How to write a script?

Script is a literary factor of drama, and it is a literary script performed by actors on the stage. It is the foundation of drama, and it is the foundation of a drama. Let me introduce how to write the script of the play, hoping to help you. Welcome to read!

How to write a drama script and choose a drama theme.

In the face of colorful real life, how to choose the material needed for drama? The selection of drama should meet the general requirements of the selection of drama and the special requirements of drama style.

1. General requirements for material selection

Choose the theme that the author is most familiar with, deeply felt, thoroughly understood and of great social significance.

We should choose the subjects that the masses care about at present.

2. Choose a theme that conforms to the law of drama.

(1) Grasp the characters and the theme.

Drama must use the characters' own words and actions to express their own personality characteristics and psychological activities, so the selection of drama materials should first pay attention to the characters with distinctive personalities, and the characters should have strong actions and be able to express their own personality through actions.

Every character is acting steadfastly to achieve his clear goals. What the characters think and say is to do, and this kind of "action" promotes the change of things and constitutes a dramatic action.

(2) Choose those characters and events that can cause personality collision, which constitutes a dramatic conflict. People with different thoughts and personalities, especially those with opposite world views, will inevitably have conflicts if they act stubbornly according to their own agreements and wishes. Hegel said: "Because conflicts generally need to be solved as the result of the struggle of opposites, situations full of conflicts are particularly suitable as the object of drama."

Choose people and things whose actions are developing and whose personality conflicts and twists and turns. Specifically, according to the logic of the contradictory development of things, we should choose a few small twists and turns, gradually develop into a big fundamental turning point, reflect the great development of things, and form a simple and changeable action process.

③ The materials selected according to the above rules must be suitable for stage performance.

Create dramatic characters

When writing a script, we should not only pay attention to choosing characters with distinctive personality and strong action, but also master some skills to write the characters vividly.

1. It is the most vivid and effective way to depict people through actions.

The actions mentioned here include the body movements, language movements and inner movements of the characters.

Engels said:

A good character is not only reflected in what he does, but also in how he does it; From this point of view, I think that if people are distinguished in a more antagonistic way, the basic ideological content will not be destroyed. "

In all literary works, the character's own behavior is the most important means to describe the character. This is especially important in drama, because action is especially suitable for stage art.

Sometimes a vivid action is better than many lines, which not only clearly shows the character, but also leaves an indelible impression on the audience.

The movements of characters can be divided into big movements, small movements and detailed movements. Generally speaking, in a play, each character has only one or two main actions, which often play a decisive role in expressing the essence of characters' thoughts and personalities, and are often arranged at the turning point or climax of plot development. But the big movements of the characters are not sudden, but the inevitable result of the gradual development of a series of small moves. Therefore, in terms of artistic conception, according to the respective personalities of different roles, around the central event of the whole drama, an action line is designed for each role, which is caused by many actions. Only by following this line of action can we deeply reveal the essential characteristics of the characters' ideological character and create a vivid stage image.

Revealing the character can also be achieved through some detailed actions. Sometimes, such detailed actions may not be directly related to the theme and drama conflict, but they are very useful for portraying characters.

2. Focus on revealing the inner world of the characters and endow them with strong emotional color.

He once said:

"As a drama creator, I have fallen in love with the role over the years. I have always thought that writing plays is mainly about writing people; Thinking about how to describe the characters. When describing characters, it is important to reveal their inner world-thoughts and feelings. The movements, development and endings of the characters all come from this. "

In drama, the psychological description of characters can neither rely on the author's description or inner analysis like novels, nor rely entirely on the monologue of characters, but mainly reveal their inner activities through their language actions. The following points can be considered:

He is good at putting characters in the whirlpool of feelings, which constitutes the conflict of characters' own personalities. For example, in Guo Moruo's historical drama Cai Wenji, the author put Cai Wenji on his way home and suffered from emotional suffering.

Being good at configuring various complex relationships between characters is an indispensable condition for revealing the rich inner world of characters.

Set off the main characters by the minor characters.

Carefully arrange the dramatic characters

Drama structure is a form of drama existence composed of plot, scene and other drama elements. It mainly includes the arrangement of the plot and the handling of the scene. Due to the strict limitation of time and space, the artistic structure of drama is particularly important compared with other literary styles.

The arrangement of drama plot

1. The composition of the drama plot

Drama plot generally refers to the development process of life events and conflicts formed by various relationships between characters and between characters and environment in works.

The action and development of the characters are the external forms of the drama plot; The motivation and development of the characters' actions are the potential driving force of the drama plot. So some people think that the plot of a drama is composed of intention, the means to realize intention and the outcome of these means. In different styles of drama, some pay attention to the external force of action (such as sitcom) and some pay attention to the depth of psychology (such as psychodrama).

The plot of a drama is composed of successive scenes.

Scene is the basic unit of plot development.

The plot develops with the change of scene.

The most important function of drama plot in works is to serve the display of characters' personalities. At the same time, the drama plot itself has relatively independent artistic efficacy and aesthetic value, which can attract and entertain the audience. In drama creation, we can't ignore the plot, which makes the work lack exciting artistic power, and we can't simply pursue the plot, thus drowning the characters and making the work lack ideological depth. Engels once asked the drama to achieve "great ideological depth and conscious historical content, as well as the perfect combination with the vividness and richness of Shakespeare's drama plot."

According to the development process of drama conflict, the composition of the plot of the script can be divided into

The beginning of contradiction

The development of contradictions

The intensification of contradictions (climax)

Resolution of contradictions

Philadelphia, the beginning of the script, is very important because its quality is related to the success or failure of the whole situation; But the beginning of the script is quite difficult, because the beginning of a play is by no means the beginning of the event process. Where to start, who to let out first, what plot to show first, and how to recount and explain the previous situation must be considered repeatedly.

The function of the beginning: simply and implicitly explain the time and place of the story, the relationship between the characters and the specific environment of the story in the actions of the characters; When a character appears, his personality should be initially revealed; It is necessary to raise contradictions, arouse suspense, indicate the development direction of the plot, and arouse the interest of the audience.

Development is a progressive stage before the drama conflict reaches its climax, which occupies the largest and most critical part in the whole drama. The main characters, events and conflicts in the play should be displayed here. Whether a play can attract the audience tightly and whether the climax of the play can come naturally and reasonably depends on this part.

Therefore, on the one hand, the playwright must grasp the development law of the struggle between the two sides of the contradiction, and make the contradiction and conflict more and more superficial and sharp according to the character and level of the characters. On the other hand, he should avoid the development of contradictions and conflicts rising in a straight line, but there should be waves and ups and downs, and the waves are not flat. Only in this way can the story be full of rhythm and always catch the audience.

The climax is that after several rounds of struggle, the power contrast between the two sides of the contradiction constantly changes to the most intense and sharp white-hot degree, which is also a turning point that determines the outcome and success or failure.

Although the climax is a brief moment of knowledge in the whole drama, it is the most wonderful scene to reveal the ideological significance of the drama conflict and highlight the most concentrated and profound place of the younger brother. No wonder some people say that everything is for orgasm.

To write a good climax, we must carefully arrange it, be good at restraining the development of contradictions, and choose the most appropriate time to make it suddenly appear after making full preparations.

The end, the climax follows the end. Finally, we should focus on the results of major events, and we are not allowed to rock the boat and gild the lily. A good ending should not only satisfy the audience, but also leave room for aftertaste and fully show the depth of the author's thoughts.

2. The main skills of arranging the plot structure

1 suspense

Also known as "neuroticism". According to the psychological characteristics of the audience's emotional need to be stretched when watching a play, the screenwriter or director arranges the unresolved plot with unpredictable ending, so as to arouse the audience's eager expectation for the result. It is a main method to make the plot fascinating and keep and constantly enhance the audience's interest in drama creation.

Drama suspense stems from people's psychological expectation caused by persistent doubt and anxiety. Aristotle's Poetics is the first work involving suspense in western screenwriter theory. Although there is no suspense in China's theoretical works on traditional Chinese opera, Li Yu's request for "restraining evil spirit" in the chapter on the structure of lyrics and songs in "Random Love" is basically similar to the connotation of suspense, and he thinks that "it is difficult to find out below, and I don't know what the result is".

The composition of drama suspense mainly depends on the following conditions:

Crisis lurks in the fate of the characters.

Life and death, success and failure are all possible, and there are two fates and two endings.

There must be a result in a close conflict.

The characters and actions of the main characters in the play can arouse the emotion, love and hate of the audience.

The audience is well aware of the future development trend. Logical plot development and strong love and hate for characters are two important elements of suspense.

The use of suspense in scripts is generally divided into two categories:

Total suspense and small suspense. Also known as the overall suspense and the small tension pattern in the home scene. The total suspense is the focus of the main conflict in the whole drama, which should be put forward at the beginning of the script and strengthened with the rise of the conflict until the climax. It is the emotional pillar of the drama structure that runs through the whole play. Small suspense belongs to the local tension in each development paragraph or main scene of the script, which plays the role of constantly enriching and strengthening the total suspense, and at the end of each scene or scene, leads the audience's attention and interest to the next scene or scene.

Expect suspense and sudden suspense. Expectation suspense is based on not keeping secrets from the audience, and it is the expectation that the audience has a certain premonition and understanding of the fate and development of the characters; Sudden suspense mainly depends on keeping secrets from the audience and enhancing the dramatic effect by surprising the audience. It is an unexpected and reasonable complex situation and dangerous turning point in the development of the plot, also called accident or surprise.

In actual creation, different styles and types of scripts use these two suspense in different ways. Pay attention to the description of characters and use the suspense of expectation; Episodic drama uses more sudden suspense. In practical application, they are complementary. In general, the author always maintains the audience's mood through the expected suspense, and also causes the ups and downs of the drama plot and audience's mood through the sudden suspense, thus further strengthening the tension of conflict.

The formation, maintenance and strengthening of suspense need to rely on the artistic techniques of "inhibition" and "procrastination", which is also called "procrastination" or "relaxation" in some drama theories. It means that in the process of sharp conflict and tense plot, the author uses various conditions and factors of both sides of the contradiction to suppress or interfere with the conflict and drama situation with a plot or a scene interspersed on the sideline, which leads to a temporary superficial easing, but actually strengthens the sharpness of conflict and the tension of plot, and strengthens the audience's expectation psychology. Another way of delaying tactics is to suddenly end at the tense moment of conflict, which makes you want to know what will happen later and listen to the suspense and interval of the next decomposition, thus greatly enhancing the artistic effect.

The format of alternating suspense and delay is related to the psychological endurance limit of the audience when watching the play. Constant tension will only make the audience feel tired, and temporary relief is to adjust their emotions and prepare for further tension.

Social life is complicated, and the development of contradictions is influenced and restricted by various factors, which will inevitably lead to twists and turns, advance and retreat, and unexpected changes. To know how to arrange suspense in the play, we must first be familiar with the law of the development of things in life. The aesthetic value of drama suspense lies in whether it conforms to the law of life development and the logic of character development.

② Discovery and mutation

A sharp turn, also known as a sharp turn and a sudden change, means that the plot suddenly changes in the opposite direction, that is, from adversity to prosperity, or from prosperity to adversity. It is a technique to strengthen drama through the fundamental transformation of characters' fate and inner feelings; Discovery refers to the change from ignorance to knowledge, which can be the protagonist's new discovery of his own identity or relationship with other characters, or the discovery of some important facts or inanimate objects. In creative practice, discovery is always combined with mutation or appears at the same time, and scripts often cause dramatic changes in the plot through discovery. For example, in the fourth scene of King Oedipus by Sophocles, Oedipus went all out to visit the sinner who killed his father and married his mother in order to save the suffering of the city. Finally, because the informer inadvertently revealed the truth and found that he had unintentionally committed this crime, a just and wise king became a blind beggar in self-exile.

It was Aristotle who first proposed discovery and mutation. In the tenth and eleventh chapters of Poetics, he thinks that discovery and mutation are the main components of the plot. For a long time, these two techniques have been regarded as the most dramatic techniques in the art of scriptwriting and have been widely used. In script writing, a good dramatic scene should not only focus on the ups and downs of the plot, but also be based on the characterization, and strive to write dramatic and rich psychological changes and emotional activities of the characters through a reasonable dramatic turn of the plot.

③ Spatio-temporal interleaving

Organize the stage space-time according to the psychological activities of the characters such as dreams, hallucinations, reverie and memories, and interweave the past, present and future. Modernist dramas that pursue subjective truth often adopt this structure. Mainly from the "stream of consciousness". For example, A.Miller's Death of a Salesman runs through Willie's psychological conflict and subconscious activities. Through Willie's trance and soliloquy, the author subconsciously heard the flute and laughter, naturally crossed the stage time and space into the past, and brought it back to reality through the interruption of a third party, thus vividly showing the tragic fate of the characters' lives.

The staggered structure of time and space breaks through the limitation of traditional drama in reflecting life according to objective time series, and expresses the hidden and complicated inner life of characters through multi-level and changeable time and space organization. However, due to the randomness and jumping of people's conscious activities, improper use will also form a messy and vague plot structure.

China's traditional operas have always been relatively free in the use of time and space, because they don't stick to the realism of the stage. There are also some operas that use the staggered structure of time and space to emphasize the inner activities of the characters, but they don't jump at will like modernist dramas.

consistent

The plot of a drama does not exclude contingency, and the plot of all drama works has contingency factors almost without exception. It can be said that the formation of a dramatic plot is inseparable from contingency, as the saying goes: coincidence does not make a book. However, originality must be reasonable, natural and meaningful. We should combine contingency with inevitability.

stage set

Stage scene processing is mainly the director's job, but playwrights know how to deal with stage scenes, which can make the script creation more in line with the needs of the stage.

There are many problems in the handling of stage scenes. There are only two issues here: on-site and off-site, on-site and off-site.

Off-site

Also known as open field and dark field, it is actually a combination of real writing and virtual writing. All dramas that are performed directly by actors on the stage and can be visualized through visual images are collectively called Ming Chang, that is, real writing; Visual images do not appear directly on the stage, and scenes narrated by characters in lines or through behind-the-scenes sound effects basically resort to auditory images. This kind of scene is called dark field, that is, virtual.

The combination of on-site drama and off-site drama can expand the space-time territory of the drama stage, expand the capacity of the drama and effectively avoid the limitations of the drama stage.

The choice and treatment of Ming-scene drama and dark-scene drama are related to the primary and secondary division of drama scenes and the special aesthetic requirements of stage image. Generally speaking, the main scenes in the play are handled in the open field, while the minor scenes or plot scenes that hinder the stage performance are handled in the dark field.

intermittently

On the stage, the plot should be concentrated. People who have nothing to do with the plot stand on the stage, and there is no play. People related to the plot can't be absent. There can be neither too many nor too few people on the stage. Therefore, the handling and arrangement of the ups and downs of characters is also a problem that writers need to seriously consider.

The author should start from the plot and think of a sufficient reason to make people physically on and off and naturally on and off. You can't manipulate the character at will, making it rush to the stage or suddenly leave the stage.

Dramatic characters

The language of drama includes two parts, one is the lines of the characters, and the other is the stage description of the author. Of the two, lines naturally dominate, so what we usually call dramatic language refers to lines.

Lines are the words spoken by the characters in the script, the main means used by playwrights to express the plot, portray the characters and embody the theme, and also the basic component of the script.

The lines of a play generally include dialogue, monologue and narration. The lines in western operas are mainly poetic lyrics; In China opera, it is a comprehensive application of rhyming lyrics and Sanqu chanting. Opera aria is a musical artistic language, which can be divided into three forms: prose and verse.

Dialogue is the dialogue between characters in the script and the main form of drama lines. A monologue is a line spoken by a character alone on the stage. It developed from classical tragedy and was widely used in Renaissance drama. It is an artistic means to pour out the inner feelings and thoughts of the characters directly to the audience, and is often used in the most intense and complicated scenes of the inner activities of the characters. Narrator is a line that the character speaks directly to the audience on the stage, assuming that it is not heard by other characters on the same stage. The content is mainly the evaluation of the other party and the disclosure of my inner activities. In China traditional opera, "cheating on marriage" is a narrative.

In script creation, lines are an important factor to determine the artistry of dramatic works. Drama is different from novels and other literary styles. It is not narrated by the author to the readers, but only expresses everything by the characters' own language and actions. Therefore, lines are the only language means that can be used on the stage of drama, and the writing and arrangement of lines become an important part of drama skills.

The lines in the script are a special and difficult literary language to master and use.

1. The lines must be actions (verbal actions).

Actions are mainly lines that can reveal the inner actions of characters, as Jiao Juyin said: "Language actions are the rich and complex ideological activities of characters expressed by language." Drama is the art of action, so it is necessary to quickly develop the actions of the characters and make them have sharp conflicts within the limited stage performance time, thus revealing the thoughts, personalities and feelings of the characters. This requires that lines obey dramatic actions and have the characteristics of actions.

The function of lines is to promote the progress of the plot. Each character's lines in the script should be produced in the character conflict, which can reflect the character's attitude and reaction to the conflict, strongly impact the mind of the conflicting opponent, urge the other party to take new actions and actively participate in the conflict, and thus promote the development of the character relationship and drama plot. The function of lines is that they can reveal the rich and complicated inner activities of characters.

In short, action language should have two functions. On the one hand, it can not only express the psychological activities of the characters themselves, but also cause strong external actions; On the other hand, it can also stimulate each other and urge them to produce corresponding language and actions. In this way, the two sides of the dialogue interact and promote each other to promote the continuous development of the plot.

For example, the dialogue between Zhou Ping, Sifeng and Shi Ping in Thunderstorm is generally expressed in two ways, one is to express one's own thoughts directly, and the other is "subtext". Straight lines are sometimes carried out through monologues; Subtext contains complex and hidden unfinished words and implied meanings, which can be embodied in many forms, such as pun, hesitation, suggestion and conciseness.

The function of lines also lies in that they can provide the basis for actors to find accurate stage movements during their performances. The final completion of drama creation must be carried out on the stage. Therefore, the writing of lines must take into account the needs of performing arts creation, so that actors can move on the stage and vividly present the inner world of the role to the audience.

2. Lines must be personalized.

The shaping of the characters in the script can only be accomplished by the characters' own lines and actions, and it must be carried out in a limited time and space. These two factors put forward high requirements for the personalization of script lines. To personalize lines, we must first master the language characteristics of characters according to their birth age, occupation, education, experience, social status and times. We must restrain thousands of people.

Secondly, the portrayal of lines also requires the playwright to firmly grasp the development of the characters' personalities, grasp the changes of the dramatic situations, grasp the complicated relationships of the characters, and write the only words that the characters can say here and now. Not only can the lines of different characters in the script not be confused with each other, but also the lines of the same character in different drama scenes cannot be exchanged at will. The key to realize the individuality of lines is that the playwright is familiar with life and the characters in his works, and when writing, he goes deep into the soul of the characters, puts himself in their shoes and tries to figure out the language ways and characteristics of the characters expressing their hearts.

3. The lines should be poetic.

Drama should establish a distinct artistic image in front of the audience through the lines of the characters in a limited time and space, so that the audience can be infected and tempted by the fate of the characters, which requires the lines of the script to have poetic characteristics and strength. The poeticization of lines does not mean that everyone should adopt poetic style, but let poetry permeate the lines. Therefore, lines must be emotional and infectious; Vivid and expressive; Refined, subtle, and strive to express rich content and far-reaching artistic conception with the most concise and concentrated words.

4. The lines should be colloquial.

In order to let the audience clearly understand the plot, understand the characters and accept the writer's explanation of life, the lines must be easy to understand and colloquial. Spoken language makes lines full of life, cordial and natural. Proper use of folk languages such as idioms, proverbs, two-part allegorical sayings and even slang contributes to the colloquialism of lines. While paying attention to colloquialism, we should also pay attention to the standardization and purity of language, and pay attention to the refining and processing of life language, so as to make it an artistic language of image life.

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