This post will offer some guidance to help you respond to the following Spellbinder Instagram prompt, and will be especially useful for script writers.
Write a scene or a script about a modern witch or wizard. Explore this unusual character, their dreams and fears, and how they navigate the world. Delve into the stark contrast between their outer and inner life.
Suggestions for Script Writers
It is Halloween season, so what better time than to write about witches and wizards? These characters have been the protagonists of many notable books, films and television series, most notably Harry Potter. Now it’s your chance to create your own character…
Divide your page into two columns, one for the outer and one for the inner life of your character. Once you have added some ideas to these columns, you can begin to think about how these character traits may come out through dialogue and mannerisms. Scripts have very limited description and therefore you have to use every opportunity to say as much as possible with a few simple and natural gestures.
The second thing you can explore on your planning page is your character’s dreams and fears. For this, I recommend using spider diagrams. Begin to consider how these ambitions and anxieties might become manifest within a plot line. Unless you are writing a monologue, we do not typically get the internal thoughts of characters in drama, so you need to find other ways of providing this information. How do they say a particular line on screen? Where do they look on stage? How might all of these aspects contribute to conveying the emotions of hope associated with dreaming and anxiety associated with fearing?
You might also find it fun to write some spells of your own. Experiment with rhyming and riddling. You might decide to use one of these unusual lines in your scene.
Lastly, remember you writing for a performance. Having a vivid idea about how your script will come to life on the stage or screen is essential for great script-writing. In order to visualize this more clearly, why not have a go at dressing up for Halloween yourself? Perhaps you could test out some lines of your dialogue on trick or treaters at your door. Immerse yourself in the pumpkins, black cats, cobwebs, cauldrons, broomsticks and wands of witchcraft and wizardry, and you might just find it easier to transform your ideas into scenes for the stage and screen.
We would love to hear about your witches and wizards. Comment below!
Amber Kennedy, Editor-in-chief
Photo by RODNAE Productions from Pexels