Be sure to check out the [[mentor texts for drama]] (and some of the videos on that page too) before you dive in! Then, play around with writing some [[drama]] of your own. One possible way to begin is to choose a form, and experiment with putting some content into it. For example: 1. You could write (part of) a [screenplay](https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/how-to-write-a-screenplay/), or movie script. There are [lots of templates](https://www.google.com/search?q=screenplay+template) for that out there, so you wouldn’t have to put all the formatting together from scratch. 2. Or you could write (part of) a [stage script](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GbQ_O9INrJ6baFzegBxKNPALWo3AlV4A/view?usp=sharing), for a play that would be performed live on stage. You guessed it---[people](https://www.google.com/search?q=stage+script+template)[ make templates](https://www.google.com/search?q=stage+script+template) for that, too! 3. You could take something that isn’t currently a play, and turn it into a play. This could be something you wrote, or something someone else wrote (be careful with copyright violations or whatever(?)). Here’s a [video from a past class session discussing two great examples of adaptation from prose to drama](https://drive.google.com/file/d/17DtVsPwF2PQXf6_PqEXf8A-JCGspfHka/view?usp=drive_link) (*Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead* and *Of Mice and Men*) There are also [software programs/apps](https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=apps%20for%20script%20writing) out there to help with script writing. Feel free to experiment! (You are not required to buy anything for this class.) Here’s [a simplified template I made in Google Docs](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jifxCJiKvrTYp73yRAdr5FI4DfCLM5g3agt0qNaWL6I/edit?usp=sharing) that uses paragraph styles as shortcuts. For our purposes, it’s fine if you don’t want to use an official, standard script format. At minimum, though, indicate which character is speaking which line, and make clear the difference between the lines of dialog and any [stage directions](https://www.stagemilk.com/stage-directions/). Don’t use quotation marks for the actors’ lines. Either format them as in the examples linked above, or else just use the character’s name followed by a colon, like this: > JIMMY: Hey, Penelope, how’s it going? > > PENELOPE: Ugh, don’t talk to me, Jimmy. Let’s make a distinction between regular old fiction writing and playwriting, by making sure that the dialog and actions taken by the actors (even if we’re just imagining them in our minds as we write and read) are the main drivers of the story. So we won’t have paragraph after paragraph of description or explanatory back-story, etc. (Although different playwrights have different views on how many words to devote to stage directions. Compare, for example, [Tennessee Williams](http://cheongshimapliterature.blogspot.com/2013/11/stage-directions-of-tennessee-williams_12.html) with [Shakespeare](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2009/mar/04/stage-direction-shakespeare-stoppard).) > [Tom Stoppard likes to tell a story](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2009/mar/04/stage-direction-shakespeare-stoppard) of a production of *The Tempest* he saw years ago at Oxford. At the play’s end, he watched as Ariel turned and ran across a lawn, into a lake and over the water “until the gloom enveloped him and he disappeared from your view. As he did so, from the further shore, a firework rocket was ignited, and it went whoosh into the air, and high up there it burst into lots of sparks, and all the sparks went out, and he had gone.” And when Stoppard went and looked it up in the script, all it said was: ‘Exit Ariel.’ Regardless of the details, tell an actual story! Have actual characters! Have them do and say interesting things, and give them enough words and time to see what happens! This is a great way to work on storytelling through dialogue. Here’s a [[I just don’t like failing things|fun example from a student in 2025]].