To celebrate our NOVA 2024 submission window, Tara Theatre have created a month long series of thoughts and activities for writers; tools to nurture and inspire your writing 🌌
Day 1
Thought
Knowing your story is the key to unlocking any play – what is your play about?
Activity
Whether you’ve already got a script or embarking on a new project, summarise what the story is about. First write a paragraph describing your story. Then distill this down to one sentence. Then capture the essence; can you describe your story in 6 words (or less)?
Day 2
Thought
Medium – stories can exist in many forms: novels, poetry, dance, oral storytelling traditions, theatre and more. Why should this story be told on stage?
Activity
Think about your play. Can you describe what makes it a unique theatrical experience? Would it work as a radio drama? Or is it more a film or episode of TV? Why should this be a piece of live theatre? Write a short paragraph detailing the theatricality your piece offers.
Day 3
Thought
Plays need to be seen and having an audience who will engage with the story you’re telling is vital. Can you identify your audience? Who do you want to see your play?
Activity
Consider who your story speaks to, and try to be as specific as possible. Create a short list with a specific breakdown of the kinds of people who would like this play – this can be varied, but think how and why each of these groups would respond to your play.
Day 4
Thought
Theatre is in constant dialogue with itself, and consciously or unconsciously we’re always writing within the wider tapestry and traditions of storytelling. What works are you inspired by? What texts are you in conversation with?
Activity
Find three other stories that your play has connections to. This can be direct or indirect. Consider what makes those stories stand out to you, and write down what you want to take as inspiration or alternatively what beats you want to subvert.
Day 5
Thought
Music can be an exceptional tool in storytelling and can help us unlock emotional planes we may not immediately be able to reach when constructing a story.
Activity
Create a playlist that can act as a soundtrack of your play. Aim for 10-12 songs that encompass the emotional beats of your story and build out a sonic palette for the kinds of feelings you want your story to evoke for people watching your play.
Day 6
Thought
What are the fundamentals of your play? Have you built the wider context of the world your story takes place in?
Activity
Where? When? Who? What? How? and Why?
Six questions that may not always be obvious yet are integral to any story. They may not always be explicitly stated or immediately evident, but having an understanding of these core fundamentals makes your story far more accessible. Have a go at answering the following questions for your story:
Where is your play set? When does it take place, and over what period of time? Who is present in your play, and who is absent? What happens? How do events play out? How do we feel about them? Why do these things happen to our characters? Why does it matter?
Day 7
Thought
Why now?
Activity
What makes this story a piece that will impact audiences in 2024? Create a list of themes, content and feelings present in your play that you think would speak to audiences.
Day 8
Thought
Carve out time to write. There will always be excuses to stop you from writing. When can you be creative?
Activity
Tara Theatre challenges you to write anything, literally anything, for the rest of July. Doesn’t matter whether you consider yourself a playwright or a writer. Put a daily notification into your phone at a time you can consistently commit to so you can write for 5mins.
Write absolutely anything. Don’t think about it, go freeform. But write non-stop for five minutes every day.
What do you think you’ll start to create?
Day 9
Thought
The Blank Page is scary, so don’t feel you need to start at Page 1.
If you’re struggling to get a play going, or even if you’re stuck getting a particular scene off the ground, throw chronology out the window.
Activity
Where is the dramatic crux? What’s the explosive moment you want to build to?
Start there. Write what excites you most about the play – and then you can work backwards to find out how that moment develops. Even if this is redrafted later, this can be an excellent starting point.
Day 10
Thought
Struggling to weave together your script? Planning can help structure your process.
Activity
Create a list of the key story beats you want to hit in the play.
Experiment with these beats, do they all belong in different scenes? Do they need moments in between them? Which characters are present / absent for these?
Day 11
Thought
Nourishing your writing environment with manageable goals increases your productivity.
Activity
Create a schedule to help you progress with your script.
Depending on how you work this may be dictated by time (2hrs every Tue you’ll dedicate to writing) or by task (‘I will write 10 pages on Saturday morning’). This builds routine and structures your writing.
Day 12
Thought
Research can be helpful, but it can also end up a tool of procrastination.
Dramaturgs can come in later in the process to flesh out wider context and accuracies.
Activity
Itemise the key facts or research items you want to explore. Avoid generalising, be as specific as possible.
Once you have your list, expand each item with an argument on how this research will directly inform your story. If you can’t find a comprehensive reason, save it for later in the process when redrafting.
Day 13
Thought
When writer’s block strikes, stop thinking just write. We often get caught up in trying to write well and this becomes an obstacle for creativity.
Activity
Write two bad pages, non-stop.
Don’t think. Ignore spelling errors, cut out the constraints of writing and just get words on the page. This won’t be your final draft, but the forced experience of having to get anything down will spark your brain into gear and can kickstart your creativity.
Once you’ve finished this vomit draft, re-read it and pick up any elements that stand out for you.
What works? What doesn’t work? What do you want to know more about?
Day 14
Thought
Distractions – cut them out, and yes that does mean your phone!
Activity
Create an environment conducive to writing. Turn your phone off. Find a space that can help you work, which may not be at home!
Head to a library, a coffee shop, a theatre café – anywhere that takes away responsibilities other than the task of writing your play.
Alternatively, write with a buddy! This can help hold you accountable and offer someone you can bounce ideas off. Make new playwright friends and buddy up.
Day 15
Thought
One writer, multiple characters.
How do you differentiate the voices of your characters inside a play?
Activity
Knowing your characters is vital. Create a list of 20 facts about each character in your play, things that are integral to their sense of self rather than superficial trivia.
What makes their point of view unique, and compelling? 20 facts too easy? Try 100 if you want a challenge!
Day 16
Thought
Drama is rooted in conflict.
Do your characters have opposing views?
Activity
Write a list of major and minor objectives for your characters.
Your major objectives will detail what your character wants to achieve over the course of the whole play. Your minor objectives will be the steps they take in individual scenes or acts to achieve that bigger goal.
Do you have characters working for the same goals but choosing different tactics to achieve them? Do you have characters with opposing objectives?
Are these present from the outset or develop over the course of the play? How does that impact their relationship?
Day 17
Thought
As audiences we love to see how characters interact on stage.
Have you got clear relationships between your characters?
Activity
Create a table with all of your characters listed on the x and y axis. Add in verbs to describe how each character views the other. This can be for your whole play, or on a scene by scene basis. This helps solidify your understanding of your players and will inform their motivations, tactics and objectives throughout the script.
Day 18
Thought
Sometimes we get too caught up in plot.
What are the emotional journeys of your characters throughout your play?
Activity
Create a mood chart with the emotional states of your characters in each scene.
How are they feeling? How much do their emotions change? Do characters have different emotional responses to the same event? How do these contrasts play out and inform their actions?
Day 19
Thought
Every character on stage deserves to be a fully bodied voice, are all of your characters equally developed?
Arcs should take place for every character, whether leading the play or appearing in a supporting or minor role. This detailing makes the world of your play richer and our engagement immediate.
Activity
Comb through your script reading from the POV of each individual character. Write out each character’s arc as you do so. How do they change over the course of the play?
Be attentive to voices typically marginalised in scripts. Ensure they exist as fully realised people rather than shorthand stereotypes or archetypes.
Day 20
Thought
For audiences coming to see your story play out on stage, how do you want them to feel during the play?
And what do you want them to leave the theatre feeling?
Activity
Make a list of all the emotions you want your audience to feel. Be as specific as you can. Think about where you want these beats to take place.
Can they be juxtaposed with a contrasting emotion? Are there conflicting sympathies for different characters? Do we cheer for one characters victory but feel for another’s loss?
Can you play with how audiences feel and subvert their emotions for characters they wouldn’t normally like or dislike?
Day 21
Thought
Expanding your characters outside the immediate demands of your play can be an excellent exercise in developing their individuality.
Activity
Create a playlist for each of your characters. Aim for 10-12 songs that would be on their daily rotation. What kind of genres do they listen to? What songs or artists may they engage with that perhaps you wouldn’t ordinarily listen to? What kind of effect would this type of music have on their disposition?
Day 22
Thought
Keeping your narrative engaging for your audience is easily achieved if you have a complete sense of your play’s inciting incident and the action it provokes.
Activity
Identify the points in your script that instigate action.
When does the first one appear? Does this initial incident create a snowball effect of more incidents, or is it more a gentle ripple that informs the rest of the play? Does the inciting incident take place before the play starts? Are we in the aftermath?
Is the inciting incident an event that’s yet to happen? Is the drama built out of the anxiety of its inevitable passing?
Write down your inciting incident and expand on how it informs your play as a whole – from the first page to the closing moments, no matter how big or small.
Day 23
Thought
At Tara Theatre we make politically charged theatre and we’re always seeking to challenge our audiences.
Activity
List three central beliefs in your play. These can be ideological, theological, political, or any other kind of belief. These can be expressed or rejected by your characters.
Once you have these three beliefs, detail how an audience may react to these and how they may be challenged by them.
Day 24
Thought
Familiarity is both a boon and an anchor within a narrative. Sometimes it provides an easy shorthand that can kickstart your story, other times it can bore an audience who feel they’ve seen this play before. What kinds of narrative are you engaging with as a writer?
Activity
Locate what narrative tropes are present inside your script; do these subvert or challenge audience expectations? If not, what would happen if you made an alternative choice? What would be an unexpected consequence of this narrative trope? How could you rejuvenate this type of narrative beat for your audience?
Day 25
Thought
As writers we can overcomplicate a narrative too early in the life of a play. Taking time to work out the rudimental mechanics of a scene can be transformative when constructing your narrative.
Activity
Having trouble getting a scene down? Create a basic draft – don’t overthink the dialogue, just have the characters state exactly what they want from each other and the obstacles preventing that from happening. It’s not going to be your final draft but it will get your ideas out on paper in a clear way so you can gain clarity and then make them more complex.
Day 26
Thought
We only spend a short period of time with the characters we see on stage but their narratives extend further beyond the immediate action we witness.
Activity
Take some time to explore the narrative events taking place outside of your on-stage narrative. Make a list of relevant events that take place leading up to your play and, if applicable, following the end of your play to position the wider narrative of your characters and why the moments featured in your script are the key focus points in their extended story.
Day 27
Thought
Narrative obstacles and conflicts create drama and will build the momentum to sustain your play.
Activity
Create a list of all the obstacles your characters face throughout the duration of your play. Organise these in order of severity and their difficulty to overcome.
Is this chronological? Or does this order have a variety of big and low stakes obstacles?
When do your characters win? When do they lose? What successes come easily? What challenges take time to overcome? Are there any insurmountable obstacles?
Explore how your narrative shifts depending on how these obstacles are distributed across your play.
Day 28
Thought
Surprise and a deployment of the unexpected are quick tools to immediately draw in an audience.
How can you construct a narrative with choices that upend our understanding of the mundane and everyday?
Activity
Choose a key character in your play. Write three absurd scenarios for them. These may be comedic, tragic or darker in tone.
Make Scenario 1 an entrance. How can this character enter a space and change our sense of the narrative? Make Scenario 2 an action that takes place mid-scene. How can you upend audience assumptions of this character and change the stakes of your narrative? Make Scenario 3 a revelation: what will change our perspective on what we’ve seen so far?
Explore how contrast can surprise and challenge audiences in your initial drafts.
Day 29
Thought
Change is an inherent part of a functional piece of drama.
Characters will be engaging with change throughout your text, whether undertaking changes in their relationships and understandings of the world or instead warring against these changes.
Activity
Take a scene from your play and look at it in isolation. Can you find an event that changes the scene? This could be a specific action, a revelation, a calamity, an introduction or an absence.
Now rewrite this scene so you have three versions of where this event takes place: at the start, in the middle, and at the end.
For example, the event is Character A declaring “I’m leaving”. Version 1 has
“I’m leaving” as the first line of the scene. Version 2 has “I’m leaving” in the middle of the scene. Version 3 has “I’m leaving” as the final line of the scene.
Consider how these changes affect your characters and tone of the piece. Where does suspense come into play? How important are the consequences of the event? Does igniting with action increase or decrease the impact of the moment? Every scene varies with different answers; find what works best for your writing.
Day 30
Thought
As writers, we sometimes make assumptions for our audience. When redrafting, it’s vital to check that the key information about our characters and plot aren’t lost in dialogue. Creating clever dialogue that sounds good is a great skill, but also a temptation that can impede the power and focus of our scripts.
Activity
Look at a scene from your play in isolation. Underline every moment a piece of new information is presented to the audience.
Once complete, review the scene. Is it advancing your story? Is it deepening our understanding of the characters?
Are you wading into the themes you want the text to explore?
If you feel you have enough underlined, repeat for another scene. If not, have a go at rewriting some of the dialogue to check in on the key parts of your story.
Day 31
Thought
Scripts are filled with words and as writers we can obsess about what words we include. But what about everything else that builds up our play?
Drama is built on action as much as it is dialogue.
Activity
Create a list of the subtextual beats that take place in your play. Everything unspoken that sits inside your text. This can be physical actions, psychological discoveries, the act of silence on stage.
You’ll find in any script a wealth of the unspoken that resides in every page.
As we end of our month of playwriting tips, revel in this list of actions that go beyond what you’ve put immediately on the page. This is the greatest skill of playwriting, and as a writer you’ve achieved the integral part of creating drama that can be staged.
Congratulations!
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