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    Mastering Story Structure: A Guide for Writing Unforgettable Plays
    Mastering Story Structure: A Guide for Writing Unforgettable Plays
    Mastering Story Structure: A Guide for Writing Unforgettable Plays
    Ebook95 pages1 hour

    Mastering Story Structure: A Guide for Writing Unforgettable Plays

    By Bill Johnson

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    About this ebook

    Bill Johnson uses reviews of Romeo and Juliet, The Heidi Chronicles, Death of a Salesman, Hamlet, and The Iceman Cometh to teach the art and craft of writing powerful plays. Using these plays, he shows how new playwrights can learn the craft of writing for theater from masters of the stage.

    Bill is author of the website, A Story is a Promise, where he writes about popular novels, films, and plays. He's also the author of A Story is a Promise & The Spirit of Storytelling, a popular handbook on the craft of writing.

    His workbook offers valuable lessons on how to write a book or how to get a novel ready for self publishing.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBill Johnson
    Release dateJan 27, 2012
    ISBN9781452440064
    Mastering Story Structure: A Guide for Writing Unforgettable Plays
    Author

    Bill Johnson

    Bill Johnson has practiced meditation techniques including Kriya Yoga. He is the author of the writing workbook, A Story is a Promise.

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      Book preview

      Mastering Story Structure - Bill Johnson

      Mastering Story Structure

      A guide for writing unforgettable plays

      Using story notes on Romeo and Juliet, The Heidi Chronicles,

      Death of a Salesman, Hamlet, and The Iceman Cometh

      to teach writing plays

      Bill Johnson

      SMASHWORDS EDITION

      * * * * *

      PUBLISHED BY:

      Bill Johnson on Smashwords

      Copyright © 2012 Mastering Story Structure

      by Bill Johnson

      ISBN: 978-0-9673932-4-8

      Smashwords Edition License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

      Mastering Story Structure - A guide for writing unforgettable plays

      Copyright © 2012 by Bill Johnson.

      All rights reserved.

      Published by Blue Haven Publishing

      Willamette Writers House 2108 Buck St West Linn, OR 97068

      Book Design: Bill Johnson

      Cover Design: Nancy Hill Photography

      Cover Photo: Nancy Hill

      Mastering Story Structure/ by

      Bill Johnson —

      p.cm.

      Includes bibliographical references and index.

      1. How-to 2. Story Writing

      I. Title

      ISBN: 978-0-9673932-4-8

      Dedication

      To all the playwrights who often toil in

      obscurity

      Table of Contents

      The Power and Passion of Love and Hate, A Review of Romeo and Juliet

      The Heidi Chronicles, Developing Complex Characters Who Grow and Change

      Death of a Salesman, The Process of Framing Questions

      The Narrative Tension of Hamlet

      The Iceman Cometh

      The Power and Passion of Love and Hate

      A Review of Romeo and Juliet

      This review explores how Shakespeare structured this story and brought it to life.

      Romeo and Juliet opens with a prologue announcing the story's star-crossed young lovers will die and their deaths reconcile their warring clans. Shakespeare opens his story by boldly announcing the climax of its plot. How can he get away with this? Because the better the storyteller, the stronger their understanding that a story is a journey. That a well-told story makes every step of that journey engaging and dramatic, more than the sum of its parts. Shakespeare can do what most inexperienced writers would be loathe to do -- give away his ending -- because what makes his story satisfying is a separate issue from the mechanical working out of its plot.

      Further, by telling the audience the story's outcome, Shakespeare gives the story a poignancy it would lack otherwise. Knowing the lovers will die makes their every step toward that fate more deeply felt. This speaks to that issue of drama being not only the anticipation of action, but the feelings and thoughts that anticipation arouses.

      Act One

      Scene One

      Act one opens with some of the men of Capulet clan meeting on the street men of the Montague clan. A brawl erupts, citizens join in, and the heads of the houses of Capulet and Montague come upon the scene. The Prince of the City arrives. His judgment, if there is more fighting, those guilty face death.

      The dramatic purpose of this scene is to introduce that the families are bound together by an ancient blood feud that has grown to a lethal hatred. The scene does this through a measured introduction of characters that always gives the audience time to assimilate who a particular character is, their personality, and their relationships to other characters.

      On a story level, because this story is about a conflict between love and hate, introducing the hate that fuels the story's action also sets the story into motion.

      In the aftermath of the brawl, a question arises to the whereabouts of Romeo, a young Montague. It comes out that Romeo has been shedding tears and avoiding his kinsmen, but why is unclear. It is left to Benvolio to discover the cause of Romeo's distress.

      Story note, the play opens with some hotly contested action that sets up the retribution further conflict will bring. There's clearly something at stake if anyone from either household engages in more brawling. Second, Romeo is mentioned in a way that it's made clear before his arrival he has issues he's dealing with. Because it's made clear he has an issue to resolve, he is a character who is ripe even before he appears. The story's audience anticipates some outcome to Romeo's issues.

      Romeo enters as the others exit. It comes out quite quickly that Romeo is lovesick. Out of her favor where I am in love.

      Story note, the dramatic purpose here isn't to withhold that Romeo is lovesick.

      Scene Two

      The Senior Capulet enters, mentioning the ban on any further fighting and that it should be easy to uphold. Note how Capulet's words will come back to haunt him. During this scene, Count Paris reminds Capulet of his desire to wed Juliet, not quite fourteen. Capulet wishes that Juliet be older before she weds, but Paris presses his suit. Capulet invites him to a party that night, and they exit.

      Story note, our introduction to Juliet offers a sense of who she is. Further, that Juliet's life is at a moment of potential transition, i.e., she's a ripe character.

      Enter Benvolio and Romeo, still caught up in his love sickness. They immediately come upon a servingman sent out by Capulet to announce the party to those on a list he cannot read. He asks Romeo to read the list. It comes out that Rosaline, for whom Romeo pines, has been invited to this party. The servingman, grateful to Romeo for reading the list, invites him to the party as long as he's not a Montague.

      Benvolio suggests Romeo go, that seeing some of the town's other beauties aid his recovery from his infatuation with Rosaline.

      Romeo answers, defending Rosaline,

      "One fairer than my love? The all-seeing sun

      Ne'er saw her march since first the world begun."

      Story note, note the speed and ease with which the author has set up Romeo to attend this party. He's even prodded into it by Benvolio. Since to advance the story means bringing together its principals, Shakespeare designs the play to make that happen.

      Through these opening scenes the author maintains a measured, brisk, pace that introduces the principles and their issues. He now begins bringing them together in a way that escalates the story's dramatic tension. Romeo going to a party at the Capulet's is inherently dangerous.

      Scene 3

      This scene opens with Lady Capulet, Juliet's nurse, and

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