Exercise 1
Welcome and thank you for subscribing to my twice weekly 101 Exercises for Playwrights. Each email will take a few minutes to read. Then it's over to you ...
Enjoy!
Last time I asked you to think of a woman. Someone you know, someone you've observed, someone you've invented.
Then I asked you to BE her for a few minutes. If you haven't done that, do it now. Or do it again. Do something simple - like making a cup of tea - and as you do it move like her, think like her. Maybe speak her thoughts aloud. Go for it!
Right, done that? Great start.
Read on ..
Now I want you to imagine her reaching into a drawer, a coat pocket, a bag (whatever most suits her).
And she pulls out a gun.
She has a gun in her hand.
Now, I want you to write.
For three minutes, I want you to write as quickly as possible.
Use a timer (the stopwatch on your 'phone perhaps) and write as much as you can - her thoughts as she holds the gun. Write faster than your critical mind or conscious brain.Nobody else will ever read this. It's not for a play. It's an exercise.
OK. Set the timer - and write.
......
All done? Excellent. Quite a few of these exercises will involve writing fast so it's good to have that experience as part of our first exercise.
What did your mind do when you wrote?
Did it go for complete denial? 'That's not something that would ever happen to my character. I'm going to ignore the exercise and write the monologue that I want to write'.
Did it go for avoidance? 'I'll give the gun a mention then I'll move on to other things'.
Did it go for minimising? 'It's not a gun. It's a waster pistol, a toy gun. It's a carrot shaped like a gun. It's an illusion'.
Or did you drop the woman you'd imagined and quickly change her into somebody who'd feel more comfortable holding a gun?
Did you undercut the situation by low stakes comedy - having her be self consciously ironic about the situation?
Or did the need to write beautifully stop you writing very much at all?
All of the above are fine. They're always a part of the writing process. Just take a moment to note the way that your mind dealt with the exercise.
It's normal for us and the people we write to want to stay in a comfort zone. Our minds will do all sorts of things to keep us in that comfort zone. (Our comfort zones may not necessarily be that comfortable once we look at them but it's what we're used to).
So when we write we'll deny, minimise, normalise, be ironic and plenty of other stuff to keep a situation within that comfort zone.
But a play is an invitation for the writer, actor and audience to step out of that comfort zone.
That's often where the play begins.
If your mind did none of those things but leapt straight into writing the woman's thoughts on holding the gun .. well, good. You're off to a flying start.
For most of us, that won't be the case.
We'll have avoided, minimised, normalised etc.
If you have the time, have another go at the exercise. Stick with the original woman that you imagined. Let her hold the gun - the more incongruous that is in her world, the better. Write for three minutes as fast as you can, solely focussing on her thoughts as she holds the gun.
If you have a bit more time, you could edit and rewrite to focus the monologue on that subject : 'her thoughts on holding a gun'.
But that's not essential.
All you need to have done is write the initial three minute exercise and note how your mind dealt with the task.
Then you'll be ready for the second exercise in a few days time.
Happy writing.
Until Sunday,
Mark