Writing prompt #2: DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Hi Everyone,

Is it Thursday yet?! I hope Monday’s prompt is inciting (or will incite) some productive havoc in your writing.

This second prompt relies on a standard feature of plays—the cast of characters page—to help us sort out who’s who and how they’re connected. Please take a look at the exquisitely distilled and specific characters page of WATER BY THE SPOONFUL*, the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Quiara Alegría Hudes (below).

In one-line descriptions, Hudes captures the very essence of her characters. Before you even turn the page, before these characters even open their mouths, we have a pretty good idea of who they are .

Now please consider Hude’s descriptions of SETTING and MUSIC and her playwright’s NOTE—how the visual, sound, and communications landscapes are, again, beautifully accounted for.

YOUR PROMPT: Create a characters page for your work-in-progress. Try to keep the descriptions as short as possible, no longer than 3-4 sentences per individual. Tell us only what is essential to know about each of them.

Add to each character description one utterance in their distinctive, non-interchangeable voice.

Finally, write a page with your own ‘setting’ and ‘music’ as well as any authorial ‘notes.’ Keep all this handy as you continue writing. You may be surprised at how often you turn to these descriptions, how much is suggested, how much more there is to unpack.

Good luck!

* I urge you to read this terrific work. Here’s a link with more details: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781559365574

Abrazos,

Cristina