Dramatic Techniques for Creative Writers: Turbo-Charge Your Writing by Jules Horne

Author:Jules Horne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Texthouse

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Try this:

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Choose something in the world of your script - a possession, prop or piece of furniture.

Brainstorm verbs that can be done with your chosen object - as many as possible.

Think of large and small gestures, destructive and nurturing, fast and slow.

Then read back your list. Does anything surprise you? Shock you? Move you in any way?

Write this action into your scene.

Unusual actions (gut a fish, play ice-hockey, mend a shirt, build a hut)

These might not seem unusual actions to you, but they are to many people! What’s unusual depends on context, and an everyday activity for you might be highly compelling for others.

In recent years, Norway has had international TV hits with “slow TV” footage of sleigh rides, log fires and knitting. Their snowy way of life is fascinating for people used to warmer weather. Australia’s The Ghan followed suit with an epic train journey across the central Australian desert. Although very little drama happened, the detail of these distinctive worlds and activities captured many people’s imaginations.

Might some of the ordinary things you do be more intriguing than you think? Do you have any unusual expertise or physical activity that could be exploited in a story? What aspects of your job take you into places normally hidden from view?

People in the arts world are surprisingly similar in social background. The lack of diversity and social mobility in the arts was starkly revealed in a 2018 Goldsmiths University survey. It showed that people there might think of themselves as diverse and wide-open to new experiences, but in practice, they’re socially limited.

So your experience of work - whether as an electrician, butcher, gardener or cubicle worker - is likely to be a rich seam of processes and activities to plunder.

Look out, in particular, for anything physical that may be unusual to others. When I do copywriting, I’m fascinated by the work my clients do on a daily basis - diving, hauling up floorboards, setting up lighting rigs - and by friends’ hobbies, including archery, Crossfit, and beekeeping.

Look at your work, skills and hobbies (and those of your friends), and see if any of them can be plundered for your characters. Even if these physical actions aren’t big and bold, they might have visually intriguing processes that can add oomph to scenes.

Or, if the activity isn’t inherently interesting, try creating subtext and tension, by setting it in an incongruent place (gutting fish in a bathroom, sewing at an ice-hockey match), or using incongruent dialogue, as in the famous hamburger-eating scene in the Tarantino film, Pulp Fiction.

If your scene lacks visual interest or the dialogue is too expositional, try using physical actions to create an intriguing juxtaposition, giving the characters something to play against.

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