I recently saw an interview (too short) with John McWhorter, linguist, teacher and author. He spoke of our euphemism treadmill and how it relates to our everyday speech and language. I was fascinated!
If you follow me, with any regularity, you know that not only is my chief craft writing, but I am also fascinated with words, their origins, our slang, our euphemisms, and colloquialisms. If we step off the euphemism treadmill, or never get on in the first place, we are quickly unplugged by what people around us are saying. I give you an example: I recently wrote another play for teens and I thought, ‘opps, I’d better check teen euphemisms/slang just in case it’s changed since I last used such words as: ridiculous, sick, cool, etc.’ Yep! They’d left me in the dust…none of these words were ‘cool’ anymore.
Teen Slang 2018
Woke – as being aware, and “knowing what’s going on in the community.” It also mentions its specific ties to racism and social injustice.
Bruh–A casual nickname for “bro”
Idts.–I don’t think so
Ngl– not gonna lie
Fam–Their closest friends
GOAT–Acronym for “Greatest of all time!”
TBH–Acronym for “To be honest”
It’s lit–Short for “It’s cool or awesome!”
I’m weak–Short for “That was funny!”
Hundo P–Short for 100% sure or certain
Gucci–Something is good or cool
Squad–Term for their friend group
Bae–Short for “baby.” It’s used as a term of endearment for a significant other such as a girlfriend or boyfriend. As an acronym, it stands for “Before Anyone Else.”
Curve–To reject someone romantically
Low Key–A warning that what they’re saying isn’t something they want everyone to know
Salty–To be bitter about something or someone
Skurt–To go away or leave
Throw shade–To give someone a nasty look or say something unpleasant about them.
Straight fire–Something is hot or trendy
Sip tea–To mind your own business
Thirsty–Being desperate for something
Writers: Be judicious and thoughtful when you use slang or euphemisms in y our writing. It can quickly turn into lazy writing.
My blog is filled with word craft, origins of words, slang, and euphemisms. My least favorite euphemism is ‘Snap!‘ = a concise, or biting remark was just delivered. And ‘no problem‘ that has replaced ‘you’re welcome’ as the universal response to ‘thank you’. Hate it!
My favorite will always be the post about Mr. Crapper, the plumber.
MY BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! October: Alretha Thomas. November: Joe English. December: Jayne Ann Krentz (Amanda Quick) January: Molly Gloss and February: Patrick Canning. To receive my posts sign up for my On the home page, enter your email address. Thanks!
Children’s Play (#5 in the Fabled Forest Series) has been released! Children’s story book by the same name.
The story is in play form. A one hour children’s play, by the same title, offers a part for every child who auditions.
New characters are introduce: Barcode and Fiona the two cats. Reginald the Raccoon and his merry band of baby raccoons. And lots of others.
Synopsis: Cheets is looking for an adventure! The elf had heard about ‘town’. Emma and her mother went all the time but no one from the fabled forest had been there. Cheets was certain it was a magical place and he decided that he must head for Troublesville. He stows away in the car one day and finds himself in busy, noisy streets all alone. He begins his adventure by befriending two cats who live in a house with two humans. Then because of his obsession with carrots, he is captured in a trap and that’s when his adventure no longer is any fun. 6f. 15m. (many roles non-gender)
Recurring characters from the series return to help find Cheets. Don’t miss Cheets’ escapade and daring rescue! Full color illustrations by Jefferson O’Neal.
MY features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! Did you miss the past few months? March: Mystery (and Western) writer, Larry D. Sweazy. April: World Traveler, Tal Gur. June: mystery author, Manning Wolfe. Check out more Motivational Moments…for Writers!
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I have been in the writing game for thirty years. Forty-eight novels and fourteen short story collections. From my third book, most have been national bestsellers and over half were on the New York Times bestseller list. I have five RITAs, the highest award in women’s fiction from RWA as well as many other awards.
In interviews, I’m often asked what one thing I would tell a beginning writer if I got the chance. Study your markets? Read everything? Learn your craft? Write? All came up as possibilities, but one lesson kept whispering in the back of my mind. Maybe it’s not the most important tool a writer needs, but it can be vital to your success.
Learn to Fall!
There will be times, thousands of them if you stay in the game as long as I have, when this business doesn’t go your way. You have to stop holding on to the safety strap and learn to jump out into the unknown.
The first time I remember taking a tumble was before I sold. I was frantically writing, sending off to every contest, agent, and editor I could find. One day, I opened the mailbox to discover three rejections. I felt like I’d faced a firing squad and all twelve bullets hit true. I walked back to the house, sat down and started crying. My four-year-old son, Matt, came up to me, leaned on the arm of the chair and asked what was wrong. Through tears I told him about my total failure. He smiled and said simply, “Mom, like you say when I play t-ball: sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes you get rained-out.”
I stopped crying and realized it wasn’t me. I was a good writer doing the best I could. I just kept getting rained-out by editors who didn’t read the slush pile and agents who already had full client lists.
From that day on I developed a plan for falling. Whenever I stumbled and fell flat on my face, I let go of the corpse I was dragging around trying to sell, celebrated what I’d learned from the work and moved on with my career.
I have to be honest. There for a while quite a few bodies of old manuscripts lay around the house just in case they got a second life, but it never happened. I had to learn that the next thing I wrote would be stronger than the last. I was growing, getting better, getting stronger.
My Plan for Falling:
1. Burying the corpse. I know writers who wrote a book back in the ‘90s and are determined not to go on to another until they sell their first one. They keep painting a
Available Now!
new face on the body and shoving it into a new casket. Beginning writers probably don’t want to hear that you may write your first book, or even your second or third, for practice. We need to believe that first book will make millions or we’d never go through the work of learning to write. But sometimes you have to kiss the well-traveled manuscript good-bye and bury it under the bed.
2. Celebrating. I hope all beginning writers party at each success: a contest win or even an honorable mention. A letter asking for more or a book deal. All are worth a party. But, maybe more important is the party you have when you let go of one dream and open up to another. So win or lose you finish the race. You’re a success simply because you wrote a book. You’ve won when you mail it off to an agent or editor or self-publish.
3. Moving on If what you’re doing isn’t getting you where you want to go, maybe you are on the wrong road. Take the tools and knowledge you have learned and start carving out a different work of art. Take a lane you’ve never tried. Who knows, it might be the fast lane.
You might be surprised, you might just find a place where you and your work belong. You might grow and love writing more. So, try changing genres. Move from adult fiction to young adult. Jump from historical to contemporary. Don’t try to write what everyone else is writing. Twist it a little. Change times. Change audience. Change direction.
When I turned loose and thought of myself sky diving and not falling, my world began to change. I wrote deeper. I discovered a new love of writing.
Phil Price, an accomplished playwright, once said, “I’ve often wondered why sky divers yell for joy and people who fall off cliffs scream. After all, they’re both seeing the same view. It’s only the last foot that changes.” So, I decided, whether I’m falling or sky diving through life, I might as well decide to enjoy the view.
This year my editor at HQN suggested I step into a more mainstream story and I jumped. I read her e-mail on Friday and by Monday I had an idea I was excited about. MORNINGS ON MAIN just came out April 10, and I think my fans will follow me into this shift as they have for the past 30 years.
And if they don’t? Then I’ll stand up, dust myself off and get back in the game. Because I’m a writer, that’s what I do, I write.
On Sale September 25, 2018
Mark Twain once said that compared to writing, horseracing is a stable occupation. Maybe he was right, but the gamble is worth the try. When we’re all done and sitting around the home which would you rather say, ‘I played as hard and fast as I could,’ or ‘I never ran into the game because I was afraid of falling.’
The winners are not the ones who grab the prize. The winners are the ones who play the game, rainy days and all.
TS. Thanks, Jodi, for these words of wisdom and comfort!
Jodi Thomas
www.jodithomas.com
www.facebook.com/JodiThomasAuthor ;
Be sure to go to http://www.jodithomas.com and sign up for my e-mail newsletter for all the latest news about book signings and new releases!
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MY features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! Did you miss the past few months? March: Mystery (and Western) writer, Larry D. Sweazy. April: World Traveler, Tal Gur. June: mystery author, Manning Wolfe. Check out more Motivational Moments…for Writers!
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Martin Short, (famous actor on SNL, career included dozens of movies) was recently interviewed where he told a charming story. He, Gilda Radner, Paul Shaffer were born (as actors) at ‘Second City’, Toronto. In the early days, Martin was in a community theatre production of Fortune & Men’s Eyes. The director told the actors that, as the audience came in and took their seats, the actors would be pacing on stage, in a prison setting. In character, wearing only their underwear.
Paul Shaffer, most famous for years with Letterman
Fortune & Men’s Eyes
Gilda (whom Martin was dating at the time 1972), Paul and some other pals all planned to go see Martin one night. But, as the story goes, the thing Paul Shaffer was really excited about was they would all go for dinner after at the Shakespeare Steakhouse.
So on the night of the performance, Martin’s friends arrived and Paul, upon seeing Martin pacing, moved up the lip the of the stage and whispered, “Martin, Shakespeare Steakhouse is closed, wink once if Bavarian Seafood makes sense.”
John Sugarek, actor
This type of crazy thing happens all the time in live theatre. Short’s story brought to mind the time that my husband played Dr. Miranda, (a murderous ex-Nazi) in Death and the Maiden (a part that Ben Kingsley is famous for). Our theatre was so small that it didn’t have a curtain. Since Dr. Miranda is held hostage and tied up for most of the play, it meant that my husband, John, remained on stage, in character and tied up during intermission. With audience members coming and going. Actually, he volunteered as there was no logical way to get him untied and offstage.
During intermission, a trio of white-haired senior ladies came tripping down the aisle and neared the edge of the stage. John (said later) prayed that they were not
Death and the MaidenBen Kingsley & Sigourney Weaver
going to speak to him. They moved as close to him as they could and one of the dear old things winked and said to him, in a stage-whisper, “Psst! Psst! Mister! Do you want us to untie you?” Giggling and twittering they turned and found their seats again. John stayed in character but it was hard not to burst out laughing.
MY features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! Did you miss the past few months? March: Mystery (and Western) writer, Larry D. Sweazy. April: World Traveler, Tal Gur. June: mystery author, Manning Wolfe. Check out more Motivational Moments…for Writers!
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Ethnic groups have polarized and bullied each other for years, out on the street. Recently, teens have taken to their cell phones and computers to do the same. Blacks against whites against browns. All good kids at their core, but divided by the color of their skin.
This series has been very popular, over the years, with teachers and students. Sets, costumes, props are not needed. Most pertain to real life issues for teens so these plays are meant to open a dialogue between teens and their teachers. Or, at the very least, to experience live theatre.
All ‘G’ rated so no adult content. When profanities are used, as teens do in real life, they are optional and can be easily eliminated.
Available at www.amazon.com and all other fine book stores.
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MY BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! March: Mystery (and Western) writer, Larry D. Sweazy ~~ April: International adventurer, writer, Tal Gur. Check out more Motivational Moments…for Writers!
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What is a cultural imperative? ‘Peoples living within the encompasses of cultures associated with very different ethnicities often imbue radically different moral imperatives, through identification processes carrying across generations. Such cultural imperatives prevalent within one culture may not have any direct equivalent within another culture…’ *
Glaring examples of this are the ethnic groups who, putting themselves at risk for censor or abuse, have insisted on keeping their native language, rituals, and religions alive. ‘one culture may not have any direct equivalent within another culture…’ But the one imperative that has crossed all ethnic and cultural groups is storytelling.
What is this imperative that most people feel….totell stories? It seems, to me, to be hardwired into our DNA.
We begin at an early age: making up stories (to ourselves) as we play with our dolls or cars. A child has no inhibitions when it comes to weaving a fantastical tale, frequently out loud, as they play.
A mother or father sits at their child’s bedside and makes up stories until they fall asleep.
A comic book writer tells his stories with a few words, facial expressions, and action illustrations.
A poet tells their stories through rhyme, lyric or free verse.
A playwright creates their story so that others can tell it.
Another storyteller sees their stories happening in the far future.
Another goes to the dark side of human nature and writes stories about things that go bump in the night.
A teacher tells a story to enhance the lesson. (I miss you, Miss. O’Connor.)
The novelist weaves a longer tale; taking their characters on adventures, discovering love, suffering defeats, and usually conquering all in the end.
……even gossip could be considered storytelling.
I have worried out loud (and written about it here) that storytelling will die, be a thing of the past. But now I believe that many of us do have that cultural imperative to tell and write down our stories. After all the synonyms for imperative are: involuntary, necessary, nonelective, obligatory, peremptory, required. I don’t think storytellers can help themselves. We have to tell stories!
MY BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! Did you miss the past few months? January: Sue Grafton ~ In Memory March: Mystery (and Western) writer, Larry D. Sweazy. April: in60Learning ~ A unique, non-fiction mini-book read in 60 minutes. Check out more Motivational Moments…for Writers!
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In honor of Black History Month I am reposting this story about orphans and an old man. The other day I was out on errands and spied a ‘For Sale/Waterfront’sign . In my neck of the woods that usually means river front and/or marsh land. So I turned around and followed the signs. At the end of the road I found a beautiful home on some acreage. I always like to look at real estate and I am always curious about what ‘water front’ costs. Driving slowly onto the property I began to look for a flyer. Failing that, I slowly rounded their circular driveway heading back out.
I paused at the street as a man, riding a John Deere mower,chased me down and asked if he could show me the house. What luck! I was going to be able to see the beautifully restored plantation house. I never could have imagined the story that awaited me!
It sits on three acres with a six car garage, a guest house, a barn and a doll house. The lawns spill down to a large deck overlooking a tidal creek which feeds out to the Vernon River. The live oak trees are hundreds of years old, Spanish moss dripping from every branch. The deck has been built around an oak even to the point of interrupting the hand railing to accommodate an oak branch eighteen inches thick. (it’s a southern thing; we love our live oaks.)
But it was the owners’ story that I wanted to share.
Courtesy of sonofthesouth.net
Dick and Sue bought the working farm and farm house in 1975. Back then, common in those days, the kitchen was outside on a porch so that it wouldn’t add to the summer heat within the house. The house was approximately 1,000 sq. feet compared to its 5,000 sq. ft. now.
Part of the sale was that the new owners must care for a middle-aged black man; the grandson of slaves, for the remainder of his life. That in itself was remarkable but they agreed.
Parker Bell was illiterate, didn’t know how old he was, didn’t know his mother or father’s name. As a child he was raised on the ‘Brown farm‘. At first I found little history referring to a ‘brown farm’ but had heard that this is where young African-American children (orphans) were housed after the civil war and into the early 1900’s. I wondered if the name was an acronym in reference to John Brown, the abolitionist?
But thanks to a friend, who loves this kind of research as much as I do….we found the ‘Brown Farm’ in Savannah, GA., and a census map.
‘Young black children who were orphaned in Savannah from the latter part of the 19th century to 1943 had – for a number of reasons – nowhere to live except Savannah’s penal farm. There the young children were surrounded by such sights as men in shackles laboring in the fields, windows with bars and chain gangs. The kids were not being punished, but it was common practice for them to be taken there.
Savannah Penal Farm
Just Released! A new novel by Trisha Sugarek
Because there was no orphanage for black children, Chatham County black youth were often placed at the old Brown Farm, a 400 acre county penal farm for convicts (located on Montgomery Crossroad near where Lake Meyer is now) where they remained until they reached legal age. The girls were sent to the Chatham County Protective Home, operated by the Savannah Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs. This practice went on for years, until Greenbriar Children’s Center was established.’ (Courtesy Greenbrier Children’s Center)
Lori’s mother-in-law, Mamie (now 94 years of age) remembers the Brown Farm.She told us, “When I was a young’un, me and a girl was in a fight, and both of us was sent to the Brown Farm for thirty days. The people in charge there, had us to wash clothes for the boys that were living there. I believe that old brown farm is where Memorial Hospital is now, just off Waters.”
Census map of the Brown Farm in Savannah
Back to the old man. Parker Bell lived in the guest house and had the run of the property until his death a few years back. The family treated him like a favorite cousin. He didn’t have a social security number and because of his learning disabilities couldn’t work an outside job. But he kept busy cleaning up leaves, mowing grass and helping the children with their horses. Dick and Sue kept their promise and supported Parker Bell, until his death. Dick told me the fascinating story of the night they had a dinner party for twelve. In the middle of the meal, Parker walked into the house and into the candle-lit dining room, proudly holding up a stringer of fish, saying, “Mr. Dickie, I caught us a mess of bass outta that creek.”
My whole adult life I have had my best adventures when I’ve been ‘lost’….and today was no exception. To other writers out there? Our stories are all interwoven as human beings. Your new story could be around the next bend in the road.
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“…and that’s why we all need stories.” John Lithgow said in a recent talk show interview. He was telling the story of his father reading, to he and his siblings, from a book of short stories. And then years later, as his father lay dying, John Lithgow said he read aloud to him from the very same book.
John tells another story, within his story about reading this book of shorts to his father. He has been on the road with this one-man show for years. Narrating these same stories from this same book. He calls it a trunk show; an old theatre expression. That is, pack up everything at night’s end and move, on down the road, to the next town where he presents this one-night-stand again. He says that he finally wound his way to Broadway and is now performing to sold-out, delighted audiences.
This is why I entreat, beg, admonish, and plead with my readers to tell someone your story (hopefully your children and grandchildren), or write it down in a journal or even publish it. With today’s technology we are losing our oral history. And when this set of grandparents pass away it will all be lost. We all need stories.
“Rarely have I spent so entertaining and touching a night at the theater. The predominant sentiment in Stories by Heart is love.” —Terry Teachout, The Wall Street Journal
“Superb, illuminating and uplifting. The imagination, Mr. Lithgow wants us to know, is powerful. What could feel more current, more worthwhile in the first days of 2018?” —Jesse Green, The New York Times
This is me telling a story about John Lithgow’s story.
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MY BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! Did you miss the past few months? December: British writer, J.G. Dow. January: Sue Grafton ~ In Memory
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To Purchase
TS. Now that the traditional publishers have turned you down, file away that rejection letter, soothe your fragile writer’s ego with a hot cup of tea, some chocolate, or whatever and self-publish your play.
It’s important to know that the correct way to format a stage play for submitting (to a publisher, agent or theatre) is very similar to the format used when publishing it. Below is a sample of the correct formatting.
List of Characters: I noticed that in the Dramatists Play Service scripts, they do not list the ages of the characters. I know from experience that a director wants to have this information immediately when choosing a play. What if they don’t have an eighty-year old, male who can act? Make-up can only go so far! Ethnicity is rarely listed but there are exceptions. But, generally, no. What if the director has a different vision for casting?
Sample:
CAST OF CHARACTERS (Place on the 3rd or 4th page after title, playwright’s name, Copyright notices.etc.)
CAST OF CHARACTERS (centered.)
Emma ~~ A young earthling girl
Stare ~~ A rhetorical owl
Donald ~~ A young fairie
Cheets ~~ a rambunctious elf
Patsy ~~ A large banana spider
Agnes & Annie ~~ the sister Aardvarks
Thomas ~~ the sea-faring sea turtle
Bertie ~~ the resident reading teacher
(EMMA and MRS. MOSEYALONG are sitting together on the grass. The PUPPIES are rolling around, play fighting, in the grass as puppies do. CHEETS is trying to get into the play. AGNES and ANNIE sit across from THEM reading THEIR book on Australia.)
MRS. MOSEYALONG
Let me assure you, Emma, we hunt and eat impala, Thomson’s gazelle and common wildebeest. Also, smaller animals such as dik-dik and warthogs.
CHEETS (Stopping HIS play with the PUPS.)
That’s a funny word. Dik-dik. (Demanding.) Cheets wants to know what it means.
EMMA
Manners, Cheets. Perhaps you could ask Mrs. Moseyalong about dik-diks.
CHEETS
Cheets wants to know about dik-diks.
STARE
Who?
(EMMA sighs.)
MRS. MOSEYALONG
It’s all right, Emma. Sometimes my pups can be very rude. (To Cheets.) Dik-diks are a small antelope. We don’t hunt Aardvarks. We find their meat far too fatty.
AGNES (Over-hearing.)
I beg your pardon. We are not fatty. Really! Annie, did you hear what that dog said about us?
ANNIE
Oh, I don’t think she meant⸺
MRS. MOSEYALONG (Speaking simultaneously.)
I didn’t mean⸺
AGNES
Really! The nerve of some dogs.
MRS. MOSEYALONG (Turning back to Emma and Cheets.) Dik-dik live in the bushland of Africa. Sadly, they are being driven to extinction in some parts of our homeland. We try to eat other things.
PATSY (Knitting her web furiously.)
Iii–Eee! Los pequeños, los cachorros! Mrs! Your children are destroying my web. Mira! See what they have done.
(Slowly rising, SHE crosses to where HER pups are bumping into the lower strands of Patsy’s web. SHE growls once deep in HER throat.)
MRS. MOSEYALONG
Grrrrrr⸺
(The PUPS instantly stop THEIR play and run to THEIR mother’s side, whining and kissing HER face.)
MRS. MOSEYALONG
I apologize, Miss Patsy. My pups are careless but mean no harm.
PATSY
Dios mío, qué molestia! My beautiful web. Now I will have to repair. Go away! I am very⸺how you say⸺ocupada.
(MRS. MOSEYALONG leads HER litter to the other side of the glen, where EMMA is sitting. ROGER, JAX and SERENGETI pile into EMMA’s lap and EMMA falls back in the grass, laughing. FERGUS and DONALD enter.)
MRS. MOSEYALONG
Good morning, Sir Fergus, Mr. Donald. (Turning to her pups.) Quiet down, children.
(The PUPPIES, stop their wrestling atop EMMA and sit at attention watching the adults. EMMA sits up.)
EMMA
Good morning. Sir Fergus, did you rest well?
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Do you need help Formatting a Novel?
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Thirty-five writing tips that include:
That first, all important, sentence
How to develop rich characters
Writer’s Block
Procrastination
Writing process
Many more words of encouragement and tips, including quotes from successful writers such as yourself.
DON’T MISS MY BLOG with twice-weekly posts. Also featuring INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS! with me once a month . We shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create!
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Format is extremely important. If you submit your new play to anyone they will not read it if it is not in the proper format. There is software out there that offer auto-format but sadly I have not found one that demonstrates correct formatting. Notice the character names are in CAPS and centered. Setting, Rise and Dialogue are justified left. Single space between character’s name and first line of dialogue. Blocking (action) is indented and double-spaced from the line above. (The playwright gives the characters instructions on when and where to move. But, keep it short. Remember there will be a director who has their own ideas of where they want their actors to be.) If blocking is only one word, place next to character’s name in parentheses. A ‘beat’ is to enhance the pace of the speech and is in parentheses within the dialogue. Here is a formatting example:
ACT I
Scene 1
Setting: A loft studio in Greenwich Village. Late afternoon. There are many paintings but all of the same woman. Large, open windows overlook the street.
(MONTY is standing at his easel, painting. Voices are heard off stage. His clothing is paint smeared.)
VOICE (Off.)
Hey, beautiful! You’re home early.
(Brush in one hand, palette in the other, MONTY crosses up to the windows and peers into the street below.
The lilting laughter of a young woman is heard.)
SAMANTHA (Voice off. teasing.)
Hey, Mr. Murray. Your wife know you’re trying to pick up women in the street?
VOICE (off.)
No…and don’t you tell on me. My old woman would give me what for…bothering a young lady like you.
SAMANTHA (Voice off.)
Your secret is safe with me (beat.)…for a price.
VOICE (off.)
Oh yeah, what’s that?
SAMANTHA (Voice off.)
Some fresh bagels from your bakery.
VOICE (off.)
You got a deal. I’ll bring them home with me tomorrow.
SAMANTHA (Voice off.)
Thanks, Mr. Murray! I’ll look forward to it. Bye, now.
VOICE (off.)
Bye, beautiful. See you later.
(MONTY’s shoulders slump and he sighs as he watches Samantha disappear into a building.
HE crosses down to his easel.)
MONTY (muttering.)
Jeez…how can that old guy be so easy with her? (beat.) Monty, you’re pathetic.You can’t even say ‘hello’ to her in the street. What the hell’s the matter with you?
(end of sample)
Title Page of your script: Play title and Playwright’s name. Add contact info on this page if you are submitting to a publisher, agent or theatre.
Early in the script book, list the Cast of Characters. Sample:
Cast of Characters
MONTGOMERY ANDERSON: 29 years old, a reclusive artist.
SAMANTHA SPARKS: 24 years old, an aspiring actress.
DETECTIVE O’ROARKE: 38 years old, a hardened homicide detective. (Note: Listing the ages of the characters is very important for casting.)
Place
Greenwich Village, New York City
Current
Summer
Leave lots of white space on the page. Actors/Directors will need wide margins in order to write notes and blocking when in production. Read more about How To Write a Play
Author’s note: This formatting is approved by my publisher, Samuel French, Inc. This is what they expect to see when you submit. Correct FORMAT if you are self-publishing. And, yes, it’s very different!
How to Format a Screenplay
This new, exciting, instructional book is a sharing of over twenty+ years of experience. This writer has honed
her craft of creative writing and ‘is still learning.’
Thirty-five writing tips that include:
That first, all important, sentence
How to develop rich characters
Writer’s Block
Procrastination
Writing process
What Not to Do (when receiving a critique)
….and many more words of encouragement and tips,
Including quotes from successful writers such as yourself. Takes the ‘scary’ out of writing!
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If you follow me, with any regularity, you know that not only is my chief craft writing, but I am also fascinated with words, their origins, our slang, our euphemisms, and colloquialisms. If we step off the euphemism treadmill, or never get on in the first place, we are quickly unplugged by what people around us are saying. I give you an example: I recently wrote another play for teens and I thought, ‘opps, I’d better check teen euphemisms/slang just in case it’s changed since I last used such words as: ridiculous, sick, cool, etc.’ Yep! They’d left me in the dust…none of these words were ‘cool’ anymore. 
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