Skills: Playscripts

Inventing Characters Read! Journal Word Notebook

Choosing Titles The Fab Four Golden Rules Generating Ideas Stealing Ideas From an Idea to a Plan Planning from a Picture Stories Based on a Passage Stories Based on a Sentence An Example of Good Planning

Describing a Location Longer descriptions Describing a character's appearance Dialogue Distinctive Voices Show, Don't Tell Characterisation: Shown Feelings More Characterisation Techniques Playing with Sentences Playscripts Action Suspense

What is story structure? 1 Exciting opening line 2 Set the scene 3 Talking and describing character 4 Characterisation 5 Suspense 6 Action 7 Cliffhanger Standing Out: How can you stand out from the crowd? Clever Clogs: Non-Linear Clever-clogs: Two perspectives Clever-clogs: Narrative voice Practice 11+ exam titles

Checking your story in an exam Redrafting = improving your story What if I run out of time in an exam? The Grumpy Examiner's Pet Hates

Year 2 into 3 Lemony Snicket After Harry Potter Must-Read Authors Spy Novels Horror Stories Classics Animal Stories Adventure Historical Fiction Myths & Legends Fantasy Family Stories & Comedies

A playscript is the ‘script’ you work from when you produce a play, obviously! A playscript is different from a piece of fiction (a story). Playscripts tell a story through what the characters say.

Don’t you love plays? Whether you’re acting your socks off, or sitting in the audience, there is nothing better than enjoying a play. All plays begin with a script. The script tells the actors what to say, and gives them some ideas on where to stand and how to act.

There are rules about the layout of a playscript:

1. Plan your playscript just like any other story. Think about the location, your characters, and what the conflict in your play is going to be.
2. Write out the name of the speaker in CAPITALS in the margin and follow it with a colon (:).
3. Write out the speech without speech marks.
4. Include stage directions in brackets, and underline them.
5. If the location changes, then start a new scene (imagine stage hands having to come on and move props and scenery. A change of scene tells them when to do it!)

BALD WORM: (Smiling and waving his hands) You don’t need speech marks in a playscript!

SALLY : (Frowning) No speech marks? Okay, boss!

BALD WORM: Remember, you’ve got to tell the story through what your
characters say.

SALLY: So I can’t include descriptions? That sounds hard!

BALD WORM: (Shaking his head) No! Plays are fun to write, because you
have to think about telling the story through speech alone.

Write a playscript for the title: An Unwelcome Guest. Don’t forget to set it out correctly and include some longer speeches! Feeling clever? Try giving one of your characters a distinctive voice!

Last updated on August 13, 2007