OCT
6

Helping Students Find Their Voice, Part 2

By Flip Kobler and Cindy Marcus 

In part 1 we discussed how to help your students find their stories to write about and get something on paper.  Now, we’ll share how we help shape this writing into effective monologues and scenes.

In our experience, the questions that follow help students craft the best piece possible.

Did you rant?

Uff da, this is a biggie.  Rants are useful things.  And we highly suggest using them as a first draft.  It gets the poison out, it puts on paper all the inner voices, and it lays out a problem.  Life’s not fair, and we get that.  But then we need to do more.

Can you use the 180 rule?

That is, can you tell your story from the opposite position?

Huh?  What does that even mean?

It means that sometimes a story can have more impact if you champion the opposing point of view than the one you’re trying to make.  For example:

We have a short scene from one of our shows about a girl in high school.  She’s smart, pretty, has a great singing voice, and she just wants to fit in.  Through the story we learn that she doesn’t work to her potential because “smart girls aren’t popular.”  So she gets mediocre grades.  And if she’s too pretty, other girls will find that threatening, so she downplays her looks and wears clothes that don’t flatter her much.  She’s given up on her true love of singing because the other girls think she’s showing off.  Thematically, this poor girl is stripping herself of everything that makes her wonderful, just to fit in.

But here’s the kicker.

In this scene, she loves that.  The fact that she wants to sacrifice herself on the altar of popularity really hits the audience with a sucker punch.  We took our theme of “Don’t sacrifice yourself to fit in,” and turned it 180 degrees.  Opposites can be a very powerful message delivery system.

Can you write the scene from somebody else’s point of view? 

Sometimes the most effective tool a storyteller has is to simply tell the tale from someone else’s perspective.  In our example above, can you tell the same story from the POV of the girl’s mother?  Brother?  One of the popular girls?

Is it relatable?

Intellectual concepts and mind-bending plots are awesome, but unless you’re Tom Stoppard, it’s really hard to make those entertaining.

There’s an old adage in screenwriting:  “Nobody cares that your characters cross the bridge.  What we care about is how they feel about crossing the bridge.”  And that is the core of all writing.  Emotions are everything.

Student writers tend to focus on lists.  They list the things that make them angry, instead of talking about why it makes them angry, or even more importantly, how that anger affects their real lives.  Telling the audience you’re afraid of COVID is relatable.  Most people are.  But telling how you’re afraid because you’re scared of losing your grandma to COVID, showing what she means to you, what you fear your life will be without her — now you have a personal story everyone can relate to.

In order to stay relatable and put the right focus on the emotions, you might try one of the above two tips and flip that story 180 degrees or try a different perspective.  Or go 180 on the style.  Instead of talking about how afraid you are of losing Grandma, can you make this a comedy piece of donning protective hazmat gear including gloves, facemask, and goggles, while dousing yourself with sanitizer, all in an effort to spare Grandma from COVID?  That’s something we can all relate to!  We’ve all had to mask up, glove up, sanitize up.  Taking this to the nth degree is a funny way of dealing with a very serious, sober topic, yet it very effectively communicates your fear.

So focus on emotion, not ideas.  It keeps it relatable. 

Who are you talking to?

The person you’re talking to informs what you’re saying.  You speak differently to your great Uncle Charlie than you do to your favorite teacher or your little sister.

Knowing who you’re talking to, and just as importantly, why (there’s that question again), significantly defines and shapes a monologue or scene.  This information should be revealed early so that the audience has the proper context in which to listen.

Is there a solution?

Pointing out a problem is fine, but you can leave a more lasting impression if you offer a solution to that problem.  But here’s the good news:  the solution doesn’t have to be practical or sane.  Or even appropriate.  But offering a solution changes the way an audience relates to a monologue or scene.

Let’s take a basic problem, like Jimmy can’t get a date for prom.  Okay, can be interesting, but nothing unique or necessarily memorable here.  But what if the scene presented a solution?  Experiment with varying the solution to change both the direction and the tone of the monologue or scene.

SOLUTION:  Jimmy needs to take a long hard look at how he treats girls.  (Ooh, a dramatic piece!)

Or...

SOLUTION:  Jimmy needs to change everything about himself.  (A slapstick comedy as Jimmy tries on new clothes, hats, new teeth, new hair.  Does he even explore having his liver removed because he read somewhere girls don’t like liver?)

Or...

SOLUTION:  Let’s get rid of all the boys in school so Jimmy can get a date without competition.

None of the solutions has to be right, or even viable.  The point here is to entertain while really making your audience think about the problem.

And there you have it.  Six questions that we hope will help you inspire young writers to pen and perform their own monologues and scenes.  This odd, uncomfortable school year is the perfect time to explore this new world.  Help your students get it on paper.  Just start writing.  It doesn’t have to be perfect.  Or great.  Or even good on that first draft.  They can fix anything, but they can’t fix nothing.  What matters is that it comes from them.  What our young generation has to say, matters.  Let’s help them find their voice.

Meantime, get out there and break some legs.