Steps to Writing a One-Act Play: Building Your Writing Portfolio Sarah O’Neill Supreme Editing Chester County

 One easy step on your journey before applying to college is to build a writing portfolio. You can compile a jumbo collection of written original works for review and submit to famous contests like Scholastic, especially if you will be involved in Humanities in the future. Even if you aren’t, it is a perfectly great way to show yourself off in different arenas and as a person with a multitude of talents. Below is one idea — to write a one-act play.

A one-act play is pithy, it can demonstrate your ability to write in a tough category, and it can be wholly satisfying to compose. Take note of the steps below and get started!

Step 1 — IDEAS

Your play should focus on ONE singular event. / WHAT TYPE OF PLAY

WRITE

You need to come up with some ideas for a one-act play. Feel free to consult online prompts.

Step 2 — PLANNING

Most scripts grow out of two elements: the through line–the major action of the play — and the conflict (239). In a mystery story, for example, a detective’s effort to solve the crime is the through line; the conflict is the struggle between the detective’s efforts to solve the crime and the criminal’s efforts to escape detection.

There are four general types of dramatic conflict. The main character in a play can be in conflict 1) with another person; 2) with him- or herself; 3) with society; 4) with the forces of nature or fate. Conflict can be physical, but onstage it is usually more interesting if it is personal, moral, or social.

Step 3 — THE HOOK–GRABBING AN AUDIENCE (in media res)

Begin your play with a hook. A hook is something in the script–an action, a line of dialogue, a piece of stage business, an actor’s reaction–that grabs the audience’s interest. For example, if a man is to be fired, don’t begin by showing this man acting incompetently. Instead, as a hook, you might start with the boss saying, “We’ve decided to let you go.” Then quickly provide material that establishes the situation, introduces the characters, and provides any necessary background information on events that occurred before the opening of the play.

Step 4 — STRUCTURING THE ACTION

The movement of a well-crafted plot begins with an inciting incident, the catalyst for the play’s action. The inciting incident may take the form of an idea or action on the part of the main character; or it may occur through some external force imposed upon a character. Plan the rising action, climax, falling action, resolution, and denouement. The ending or denouement is the resolution of the conflicts that made up the rising action. If it’s plausible and inevitable, an ending can be happy or unhappy.

Step 5 — CREATING CHARACTERS

Characters advance the action of a play. The basic action of your play, the through line, already dictates a certain cast of characters. Your chief characters will be the protagonist, the central character, and the antagonist, the character with whom the protagonist struggles in the conflict. These characters are usually the most complex, and thus, the most fully developed.

Characters other than the protagonist and antagonist are known as secondary characters. One of these might be a foil, a character whose personality and physical appearance contrast with and thus accentuate those of the protagonist. Dialogue between the foil and the protagonist enables you to convey realistically a protagonist’s thoughts or plans. Some minor characters, such as a bellboy or a maid, may be functionaries; that is, what they do is more important than who they are. You must decide the degree to which each character should be distinctive.

As you begin to shape your principal characters, you will need to develop each one’s background, what has happened to him or her in the past, and present circumstances. Some questions to help you in developing the background and present circumstances of your characters are:

-What kind of family did I come from?

-How did I interact with my family while I was growing up?

-Was it a well-adjusted home life, or were there many conflicts?

-Of what social status was my family, and how much wealth did my family have?

-How have health issues influenced my life?

-How intelligent am I and how much education do I have?

-What do I do for a living?

-What are my religious or spiritual beliefs?

-How old am I?

-What kinds of clothes do I prefer?

-Am I an emotionally expressive person?

-In what ways do I express my emotions?

-How would I describe myself–am I temperamental? Moody? Explosive?

Calm? Passive? Quiet? Withdrawn?

-What is my sense of humor like?

-What is my best trait? My worst trait?

-What is my relationship to the other characters in the play?

-How do I treat other characters?

-Where am I today?

-Who is with me?

-What am I doing?

-What is happening to upset my world?

-How does that make me feel?

-What do I want to do?

-Who or what is preventing me from doing it?

-What am I going to do about it?

-How am I going to do this?

-What do I stand to gain or lose?

Some of these questions address the motivation and behavior of a character, which are a reflection of a character’s strategies to overcome obstacles to achieve particular objectives or goals. As you develop the words and actions of each character, consider the character’s overall motivation in each scene. Also consider how you might reveal the subtext of the character’s words or actions, what is implied but not spoken.

Step 6 — WRITING DIALOGUE

-Fitting Dialogue to Character-

As you develop the background and present situation of your characters, you should already begin to think about the manner in which one speaks. An excited teenager, for example, might speak in fragments; a middle-aged trial lawyer, in long and complex sentences. Don’t give lines filled with sophisticated or mythological allusions to an uneducated character–unless you are aiming for a comic effect.

-Understanding Time and Place-

Fit the dialogue to the historical period and geography. If your play is set in the 1920s, don’t use slang expressions from a later period. If your play is set in England, don’t use words or expressions typical of Americans.

-Controlling the Pace-

Have an ear for the pace of the scene. Some scenes need to move quickly; others can move at a more leisurely pace. Short speeches or interrupted lines tend to quicken a scene; lengthy speeches slow it down.

-Writing in a Straight Line-

Avoid “byways.” The expression “by the way” is usually the prelude to a digression, a drifting, a drifting away from the main point of the scene. If the digression is important, introduce it earlier or later; otherwise you will lose your flow–and possible your audience.

-Stepping on Laughs-

Space funny lines appropriately. Beginning comic writers often “kill” the laugh from one line by following it too quickly with another funny line. Give your audience time to laugh and to recover from laughing.

-Being Economical-

Don’t fall in love with every word. The biggest danger in scriptwriting is overwriting–writing too much dialogue. As you draft, “hear” your script. Then rewrite, eliminating words, phrases, and sentences that aren’t necessary.

If your actions are arranged in a provocative form, if your characters are distinctively characterized, if your actors create dramatic or comic tension, if the stage crew has reinforced that tension through appropriate effects–the audience should identify emotionally with the characters and understand the meaning of your play.

Step 7 — FORMATTING

TITLE

Cast of Characters

Plays vary in format, but there are some constants

-Characters & Dialogue-

Setting

Stage Directions

Before a play begins, the entire cast of characters is presented. This may take the form of a list of names only or may be supplemented with brief information about the character, such as their age, physical types, important attributes, and relationships to each other.

In the body of the play, when the character speaks, the character’s name is given, usually in capital letters, and is followed by a period or a colon.

-Act-

The beginning of the play should include a description of the setting. A playwright may go into detail about how the set should be arranged or may only indicate furnishings necessary for the action of the play. This description may be set up as a stage direction.

-Stage Directions-

Throughout the play, a playwright includes stage directions, which are indications to the director and actors about a variety of aspects of the play–generally, information on characters, how the play should proceed, how it should look, and commentary about intended moods or effects. More specifically, stage directions might include the following:

1. Descriptions of the setting or set, including lighting and sound effects.

2. Descriptions of a character, including physical type, costume, vocal tone, and attitude.

3. Notes on gestures or facial expressions.

4. Stage movements (including entrances, exits, and other blocking)

5. Focus of vocal delivery (that is, to whom the line is delivered)

In a stage play, the stage directions appear in italics or parentheses.

Thank you for reading! You can find various examples of one-act plays on Google.

Sarah O’Neill Chester County Teacher Supreme Editing