musk (creator of the blog Tribal Writer) says in her post theme, Theme, your writing and you: stuff your teacher never told you  that 

"If premise is the world of your story, and plot is the road that guides you through it — weaves you over the mountains and through the desert and finally to the relief of the coast — then you might say that theme is the car you’re traveling in."

Having a character is like having a driver, in this metaphor, the character is what leads you through this road called plot. 

Once I knew the name of one of my characters, I could finally piece together my story by letting them take the lead, by letting them react together, and that really helped me out with this piece.

I also have to give some credit to my sister-in-law, she's going into forensics, or something like that, and I had to ask her for ideas as to how my characters could rob a bank without being extremely conspicuous. I felt like a real author when I did that because I know authors have people they have to ask questions so that their stories can be as real as possible. (Funny, I was actually thinking of my play being about a writer who joins up with a bank robber to get a real life experience on how a person robs a bank for his story, but I decided against it because it seemed too surreal.)

Although, I still have some questions about my characters. Like with my girl character, Jade. I couldn't figure out if she was just acting pitiful because she noticed my WOMAN character was the police, or if robbing a bank really affected her, and she was breaking down. I do know Nick, the teen that joined Jade, was getting more frustrated as the story went on. He really didn't want to be there, robbing a bank, but hmmm, he loves Jade. Not in a romantic way, more like in an extreme friendshippy way. He would die for Jade, and not regret it, and Jade does take advantage of this sometimes, for example, robbing the bank. He even says a curse word during the story, and I was going to go for the worst of the worst, like I was really into him, and I was about to write exactly what he would have said, but I don't use curse words in real life, so I try to keep them out of my characters mouths, but in this case, I think the situation needed a curse word.