I am taking a playwriting workshop through the Creative Alliance right now. It is fun as all get out, and I’m so much more relaxed than I’ve been in any other workshop, formal or otherwise. Somehow, somewhere along the line I figured out that I don’t have to be the best writer ever, I just have to write, if that’s what I want to do. Failure – avoiding it or embracing – is much less interesting than it used to be. I’m just there to write and enjoy the company of other people doing the same thing.
Anyway, in this workshop, as in every fiction workshop, there is a point early on when we discuss character. It’s crucial of course, without character, there’s nothing. I’ve gotten countless handouts over the years, and they all ask the same questions about the characters in a story or play:
Why is this character here?
What does this character want?
What does this character want from the other characters?
Does this character have a secret?
Why should we care about this character?
And so on.
Something struck me differently about the questions this time around, in this workshop. I’ve asked them zillions of times about characters who seemed flat or lifeless, but could they apply in the rest of life? If all the world’s a stage, we could develop ourselves by asking the same questions:
Why am I here in this situation?
What do I want from this situation?
What do I want from the people around me?
Am I keeping a secret?
Why should people care about me?
So if life is feeling a little boring, or flat, or just a little off, ask yourself these questions. Go on, I dare you, all three of you who read my blog.
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