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five STEPS TO WRITE A FANTASTIC DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE
HOW TO CAPTURE YOUR AUDIENCE ATTENTION AND MAKE THEM INVEST IN YOUR CHARACTERS VOICE WRITTEN BY KELSEY CROMWELL
09/07/2020
THE IMPORTANCE OF A SINGLE CHARACTERS VOICE
Monologues have lots of beneficial use to actors as well as writers, often they’re used for self-tapes as they’re perfect for flaunting their dramatic acting ability. Writers can practice the art of monologue-writing in order to perfect their craft, such as the slow revealing of information to keep the audience hooked until the end of the monologue.
WHAT IS A MONOLOGUE?
A monologue is a dramatic performance of speech by an actor expressing a situation in a character’s life that they can’t keep to themselves anymore. It’s could be described as discovering the story of a character through the inside of their mind being revealed to the audience.
A monologue can be anything from a single page or perhaps twenty. There isn’t particularly a limit to how long a monologue can be, but it will most likely prove difficult to rely purely on the actor’s portrayal of words to keep the audience hooked into a longer monologue.
STEP ONE : DEFINE YOUR CHARACTER
Before starting your monologue, you must know your protagonist through and through. If you have an idea of how they are feeling and what they are thinking at the particular moment of the monologue, this will help when it comes to creating the dialogue and making these expressing these two aspects to the audience.
If the protagonist is going to be at break point, they can’t bottle up their problems anymore, something (or a series of events) must have happened to lead the protagonist here. Make sure you know as much detail of these life events as possible, and bear in mind that they must be immense, dramatic events that are enough to create a turning point for the protagonist.
For instance, the more difficult time the protagonist is having, the more believable the monologue will be, and the audience will be more invested in the story and journey.
WHO ARE THEY TALKING TO?
Another key element to a monologue is that the character is not speaking to anyone. It’s quite difficult to create a believable set up for the monologue without including another character, however it can be done as the character could be speaking to inanimate objects or something that is incapable of responding.
- A few example monologue scenarios:
- A character speaking into a mirror.
- A character speaking to a gravestone.
- A character speaking to an animal.
- A character speaking to an image.
The scenario should be relevant to the story, the beats in the story should make sense as to how the character has led to this monologue.
EXAMPLE :
In the example I will discuss the creative choices in the process to hopefully make it more clear how to write a dramatic monologue and the aspects that need to be considered.
The image is a snippet from a monologue I wrote. The protagonists’ story is that he struggled with his childhood: his parents died when he was young, him and his younger sister went into care but until then he protected her with his life, their foster Father ruined their lives and killed his sister. Since then, the protagonist would use his ability to sketch as a coping mechanism, until it became a career for him which left him with guilt and his coping mechanism was no longer the same.
In the image, the protagonist is speaking to a sketch of his sister that he did shortly after her death, which he always keeps with him. This adds to the believability of the monologue, for instance, is the protagonist was speaking to his kitchen sink then this wouldn’t have the same effect. Also, since the inanimate object is something personal to the protagonist, this benefits the likelihood of an emotional response from the audience.
I wanted my monologue to seem slightly poetic, so I used natural imagery and personification mainly for the description of his sister. However, this isn’t a necessity for the writing of a monologue- the language can be informal and casual too.
An element that makes a monologue more dramatic is to slowly reveal information rather than making the audience all caught up after the first few sentences. In the example, the protagonist makes it immediately clear that their parents have passed away, then the tone shifts to a suggestion of hope when he describes the potential his sister had.
He keeps it withheld that his sister is dead, he doesn’t say it, however it is suggested to keep the audience engaged.
STEP TWO : STRUCTURE
I suppose, a monologue is just like a story that is gradually unfolding to the audience. It will consist of a beginning, middle, and end.
THE BEGINNING- Personally, I believe that the beginning should provide context to the audience. Bring them up to speed with what has happened within the situation that has led the character to this point. An important point to make though about providing the context, try not to make it ‘on the nose’, or as if the character is having a gossip with the neighbour. For instance, if the example monologue were to open with, “I remember when our parents died, we cried so much. Little sister, you sure were little back then…” (get the gist?) With it being ‘on-the-nose’ and quicker to the point in a more blunt style, it removes the drama. In this example, the subtleness of imagery was used, saying the words… without actually saying them, this adds to the drama as the audience have to invest more to understand.
THE MIDDLE
Again, I find that the middle works best as the peak of drama. To heighten the drama, make it clear how the character feels at this point. If they’re at the point of having a breakdown alone in the mirror- they have to be containing some pretty intense emotions. Show this. Illustrate them at the cliff of their anger, make the audience question whether the character is going to step back or jump off.
THE END
How a story ends is entirely up to the preference of the writer. There are many options, in the example (the full version) I decided to leave the ending with the suggestion of hope, that the character will gain justice and closure over his sister’s death. Ending your monologue with hope is a measure that can add to the drama, if your audience are invested and rooting for this character, the idea of hope could create an emotional response from the audience- which is a pay off for the built-up drama. Of course though, there are other ways to create your endings for a dramatic monologue:
STEP THREE : CREATE A CLIFFHANGER
Classic. A typical ‘Eastenders duff-duff’ direction. This creates drama and tension if the monologue has built up a suggestion of an event, and leaves the audience wondering ‘will they or won’t they?’ If a character spends the monologue venting their long-term hatred for their stepmother, with gory imagery and aggressive language, even a suggestion of killing her, if the monologue is left with, “And then… I did it.” But the sentence doesn’t continue, the audience are left hanging on whether ‘it’ was the killing of the stepmother. The drama pays off in their wanting to know the answer.
STEP FOUR : define THE EQUILIBRIUM
A lot of dramatic pay offs come from happy endings. First, I’ll expand on ‘Equilibrium,’ as it’s quite an unusual word to come across. Equilibrium is the state of balance, it doesn’t just apply to film or writing, but everything in life. An audience can become invested through hearing the full cycle of a story. For instance, if a monologue is reminiscent of an anecdote, they hear how the story begins with an equilibrium, then this becomes disturbed, but then reaches a new equilibrium. Due to the drama created when the equilibrium was disturbed, this creates a pay off when a new one is reached.
step five : leave room for QUESTIONING
A major factor of a monologue is that they’re rather intimate and personal. Really, it’s just the audience and character, alone, as the character releases inner thoughts and feelings. Imagine, the character is speaking directly to the camera (perhaps the scenario is that they’re recording a message for a loved one to watch in the future) if the audience are invested enough then they will be listening intently. At the end, the character may have explained a scenario they’re struggling with, and at the end they looking directly at the camera, directly at the audience, and say- “What would you do?” This would open up a tunnel of thought for the audience, placing them personally in that situation and building up drama even after the monologue.
There are tonnes of other creative ways to end a monologue. The best way to learn and spark creativity is by watching.
SCREAMWRITER contains links to popular monologues such as:
Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads- but I’ll attach a direct link from BBC iPlayer into this article as well:
Watch, be inspired, give it a go!
SOME HELPFUL MONOLOGUE RESOURCES
THE DARKEST HOUR
MOVIECLIPS