NOW ON SALE!!! This new, innovative Journal and Handbook.
This spirited journal is designed to help writers open their hearts and minds to their own creative possibilities, while honing their craft. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced writer, you will find this journal will quickly become your constant companion.
Much more than a journal for your creative writing, this handbook provides the writer with the ‘how to’s’ of writing. Over 275 of blank, lined pages for your creative writing that includes more tips and insightful quotes from famous authors.
What’s Inside: “How Do I Begin?”
“How to Develop Exciting Characters”
“How to Write Fiction”
“How to Write a Stage Play”
“How to Write Poetry”
“How to Write Haiku Poetry”
Teachers and Students: Go to Facebook and ‘Like’ this page if you think this is something you would like to own. Future special offers to educators and students.
Let’s see, where did we leave off? As you can see by now truth is sometimes stranger than fiction….why make stuff up when the true stories are just standing there in front of you…waiting for you to write a play about them? Or not….because about this time Cheets, the effervescent elf came into my life!
‘The Fabled Forest Series‘ was brought to me by my friend, Cheets, about three in the morning to be exact. He put his over-sized elf feet in the middle of my back and pushed. Yelling in my ear, ‘Cheets has a story….write about Cheets!’
By the time I crawled out of bed, made a cup of tea and stumbled to my keyboard he was skipping along beside me, telling me about his friends in the fabled forest and about the unicorn that they must save. No, I’m not crazy (or if I am, I’m in very good company) and yes I do hear voices (again, good company). A few years and four children’s plays later ‘Emma and the Lost Unicorn‘ was produced outside of Boston. The little actors in the show pleaded with me to write them story books based upon the plays. That was my launch from playwright to author.
Two summers ago I was talking with some teachers and they were bemoaning the fact that ‘the arts’ budget was non-existent at their schools; anything that they wanted to do in that area; paints, music, scripts, was out of their own pocket I thought, what if I wrote several 10 minute plays for the class room, made them affordable, no sets, no costumes, no props? Twenty-six scripts later and it’s definitely been a hit. While I did write some fun ones, I quickly learned that I needed to write about teen issues in real life. Bullying, mean girls, dating violence, divorce, drugs, running away, cyber-bullies…the list goes on and on.
And as I am not a mystery writer but do love to stretch my creative wings, I thought I’d throw in a murder mystery play into the collection. I knew the kids in the classroom would love it. “The Art of Murder” was born. Then some well meaning friends told me, after reading the play, “But what happened to Monty?” and “Who killed her?” “You have got to tell us the rest of the story!”
‘Okay, okay! I’ll write a novella for you.’ Well, it went pretty well and my friends and fans seemed to like it. Just one problem, they came back again and told me, “You’ve got a series here! We want more of O’Roarke and Garcia, your murder cops!” I objected: ‘I’m not a mystery writer!’Well, apparently I am since I’m currently writing the fifth in the series!
Book 2 takes place back stage on Broadway……so we’ve come full circle!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS featuring INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS!
In addition to my twice weekly blog I also feature an interview with another author once a month. So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create! An Interview with Loretta Chase on May 29th. Dean Koontz is my June author.
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In looking at my stats recently I saw a recurring key phrase on my site. ‘How to write a play?‘, and I thought my readers might find it interesting to read about what inspired the subjects of my play scripts.
The short answer is: A true story…. something that caught my attention that was someone else’s story.
The long answer: My first play ‘Lost Child‘ back in 1994 was based on a true story of a Dad dealing with his gay son. Back then HIV and AIDS was a death sentence. The father was homophobic and macho. He rejected his son. To make the story complete I added another set of parents that were totally supportive of their gay son. Sadly this story did not end well and the script was lost on my hard drive ….someday, I may finish it.
Next came ‘Cook County Justice‘ based upon a fifteen minute segment I saw on one of those TV magazines like 20/20. Bill Heirens had been incarcerated for over 40 years (even though his sentence included parole) for a murder I came to believe he didn’t commit. This story took me on a six year journey; letters from Bill (inmate), support from his team trying to set him free and several productions of my play.
While visiting Bill in the Illinois state Prison for Men early one Sunday morning, I sat in the reception area waiting to be ‘processed’ through into the visiting room. I was surrounded by women of all ages and their children. Mothers, sisters, wives, daughters….as I sat there they figuratively took me by the nape of my neck and shouted….’you must write about us…tell our story!’ That was the birth of ‘Women Outside the Walls’ a full length play and later a novel.
‘Scent of Magnolia‘A Tribute to Billie Holiday was conceived in 2001 when a very talented jazz singer/actress out of Chicago asked me if I would write her a one woman show as Billie Holiday. I used, as my inspiration, the early years of Billie’s career before she succumbed to alcohol and drugs.
NEXT! A Hollywood Tale was based on my own experiences as a young actor in Hollywood and all the story swapping we would do in the green room, waiting to ‘go on’. There was nothing worse than going to a cattle call audition and in the middle of your monologue or reading have the casting director yell: ‘Next!’ That was your cue line to exit right. The razor sharp teeth of the machine known as Hollywood chew up aspiring actors and spit them into the gutter.
I grew up on my mother’s stories about growing up in the forests of Tumwater, Washington with her 13 siblings. Back at the turn of the twentieth century life and its entertainments were simple.
‘The Guyer Girls’ is a cross between Little Women and I Remember Mama. The first act is almost all based upon her stories. The second act was my creation of what happened when the six sisters come back home fifteen years later. With this age of technology I didn’t want these stories to die with her or with me.
‘Sins of the Mother’ was also partly biographical. Again stories told by my mother of her years in San Francisco (1920’s) as a bar owner, women’s basketball player, flapper, and mother. She used to say, “I’d work all day and dance all night!” This full length play developed into a novel, ‘Wild Violets’.
There’s more but this is where I will stop. Every play plot has conflict. The trick is to solve it within two and a half hours.
A Journal/Handbook to Start YOU writing! 275 blank pages for your work; each margin with an inspiring quote from a famous actor, writer, playwright, or poet. Sections on ‘how to’ will get you started.
DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS featuring INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS!
In addition to my twice weekly blog I also feature an interview with another author once a month. So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create! Dean Koontz is my June author.
To receive my posts sign up for my On the home page, enter your email address. Thanks!
I sat down with some actors the other day and they asked, ‘how do I write a character analysis?‘ And as I answered them I thought how much this applies to writers as well. If you don’t know your characters (in your story,novel) your readers will never get to know them.
After many years of writing, my characters show up in my head but it’s my job to ‘flesh them out’. Many times I will meet or see a character in real life and they inspire a character for my writing. But, it’s still the writer’s or the actor’s job to give them a story and breathe life into them.
If you’re a new writer take the time to write it down, using some of the tools listed here. If you’re an actor, it is imperative that you write your character analysis. It not the same as a few random thoughts about your character. Some intangible thing happens when you put pen to paper and get to know who your character is. Continue reading “How to Write a Character Analysis for Writers & Actors!”
When writing a short play, you will have no time to ‘set up’ the story. It’s only ten to twelve minutes long, remember? Rather, think of it as walking into the middle of the story; more like a scene…but in this case it must have a beginning, middle, and end, all in roughly ten-twelve minutes.
A ten minute play (or one act) is 10-15 pages written in a proper format. It can have costumes and sets, certainly, but ten minute plays are most popular because of their simplicity. It’s more attractive to the director or educator, for economic reasons, if there are no sets, no costumes, and minimal props needed.
The ten minute play does not sacrifice excellent writingand content for brevity. Less is more. And it is a great exercise for the writer to hone and edit their writing skills.
The ideas for my plays come to me in a little kernel of truth and I am inspired. A state prison, a haunted lighthouse, my days in Hollywood, the news of the day or remembering the stories of my childhood.
I am frequently asked ‘how can you be so prolific?’, ‘how do you write so many plays?’ ‘where do you get your ideas?’
So I thought what a perfect time to give my readers six tips on writing their first stage play. After all, 45 play scripts ago and seventeen years earlier I began writing my first script. And that led me to create five, custom Journals and Handbooks which include how to write a play and how to create exciting characters.
SEVEN TIPS TO GET YOU STARTED
1. Format is very important. If you submit your new play to anyone they will not read it if it is not in a proper format. There is software out there that offer auto-format but I have found them lacking. sample.playwrite.format(here is a format sample)
Notice character name is in CAPS and centered. Blocking (action) is indented and always lower case and double-spaced. If only one word, it is placed next to the character’s name and in parentheses. A ‘beat’ is a dramatic pause or to enhance the pace of the speech.
2. Each page represents approximately one minute of time on stage depending on how complex you make the blocking. For a ten minute play your script should be from 10-15 pages. Each line (dialog) should move the story along…you’ve only got 10 minutes. So chose what your characters have to say very carefully.
3. Leave lots of white space. One day when your play is being produced, actors will need a place to make notes in the script during rehearsal. This is a sample of an actor’s (mine) working script. An actor usually ‘highlights’ their lines and writes the director’s blocking in the margins.
4. The blocking (in italics) is where you give the actors instructions on when and where to move. But, keep it short and sweet. Remember there will be a director who has their own ideas of where they will want their actors to be. Be aware of costume changes in your writing. An actor can’t exit stage left and enter stage right, seconds later in a different costume, if you haven’t written in the time it will take to give them the time to accomplish a costume change.
5. Your script has to work on a stage. If your story takes place in more than one locale, you have to be aware of the logistics of a ‘set’ change. So keep it simple to start. If you are ambitious in your setting buy a book on set design to research if your set is feasible. There are some wonderful ‘envelope’ sets that unfold when you need to change the scene. But you have to consider the budget; would a theatre have the money to build it? Always a worry.
6. 7. The ‘Arc’ of your story: The Oxford English Dictionary defines a story arc as ‘(in a novel, play, or movie) the development or resolution of the narrative or principal theme’. Story arcs are the overall shape of rising and falling tension or emotion in a story. This rise and fall is created via plot and character development.
7. Dialogue: Now here’s the hard part: everything you want the audience to know, about the story and the characters, is conveyed in the dialogue. Unlike a short story or a novel, where you can write as much description as you’d like, a play script has none of that. NO description. Here is a Sample.Dialogue.Sugarek of dialogue moving the story forward. You will notice that the format differs from the sample I provide. This example is from a published play so it looks different.
Check out my series of Journals/Handbooks. To Purchase Playwright’s Journal
Choose from five custom, unique Covers.
Instruction on: How To Begin How to Choose theSubject of your Play
Formatting your Play on the Page
How to write Dialogue
How to Create Rich, Exciting Characters
Story Arc
Stage Terminology
Sending out Your Script
PS. My web site is dedicated to helping new and experienced writers hone their craft. If you have questions, drop me a line. I always love to hear from readers and promise to answer you. T.S.
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Ideas have come to me in the visiting area of a state prison, a haunted lighthouse, my days in Hollywood, or listening to stories of my mother, growing up with 13 siblings ….. the ideas come to me in a little kernel of truth and I am inspired to write.
I am frequently asked ‘how can you be so prolific?’, and ‘how do you write so many plays?’ ‘where do you get your ideas?’
So I thought what a perfect time to give my readers nine tips about writing their first stage play. After all, 45 play scripts ago and seventeen years earlier I began writing my first play script. And that led me to create the Creative Writers’ Journals and Handbooks which include ‘how to write a play’ and ‘how to create exciting characters.’ I went on to create a book of writing tips.
NINE TIPS TO GET YOU STARTED … and more
all journals & plays available at amazon.com
1. Format is very 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 offers auto-format but I found them lacking. The character’s name is centered. Blocking (action) is indented and placed in parentheses. Setting (indent once), Rise
(indent once) the Dialogue is far left. Double space between the character’s name and the first line of dialogue. Blocking (action): is placed below the character’s name in parentheses. (indent x 3). A ‘beat’ is a dramatic pause to enhance the pace of the speech and is placed in the dialogue where you wish the actor to pause for a beat or two. Or you might want to buy a play script from a publisher. Concord Theatricals used to be Samuel French and is still the best. It seems little has changed except the name.
2. Each page represents approximately one minute of time on stage. So if you have a play that is 200 pages long, that won’t work. Audiences aren’t going to sit for more than one and a half hours unless you are providing a circus, a fire drill, sex, and an earthquake. Audiences are even reluctant to sit through “The Iceman for Cometh” a classic by Eugene O’Neill. full-length to 3 hours. You should keep your full-length script to about 100 pages which equals 1.6 hours of stage time. For a one-act divide that by 2. For a ten minute play your script should be from 10-15 pages. These times and figures are debated by others but this has been my experience as an actor/director/writer.
3. Leave lots of white space on the page. One day when your play is being produced, actors will need a place to make notes in the script during rehearsal. This is a sample of an actor’s (mine) working script. The actor usually ‘highlights’ their lines and writes the director’s blocking in the margins. (in pencil, as blocking frequently changes)
4. The blocking is indented, in parentheses, and directly below the character’s name. This is where the playwright gives the characters instructions onwhen and where to move. But, keep it short and sweet. Remember there will be a director who has their ideas of where he/she wants the actors to be. Be aware of costume changes in your writing. An actor can’t exit stage left and enter stage right, seconds later, if you haven’t written in the time it will take for them to accomplish a costume change.
5. Your script has to work on a stage. If your story takes place in more than one locale, you have to be aware of the logistics of set changes. So keep it simple to start. If you are ambitious in your setting buy a book on set design to research if your set is feasible. Some wonderful ‘envelope’ set designs unfold when you need to change the scene. But you have to consider the budget; would a theatre have the money to build it? Always a worry.
6. Dialogue:Now here’s the sometimes hard part: everything you want the audience to know about the story and the characters, is conveyed in the dialogue. Unlike a short story or a novel, where you can write as much description as you’d like, a play script has none of that. No description. Here is a Sample.Dialogue.Sugarek of dialogue demonstrating how to move the story forward.
7. The ‘Arc’ of your story: The Oxford English Dictionary defines a story arc as ‘(in a novel, play, or movie) the development or resolution of the narrative or principal theme’. Story arcs are the overall shape of rising and falling tension or emotion in a story. This rise and fall are created via plot and character development.
Simpler Examples: In Parkland Requiem the ‘arc’ of my story is when the teacher leaves the safety of his classroom to reconnoiter the position of the shooter.
In My Planet, Your Planet, Our Planet the ‘arc’ is when the activist students march in a worldwide March defying all the rules of the school.
8. How To Know When to Change Scenes. When there is a date/time or character/scene change is a good guide. But be careful, if the time/day changes and there is a costume change needed, always remember the audience isn’t a patient creature and they will not sit and wait for very long. A director can and will set up an area backstage for those quick changes and often the costume mistress will be there to help with shoes, zippers, etc. To save time, you should write the actor entering from the same side as they exited (when possible) to save the time it would take for them to hurry to the other side of the stage.
9. Your play should have a conflict. Your main character should have a conflict that he or she must solve quickly. No conflict = no play. Say you want to write your first play about you and your siblings growing up. That’s easy; have them argue about something. Be certain there is a resolution before your play ends. Imagine you want to write a love story between two people. There must be a conflict somewhere in the love story.
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Instruction on: How To Begin How to Write a Play
Formatting your Play on the Page
How to write Dialogue
How to Create Rich, Exciting Characters Stage Terminology
‘How To’ Journals and Handbooks for all of your Creative Writing, including how to write a stage Play! 275 blank, lined pages for your writing.Tips and famous quotes from authors, playwrights, directors, actors, writers, and poets to help inspire you. Look Inside
WANT TO LEARN MORE?? … These new Journals/Handbooks offer a total of 14 points of ‘how to’.
Available on Amazon.com B&N, and all fine book stores.
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)
DON’T MISS my with weekly posts. Also featuringINTERVIEWS 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!
I am proud to announce that my new book of monologues for women has been published and is available here and on www.amazon.com.
I woke up one morning recently and thought, “I’ve got some soliloquies tucked away that would make pretty good monologues. This book is, I think, unique because all the contemporary monologues are original. Directors get bored and tired of the same old shoes like speeches from Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Barefoot in the Park, Streetcar Named Desire, Pygmalion, View from the Bridge and others. Make them sit up and listen when you use something they have never heard before!
And that brings me to the point that I want to share with my readers out there who are writers or want to be writers. Previously I was talking about my digging out some old and new work and turning them into a book of monologues. Never, never throw anything away. Open up that dusty old box of your scribbles that you have hidden away on the top shelf of the closet. You might be surprised what you find and how much you like it after a year, five years or ten. “Note from a Watery Grave” which I scribbled down back in 2002?….turns out it was pretty good with some additional editing on my part. The end result was a new book. My motivation: as an actor, I know how hard it is to find that perfect monologue for an audition. How difficult it is to get the director’s attention and keep it.
While compiling this book, I remembered how I would go to an audition and announce that my classical piece was going to be Anne from Richard III. The director (or audition panel) would roll their eyesand yawn in my face. The ‘Anne’ that they were thinking of was an old tired thing that’s been done to death, when Richard confronts Anne over the coffin. My ‘Anne’ was a conversation that I pieced together into a soliloquy and I was certain that they had never seen. I got the same reaction from the director every time; they sat up and listened! And afterwards, they laughed and told me they were expecting something else and how refreshing mine was.
A final note: I have included not only some classics (so that your audition will show contrast in your acting ability) but also some original monologues for the African-American actress.
A few weeks ago I published four short plays addressing cyber-bullying and verbal bullying in our schools. My hope was that if teens and their teachers read these plays (and performed them in their classroom) it would maybe open a dialogue about this deadly practice.
In “You’re Fat, You’re Ugly…” Aanya is a beautiful, talented student, much like Amanda Todd, who is driven to attempted suicide by her peers’ relentless bullying. In “Cyber-Hate” Cathy is the victim of bullying that leads to violence. “The Bullies” is about boys who bully.
I wrote these plays depicting different variations of bullying…..Fiction based on dry statistics.
And now in today’s headlines we read about Amanda Todd, (age 15) a beautiful young girl who just couldn’t take anymore. She felt her only option to escape this form of terrorism (bullying) was to take her own life. It saddened me and my love and prayers go out to her family and friends. This pointless loss of a young woman’s life also outraged me. Amanda’s cry for help (I assume) was a previous attempt at suicide by drinking bleach. Her stalker-bully wrote a message to her, “Try harder.” What kind of monster does this??
‘Amanda Todd, a Vancouver-area teenager who posted a story to YouTube last month about being cyber-bullied, was found dead Wednesday night in Coquitlam, Canada. Authorities believe she committed suicide. Amanda’s video tells a heart-wrenching story of the bullying she was subjected to — both online and off. “In 7th grade,” she begins, sharing her message on cue cards, “I would go with friends on webcam [to] meet and talk to new people.” At one point, a stranger flattered her into flashing the camera…..
One year later, a man contacted her on Facebook, threatening to send around the picture of her topless “if [she] don’t put on a show.” Terrifyingly, the stranger knew everything about her: her address, school, friends, relatives, and the names of her family members. Soon, her naked photo had been forwarded “to everyone.”Amanda developed anxiety, depression, and anxiety disorders, she says in the video, followed by a path into drugs and alcohol.’ ~~ Huffington Post
We, as the adults, MUST take control of this deadly game that teens are playing. Maybe the bullies need to see their parents go to jail for their actions. After all, these bullies are just children, and the parents are ultimately responsible for their child’s behavior. The buck stops at the parents’ door step.
STOP THE BULLYING!
SAVE LIVES!
More resources re: Bullying, Cyber-bullying ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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NOW ON SALE!!! This new, innovative Journal and Handbook.
Ideas have come to me in the visiting area of a state prison, a haunted lighthouse, my days in Hollywood, or listening to stories of my mother, growing up with 13 siblings ….. the ideas come to me in a little kernel of truth and I am inspired to write.
