10 minute play formula/ brainstorming

You will need a premise: the organizing theme or idea that defines everything in the play. A good premise will indicate an interesting inciting incident to help you start off your drama with some effective action or conflict, and will carry you through to the end of your play. The things to remember about 10-minute plays is that they are similar to short stories:

• They have a premise
• They have a dramatic situation (setting, characters in action, & a complication)
• They have a beginning, middle, and end
• They have a tight structure (most never change scene or setting)
• They are at most 10 pages long.
• There are usually fewer than four characters. Often two or three at most.
• The beginning of the play starts at a very early POINT OF ATTACK.
• By the end of the first page or the top of the second the argument or conflict has been presented.
• The play usually has only one conflict and one plot line.
• There is not much exposition (in other words, very little in the way of introduction). By the middle of the first page, exposition has been stated (we know the setting, characters, and conflict). 
• The end of the play falls very close to the climax. Only a few lines are devoted to resolution.
• Most plays deal with the exceptionally brief, but powerful moment in a character's life.

Take ideas from your journal, reading, or handouts, or your own memory & imagination.



Brainstorming:

If you were going to die tomorrow, and this play includes your last words to the human race, what MUST you say before you go? Make a list of things you HAVE to say to the world.

Make a list of common, ordinary settings. Make a list of uncommon or unusual settings.

Jot down time periods that interest you. Choose a time period other than our contemporary period.

Make a list of secrets that people you don't know have. Assume a good friend told you these secrets. What are the secrets?

Think of a memory or experience you hold dear. Why is this memory so powerful? Why do you keep going back to it? Is it something you may be able to develop into a play? Is it something that might be universally understood?

What's the best advice you've ever received? At what point in your life did you receive this advice and why? Can this advice be universally meaningful? Since taking the advice, how has your life changed?

The names of characters often help an actor or viewer understand something about that character. Some names are suited to royalty, while others are clearly of the lower or working classes. A name gives a character a personality long before one is developed in a script. As a writer, it is important to gather as many interesting and useful names as you can. You will use these names later in this course.

In your journal/notebook, list a series of names that would be appropriate for each category. Try to get at least 5 names for each topic (you may come up with more than five, if you'd like):

1. Male protagonist or hero names
2. Female protagonist or heroine names
3. Villain or antagonist names
4. Names of old people
5. Names of young people
6. Names from the 1920's (you may do as many decades as you'd like)
7. Names of Roman soldiers or their wives
8. Names of Europeans (you may pick a country or two, but please label or identify the country)
9. Names of ambiguous gender (names that can either be male or female)
10. Names that make you laugh

The essential building blocks of a scene (even in fiction or poetry):
A. Who: the characters
B. Where: the setting
C. What: the dominant image you hold in your mind (like a theme or main idea)

Writing Activity:
1. Write 3 WHO's in your journal/notebook
2. Write 3 WHERE's in your journal/notebook
3. Write 3 WHAT's in your journal/notebook