Watch the stages to help with your pages!
How can theater, acting, and the stage help your writing? Acting and writing are so incredibly similar. Two different ways of storytelling.
Obviously, I’m not the first person to connect or compare the two but I enjoyed
looking at one to help reinforce the other. It’s another way to help wrap our
brains around making stories and hopefully, increase our abilities, right?
In the podcast Writing Excuses, season 3 episode 14, Mary
Robinette Kowal talks about puppetry and what the five principles of puppetry and how they apply to writing.
Go here to listen to the actual podcast…
Here is my lengthy summary and sometimes my
own words/thoughts added in…
Mary Robinette Kowal - The 4 Principles of Puppetry
1.
Focus –
Focus indicates thought. What you show the audience is what they have
to think about. You can only show them one thing at a time. So, what you are
having your audience focus on (or what your puppet/character focuses on) needs
to be the most important thing happening at that moment.
2.
Breath or rhythm –
indicates emotion. In puppetry, how you breathe
indicates what is going on. A sigh can indicate love or frustration. Panting
can indicate physical exhaustion or excitement. When you write, the rhythm you
use can help create the pacing AND the tone of the story. For example, if you
use short, choppy sentences, you are going to create a faster pacing and
rhythm.
3.
Muscle –
Muscle creates the illusion that a puppet (or
character) is moving on their own. If the audience can see the
puppeteer (aka author), then their suspension of disbelief is ruined. So you
need your characters to have solid motivation. Actions and reactions need to
happen because that is what the character would naturally do, not because it’s
what the plot requires. Also, you need to consider what the physical
consequences are to your setting. Make sure it makes sense to have things
located in their proper places. Mary gives the example of having a tannery in
the middle of a village. It wouldn’t happen because the uric acid being dumped
into the streams would drive the neighbors in the village crazy. An author
shouldn’t plan something like that (having a tanner in the middle of a village)
just for convenience.
4.
Meaningful movement –
your body language and
movement needs to have a purpose. In puppetry, bobbing a head every time it speaks
conveys no information. If a character picks up a water glass, there has to be
a reason to go for the water glass at that moment – either emotional content,
plot content, or some other meaning. Mary gives the following example:
“I don’t like what you’re saying to me.” She looked away from him. “I don’t
understand it at all.”
This is not
meaningful movement. What is she looking at?
“I don’t like what you’re saying to me.” She fiddled with the knife on
the table. “I don’t understand it.”
Here, that fiddling with the
knife on the table immediately starts to tell you what she’s thinking about. If
she’s going from her thoughts to ‘I need to play with this knife. . . ‘ Much
more meaningful movement.
5. Practice -
I’m not sure if they didn’t get to the fifth
principle or what but the last thing mentioned was a writing prompt. So, I’m
going to say that the fifth principle is to PRACTICE which obviously translates
into writing.
All of her thoughts on puppetry led me to think about the
stage and theater and how those things can relate to writing. For example…
Blocking
Blocking is a term used
both on the stage and on the page.
a.
In theater, the definition is the movement and/or
positions the director determines for proper dramatic effect.
b.
In a book, it is placement of characters in the
scene.
When you are blocking a scene on
stage, there are a few important basic elements to try to remember…
1.
You should be able to see all of the characters
on the stage during a scene. Not necessarily all at the same time, but all of
the characters on the stage need to be important to the scene otherwise, what’s
the point of even being there. So, they should be viewed by the audience at
some point. Similarly, when writing a scene in a book, every character needs to
have a purpose. For example, say J.K. Rowling was to write a scene in potions
class. Obviously, any student in the scene would have a purpose because they
are actually taking the class but if she then threw in say, Hagrid, he would
need to have a reason to be there. He shouldn’t be there just because Jo (can I
call you Jo?) likes the character of Hagrid. Also, it would be odd if the scene
focuses on Harry alone and the other students are never even mentioned when he
and they are all supposed to be in class. Not that this scene could never happen, but hopefully, you see my
point.
2.
The blocking should help feature the correct
actors at the appropriate moments.
There are so many ways to feature
actors on stage. It can be done with lighting, or by everyone else on stage
looking at the featured actor, or by movement, or even by just locating the
actor center stage. BUT, if the director doesn’t choose the correct blocking,
the whole mood and meaning of the scene can be ruined. Likewise when writing, the appropriate characters should be featured at the appropriate times. This
one seems like a no-brainer, but I have read things in the past and wondered
because the scene to me would come across much stronger if it was from a
different point of view or if the author had focused on a different character.
3.
Blocking should create a stage picture.
At any point during the show, you
should be able to take a picture of the actors on the stage and be able to tell
what the actors are doing without explanation. (Just a side note – I love this
because I happen to adore doing stage photography. It’s one of my hobbies
besides writing.) Directors work to make sure actors are at different heights,
different poses, and in different locations to help create interest, mood, and
emotion. There are many ways to liken this in your writing. One obvious way is
to vary your settings, another is to make sure your characters are unique to
each other and not just in the way they look but also in their movement,
habits, flaws, and strengths. Take into consideration what angle your audience is viewing the
scene and how might they get the best advantage for the action. Creating “stage
pictures” in your writing can polish your scenes.
Ok. I think I probably could go on and on and this is only
ONE stage term. There’s also casting, directing, exposition, masking, the
proscenium arch, run time, etc, etc.
Next time you go to a theater production, take time to
recognize the story-telling aspects that you can use to improve your own
writing. I’m sure you’ll come away from the stage with plenty to use on your page.
