Creative writing - Mike Sanders 2014
The importance of action
The believable one-act play
Short-form genres
Of course audience attention often is fostered via action. Yet in drama, action cannot be rendered using description. This revelation seems like sacrilege for a creative writer. Writing without description? That can’t possibly be correct!
DEFINITION
Action is the manifestation of feelings and thoughts through activity.
Drama, however, is a different art form. Its needs and requirements are different from novels and short stories, especially in terms of visual images and dialogue. In a novel or short story, you might see the phrase, “He wonders if he should have stopped for beer.” Or “She’s thinking she’ll be late for her canasta game.” Such sentences are description—narrative prose, to be precise. These are fine in a novel or short story, but they don’t work as drama. Why not? Think about it. Can an actor perform them? In a film, can a camera photograph them? No. Therefore, that kind of writing does not belong in a one-act play. Description is a novelist’s tool. Dramatists need to write action.
Okay, so what is action? And how do you write it? You’re probably familiar with the film director’s clarion call, “Lights! Camera! Action!” Yet action is one of the most misunderstood terms in the playwright’s vocabulary. Often when beginners write a one-act play, their characters scramble about, seemingly very busy. Yet their story sags. It might even be dull. Why? Because, despite all the activity, there’s no real action.
In modern English, action and activity are synonyms for physical movement, and you tend to use the terms interchangeably. In drama, activity is indeed physical movement. Beyond mere motion, however, action means human behavior, including the underlying emotions and mental processes that trigger behavior.
The real test for action in plays is whether it’s behavior that actors can perform. Finally, while narrative prose tends to be written in the past tense and the third person, dramatists write action in the present tense and the first person. Characters are always in a state of “I do,” rather than “I did.”
Putting this concept into perspective, first you need to explore motivation. Most human behavior begins with a feeling, and the feeling prompts you to want something. Usually (within certain limits), you do something to get it. For example:
1. Jane feels thirsty.
2. She wants merlot.
3. She goes to the kitchen to prepare her drink.
For the most part, this process happens at the subconscious level. Still, the steps exist:
1. Feel.
2. Want.
3. Do.
Whenever you write action, remember that, despite the cliché, a picture really is worth a thousand words. You need to translate the preceding steps into activities that optically reveal feeling and wanting as well as doing. Yes, that’s tricky. But the key is to use your imagination and think about the activities people use to express feelings, needs, wants, etc.
WRITING PROMPT
Considering the example of Jane’s thirst, what activities can you write that demonstrate how she feels thirsty and wants a drink?
Of course, getting a glass of wine is simple, ordinary behavior. Unless you want the audience to start snoring, you need to charge up the action. But how? What if, when Jane enters her kitchen, she finds a man wearing a ski mask?
1. What will she feel?
2. What will she want?
3. What will she do?
Fear and anger are predictable feelings Jane might have. What kind of behavior could such feelings prompt? As a rule, the stronger the emotion, the greater the desire and the bigger the action. Small, quiet actions are fine because they offer clues about the character’s personality. For example, “Jane gasps and stares.” This reaction would mean she’s not the type to scream and run. For maximum power, however, rely on the strongest emotions: “Teeth clenched, Jane hurls her empty glass at the man and crouches into a defensive posture, fists raised.” In this version, Jane is trained in self-defense.
But what if Jane simply stands frozen? What if she screams? Those actions are behavior, too. Sometimes a character doing nothing or acting in a traditional manner has a greater impact than when they do something unique. The writer’s greatest priority is to choose behavior that’s appropriate for a specific character in a given situation. Who is your Jane?
In the preceding examples, we considered Jane’s possible actions. But how might her behavior affect the guy in the ski mask? If she screams and runs, what emotions will it spark in him? What will he want? What behavior will he show? In short, what will be his reaction?
Sir Isaac Newton noted, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” Of course, he was talking about physics. Yet surprisingly, the disciplines of physics and drama have several concepts in common. Whenever you put two or more people together, one person’s behavior invariably forces others to react. If you doubt this, walk into a crowded room and start laughing. No warning. No explanation. Just laugh. Most of the people near you will shake their heads, puzzled. Some will be embarrassed and look away. Some people will scowl. Some will get the bug and laugh with you. But they will respond somehow, believe me.
That response will be dramatic action, which simply constitutes people acting upon each other. Dramatic action always comes in two parts: action and reaction. One character’s behavior may be interesting, but by itself, it contributes little to plot development. Response from other characters, however, propels the story forward.
WRITING PROMPT
Make a list of actions and reactions you recall from books and movies that involve events and characters. Then see if any of them fit material you could use for a one-act play.
If by now you’re thinking in terms of the domino effect (another cliché, but an accurate one), you’re quite correct. Dramatic action is a point and counterpoint of behavior, one character playing off against another. Whenever one character wants something, no matter how small, and another character wants something different, they will be in conflict. Their interaction, the give-and-take between them, brings your story to life.