Writers Voice September 2011 - Fellowship of Australian Writers NSW

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Workshop WriTinG For THe STaGe Allan Mackay, President, Shoalhaven FAW Imagine an impromptu piece of theatre involving two actors, each with only one word of dialogue, a repeated ‘yes’ or ‘no’. With minimal preparation they have to present a brief drama that can be interpreted by the audience. What the actors have to use, apart from their single words, are intonation, pacing, the use of silences, facial and bodily expressions, awareness of and movement in space and in relation to each other. These are actors’ skills and if it was a complete play in a theatre, we’d have to include a director, the stage, scenery, props, lighting and sound designs plus a host of elements used in a production. This is the point: a piece of prose or a poem is born in the writer’s mind and finished alone at a desk. Research might have been involved, as well as an editor, reviewer and all those willing to chip in an opinion or two. It reaches fruition when it is read and rarely, when it is listened to. But a play script involves all those elements listed above as well as the dialogue and it doesn’t come to fruition until it happens in a theatre or some other medium. By that time, words on paper have become a visual and auditory event. Of course, students have plays inflicted on them as literature and, in a sense, this practice does a disservice to both. It follows then that writers, as they compose their scripts, must bear all these elements in mind. This doesn’t mean that he/she has to write in all the actor’s movements, intonations etc. Directors and actors would be highly insulted because that takes away their contribution to the finished play. But the elements must be borne in mind as the dialogue is written. A perfect balance has to be found between writing too much and writing not enough where there is the danger of becoming incomprehensible. But this is really a problem for all writers in all mediums. This is where subtext comes into play, that mysterious word that a good script must have and it is always mentioned by critics. Subtext is essentially what goes on in the silences between pieces of dialogue and includes the reactions of the characters on stage to what is being said by others. It provides added dimensions of thought and meaning to the action and is largely the province of the actors and the director but the written dialogue should ‘carry’, even hint at this subtext. The author has it in mind but should not feel the need to explain it all. For example, consider the famous line of Hamlet’s: ‘To be or not to be, that is the question.’ Shakespeare doesn’t feel he has to explain this and leaves it up to the people involved in the play and to the audience: to be a king killer or not? To kill himself or live? To kill Claudius now or later? In the little impromptu mentioned in the beginning, the subtext is what is going on outside the dialogue – only the writer has, in this case, been parsimonious with the script. 20 WRITERS’ VOICE 233—SEPTEMBER 2011 Image: iStockPhoto It also follows that it is a great advantage for the writer to have a firsthand knowledge of what goes on in mounting a production. Shakespeare composed a lot of his plays at the actual theatre and then workshopped them on stage before producing the finished script. Even then it was being continually developed in subsequent productions. At the very least, watching a number of plays on a variety of stage types (classical, thrust, theatreintheround etc.) is a prerequisite. Workshopping, even amongst a group of friends, is valuable in finding out sections of the script that simply don’t work when performed, though they might have worked like a dream in the playwright’s mind. Theatres often supply a skilled dramaturg to carry out this job but all directors and designers will see your precious script as merely one of the components of the whole production. Their aim is to provide an entertainment (and bums on seats) and if this involves some reshaping, tinkering or trimming of your masterpiece, so be it. Only on opening night is your play finished. If your script is designed or adapted for film, television or radio it might fall under the dictates of time available in that time slot. Finally, a little guidance for those starting out to write their first play. A full length play should run for about two hours, but remember, the theatre likes its audience to have a twentyminute interval to sell them drinks, ice creams and chocolates. It is up to you to devise the scenes, settings etc. so the designers can be let loose on it. A novel might take fivehundred pages to evolve but the drama must be mightily compressed in a play. As demonstrated in the impromptu piece, DRAMA IS CONFLICT, so begin there. It can be a conflict between people (say, a boxing match), between man and his environment (the explorer lost in the desert) or within a character’s mind (‘To be or not to be’). But the tension is increased when the two sides of the conflict are evenly balanced, either equally attractive (say, a choice between an ice cream or a chocolate at interval) or equally unattractive (go to the dentist or suffer the aching tooth). The winning of one side MUST involve the loss of the other. Lastly – and this is the most important advice – DON’T WRITE TOO MUCH! The director and his cohorts have yet to make their contribution. Besides, the audience doesn’t need to have everything explained to it – they’re intelligent and have paid for their tickets so let them draw their own conclusions – and hope like hell they’re the right ones! © Allan Mackay Visit us on the Internet at www.fawnsw.org.au
Articles Keeping The Short Story alive! Diane Fordham, Isolated Writers Ienjoy reading short stories and I enjoy writing short stories. I write because I am passionate about it. Writing puts my head in a good place. When you are passionate about something, you persevere and you never ever give up. How precious is that feeling when a publisher accepts your story? How gratifying is it when an editor feels your story is so good that they want to pay you? How exciting is it seeing your story in print and knowing so many people are going to read it? EXTREMELY! I (and I am sure there are many others) am painfully aware that the supply of stories exceeds the demand. Unless you’ve been living under a rock on a planet in a galaxy far, far away you would have noticed that we as writers have a couple of obstacles to face; not only is there the perseverance and determination needed to overcome rejection, we have also lost far too many markets (here in Australia and overseas). It is disheartening as competition to get published becomes fiercer than it has ever been. The increase in writers and the dwindling of magazines publishing stories is making it increasingly difficult to secure that elusive acceptance. What are the options? Option 1: Accept that the battle is already lost and hang up the pen. This option I would prefer other writers to take, which in theory should reduce the supply of stories therefore increasing the demand for my stories (I am joking). Option 2: Persevere. Improve your skills. Read, read, read, write, write, write and read and write some more. It’s time to raise that proverbial bar. Don’t be disheartened or panic; polish your story until it shines. Set yourself a goal to be one of those writers that other writers envy. Focus on giving your stories the edge. Write to create a story which stands out from the rest, for all the right reasons. Revise and edit until you are true to yourself and know it is a publishable story. Resubmit your stories. As I remember it was only a few weeks ago the same story I sent three times to the same publisher was finally accepted; there is always a glimmer of hope. Option 3: Be Proactive. If we write in to magazines showing an interest in reading short stories this will bring back the demand for the short story. Please show your support by writing, emailing or leaving messages on the magazines’ Facebook pages. I have joined the Facebook page: ‘Bring Back Fiction to Women’s Magazines!’. The following Australian magazines need to be reminded that we miss reading fiction in their magazines… Woman’s Day Address: GPO Box 5245, Sydney NSW 2001 Email: New Idea Address: 3551 Mitchell St, McMahons Point NSW 2060 Email: Women’s Weekly Address: GPO Box 4178, Sydney NSW 1028 I say we choose Option 2 and Option 3, because at the end of the day, despite the dwindling short story market and the mountain of rejections, we know what we want – we want to write! So, in conclusion, we need to continue to be optimistic and turn this negative into a positive by doing what we can to keep the short story alive. Expressing our interest to read stories in magazines and by using rejection to challenge ourselves to become better writers benefits us all. We are a huge voice when we stand united. I believe if we put the effort in, we will achieve positive results! We can hope, wish and some may even pray for those elusive publications, or we can do something about it – at the very least we have to try. o The Writer’s Life of interaction Susan Hourigan, Central Coast FAW W riting is a solitary life, just you and your paper and your thoughts. What a lovely picture this is, and one which I held to be true. The serenity of sitting down and having everything you need in your mind to just write. Dream on fellow writers. For the few this may be the case, but for the rest of us, there is another element of the writing life that demands we develop and widen our social networks – you guessed it, interaction. For me this lesson came as rather a shock at first. I began my writing career when I found myself at home with small children and it became nearly impossible for me to get out to do much of anything, so I decided that writing was for me. I soon realised that in order to write anything on any given topic I needed to acquire the information – forget shyness, if I wanted the story I had to find it. Like an amateur I mucked around at first, writing letters to the editor and simple fillers for the local newspaper. But then as I got better acquainted with the process of interaction my research turned into a wonderful life of liaising with editors, interviewing professionals and sharing ideas and triumphs with other writers. Interaction frequently starts with the editors, extremely busy people who seem to hold your tender emotions in the palm of their hand. Approaching them was one of the biggest hurdles I had to jump over early on in my writing career. Questions like, do I send a query or do I just write the article and hope for the best, kept me awake at night. That was until I found the book titled The Writers Market Place, a wonderful tool. Like a crystal ball into editors’ wants and needs. When you know what editors want they become a lot less daunting to deal with. These men and women process hundreds of query letters and have to decide which ones to keep and which ones to reject, so it gives you a head start to know what they need. Next in line of people who should be considered very important are the librarians. They are skilled at their cont. next page… Visit us on the Internet at www.fawnsw.org.au WRITERS’ VOICE 233—SEPTEMBER 2011 21
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Page 5 and 6: Sydney Harbour Bridge’! Twice a s
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Page 13 and 14: sizes, margins, headers and footers
Page 15 and 16: elected Vice Presidents with Marjor
Page 17 and 18: Helen and Johan with members of the
Page 19: Competition Results results: eastwo
Page 23 and 24: Jacqui Winn: 2nd prize Brighton Com
Page 25 and 26: FAW Members’ Bookshelf ALEESAh DA
Page 27 and 28: WATERLINE WRITING COMPETITION cont.
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Page 31 and 32: PorT STePHenS FaW 3rd Thursday - 10

Writers Voice September 2011 - Fellowship of Australian Writers NSW

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