This document provides an agenda and materials for an English writing class. It includes assignments due, writing exercises, discussion of short plays, and terms related to writing drama. Students created characters and were instructed to sort them into potential ten-minute plays. The lecture covered how to write short plays, including focusing on a clear theme, avoiding unnecessary exposition, ensuring all details advance the plot, and including a climax. Students were given potential character combinations and plot ideas to develop into short plays for homework.

1. EWRT 30
EWRT 30 Class 17
CLASS 17

2. AGENDA
 Project #3 Due
 Writing Exercise
 New Groups 3-5
 Terms 10-18
 Discussion: Short Plays
 Lecture:
 Guided Writing

3. CREATE A CHARACTER
EXERCISE
Get out two pieces of paper.
Create two complete characters, one on each piece of paper.
Do not put your name on the paper.

4. NAME: BETSY CARBEANOR
Age: 25
Height: 5'5
Weight: 105 lbs
Hair Color: Red
Hair Style: Pony Tail
Uses: Glasses
Eyes: Green
Skin: Tan/Smooth
Wears: Jeans & Tank Tops
Lives in: Seattle,
Washington
Hometown: Everett,
Washington
Job: File Clerk at Court
House
Likes: Puppies
Dislikes: Horror Movies
Needs: A New Shower Curtain
Biggest Vice: Ice Cream
Strength: Generosity
Weakness: Too Trusting
Others would describe as: a very
bubbly personality, always willing to
help
One Childhood Memory: Her dad
bought her a balloon at a fair, and it
flew away into the sky
Deepest Desire: To become a great
novel writer
Biggest Secret: Closet Pot Smoker

5. NAME: HENRY HOBSON
Age: 14
Height: 5'9
Weight: 150 lbs
Hair Color: Brown
Hair Style: Shaggy
Uses: Anxiety Medication
Eyes: Hazel
Skin: Black
Wears: Dress pants and vestsweaters
Lives in: South Park, Colorado
Hometown: Ephrata,
Washington
Job: Student
Likes: Physics
Dislikes: Art
Needs: More friends
Biggest Vice: Keeps to himself to
much
Strength: Extremely smart
Weakness: Social anxiety
Others would describe as: Keeps to
himself mostly, bit of a nerd
One childhood Memory: In 4th grade
the school bully stuffed him in his
locker
Deepest Desire: To have one friend
who truly understands him
Biggest Secret: Thinks he might be
gay

6. Name:
Age:
Height:
Weight:
Hair Color:
Hair Style:
Uses:
Eyes:
Skin:
Wears:
Lives in:
Hometown:
Job:
Likes:
Dislikes:
Needs:
Biggest Vice:
Strength:
Weakness:
Others would describe as:
One Childhood Memory:
Deepest Desire:
Biggest Secret:

7. NEW GROUPS
Get into new groups for your final project.
Remember the rules:
1.
You must change at least 50% of your team
after each project is completed.
2.
You may never be on a team with the same
person more than twice.
3.
You may never have a new team composed of
more than 50% of any prior team.

8. THE REVIEW

9. 10. THEME
11. COMPLICATION
12. DIALOGUE
13. DICTION
14. TRAGEDY
15. TRAGIC FLAW
16. CUE
17. SOLILOQUY
18. ASIDE
TERMS 10-18

10. 10. Theme
The idea of a literary work abstracted from its details of
language, character, and action, and cast in the form of a
generalization.
10. Complication
An intensification of the conflict in a story or play.
Complication builds up, accumulates, and develops the
primary or central conflict in a literary work.
11. Dialogue
The conversation of characters in a literary work. In
fiction, dialogue is typically enclosed within quotation
marks. In plays, characters' speech is preceded by their
names.

11. 13. Diction
The selection of words in a literary work. A work's
diction forms one of its centrally important literary
elements, as writers use words to convey action,
reveal character, imply attitudes, identify themes, and
suggest values.
13. Tragedy
a drama where the hero loses.
15. Tragic flaw
a mistaken action or defect in character. In modern
tragedy, the hero can be an ordinary person destroyed
by an evil force in society.

12. 16. Cue
a signal for an actor to enter or to speak.
17. Soliloquy
A long speech in a play that is meant to be heard by the
audience but not by other characters (there generally
aren’t any others on stage). The soliloquy represents the
character thinking aloud. Hamlet's "To be or not to be"
speech is an example.
18. Aside
Words spoken by an actor directly to the audience,
which are not "heard" by the other characters on stage
during a play. In Shakespeare's Othello, Iago voices his
inner thoughts a number of times as "asides" for the
play's audience.

13. DISCUSSION
SUBJECT
Writing Drama

14. TEN-MINUTE PLAYS
Ten-minute plays have become very popular in
recent years with the advent of The Actors Theatre
of Louisville contest. A good ten-minute play is not
a sketch or an extended gag, but rather a
complete, compact play, with a beginning, middle
and end. It typically takes place in one scene and
runs no more than ten pages.

15. BUT HOW DO
WE WRITE
ONE?
I AM SO GLAD YOU ASKED!

16. 1 Know what your play is about. This will
keep your characters on track and give
your play a sense of unity.
2 Avoid exposition. Dive into your story;
after all, you have a ten minute
limit. Beginning this way offers a puzzle for
your audience to unravel. Remember—we
are fascinated by the unknown!
3 Connect every detail to the action of the
play. There is no time for extraneous
dialogue. Nothing is random. If you are
writing a play about murder, when the
curtain goes up, there should be a body on
the stage.

17. 4 Write character dialogue that moves the play forward.
All characters have an agenda of sorts. That makes them
interesting. Keep your characters talking in ways that
further their own interests and desires.
4 Write your characters to be real. Real characters are
excessive in some areas and deficient in others. They are
nice sometimes and angry at other times.
5 Don’t waste time talking about anything you can show
easily. Images are more powerful than words. Think about
how to communicate through images and props.

18. 7 Every protagonist must have a journey. He or she should
end up someplace (physically, emotionally, or spiritually)
radically different from where s/he began.
7 Write in a point of no return. Once the protagonist crosses
the line, there is no turning back!
7 Do not let your characters off too easy!
If you do, their journey won’t be significant.
They may escape with their lives—but just
barely!

19. 10 Use a universal theme in your script. This
allows readers to relate to your world.
10 Include a climax so the audience is rewarded for
their attention.
10 Bring every detail together in the end. You must
get the reader back to the “body”!

20. GUIDED WRITING
Let’s try this

21. WITH YOUR GROUP MATES, SORT THROUGH THE
CHARACTERS YOU WROTE EARLIER.
 Check for combinations of characters that fit together in some way.
 Search for a protagonist and an antagonist.
 Do you have a hero? An antihero?
What genre might your
characters fit?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Mystery
Romance
Science Fiction/Fantasy
Suspense/Thriller
Western
Horror
Young Adult
Do your characters call to mind a
basic plot?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Overcoming the Monster
Rags to Riches
The Quest
Voyage and Return
Comedy
Tragedy
Rebirth

22. CONSIDER THESE
POSSIBILITIES
Write about someone who goes to such lengths to
impress, or get attention, that he or she goes one
step too far.
Write about an encounter or incident on someone's
first visit to either a big city or the country.
Write about a car accident with an odd, difficult, or
interesting outcome.
Use a song or book title to inspire your story.
Use a newspaper or magazine story to inspire you.

23. HOMEWORK
Study Terms 1-18
Work on your Play