How to write a monologue

Content

Steps
Method 1 of 3: Learn to Use Monologue
Method 2 of 3: Writing a Dramatic Monologue
Method 3 of 3: Writing a Comedy Monologue
Tips
Warnings

Monologues are the essence of theater. In a good monologue, an individual character takes control of a scene or screen to open his heart and show the experience. Or make us laugh. Good monologues are usually the most memorable scenes from our favorite films and plays, moments that allow actors to shine and show themselves to their fullest. If you want to write a monologue for your production or script, learn how to place it properly and find the right tone. Check out the steps below for more information.

Steps

Method 1 of 3: Learn to Use Monologue

1 Explore famous monologues. From Hamlet's famous inner experiences to Quint's heartbreaking World War II story in Jaws, monologues can be used in drama to add depth to a character's character. They give us directions for getting into the character of the character and understanding his motivation. This is more of a plot move (although they should always help move the plot forward) than an exploration of the character and everything that happens for show. To explore their varieties, check out some of the classic theater and film monologues:
- Trade Speech Revealing David Mamet of Glengarry Glen Ross
- Hamlet's monologues
- “I Might Be a Contender” speech from the drama “At the Port”
- “I ate the divorce papers” speech from the play “Goodbye Charles,” by Gabriel Davis
- Masha's speech "I tell you this because you are a writer" from Chekhov's play "The Seagull"
- Bill "The Butcher" Speech Disguised in Flags "Noble Man" from Gangs of New York
2 Use monologues at the right time. A play written for a stage or screen will be a complex sequence of dialogue, action, and silence. Knowing when a monologue is allowed to appear in a plot takes practice. You might want a lot of the essence of the plots and characters to be unraveled before worries about monologues. They must appear strictly according to the script.
- Some monologues are used to introduce a character, while some writers use a monologue to show the silent character from a different angle, allowing him to speak out and thereby change the audience’s attitude towards him.
- In general, in the script, the right time for a monologue is a moment of change, when one character must expose the other.
3 Learn the difference between a monologue and self-talk. For a true monologue, another character is needed to hear it. If there is no other character, then this is a conversation with oneself. It is a classic technique not commonly used in contemporary drama, but still used today in single-actor and experimental theaters.
- An internal monologue or voice-over is a completely different category of exposure, more like a sideways remark than a monologue. The monologue requires the presence of other characters who hear the performance, which provides important interaction that can be the fuel or purpose of the monologue.
4 Always use monologues to show the change in your character. A good opportunity for introducing a monologue is any significant change in feelings or thinking that the character experiences. That allows him to open up and show inner tension is beneficial for the reader and the plot.
- Even if the character hasn't undergone any significant changes, perhaps his decision to speak out is the change itself. The silent character, prompted by a long monologue, appears when the monologue is read properly. Why did he or she speak out now? How will this change our opinion of him (her)?
- Consider allowing the characters to change as they speak during the monologue. If at the beginning of the monologue the hero is furious, then it may be more interesting to end it with hysteria or laughter.If the monologues begin with laughter, you can end them with the reverie of the hero. Use the monologue as an opportunity to show change.
5 A monologue should have a beginning, middle and end. If you are going to take the time to pause the rest of the story and allow the hero to have a long monologue, you can say for sure that the text should have structure like any other kind of text. If it's a story, it must have a storyline. If this is a pompous tirade, then it must go into something else. If this is a plea, then it is necessary to increase the intensity of passions during the performance.
- A good start to a monologue will hook the audience and other characters. It should show that something important is going on. As with any good dialogue, you shouldn't mumble "Hello" and "How are you?" Get to the point.
- There should be a climax in the middle of the monologue. Heat the situation to the extreme, and then bring it back down, releasing the tension and letting the characters talk to each other to continue or end the conversation. This is the place in the monologue where concrete details, drama and contact take place.
- The ending should bring the speech or story back to the play in question. After stopping at his failures and fatigue, Randy ends his heartbreaking speech to his daughter in The Wrestler with, "I just don't want you to hate me, okay?" The tension of the monologue eases and on this final note the scene ends.

Method 2 of 3: Writing a Dramatic Monologue

1 Identify the character's voice. When we finally get to the point where we can listen to the character's speech in full detail, it shouldn't come as a surprise to hear how the character uses the voice, his character and manner of presentation. If you study their voices while writing, don't examine it in a long and important monologue, analyze it elsewhere in the script.
- Conversely, as a freelance writer, consider giving your character an opportunity to verbalize, you can use any number of subjects to improve it. Bret Easton Ellis' novel American Psycho is characterized by a large number of chapters in which the protagonist, Patrick, monologues about various aspects of consumer culture: stereo equipment, pop music, and clothing. Presumably, Ellis wrote them as character sketches and ended up using them in the novel itself.
- Consider filling out a questionnaire or profile for your character. Think about the character, about things that are not necessary in the script (for example, what room design the character prefers, favorite music list or morning routines, etc.).
2 Use different tones of voice. A monologue that starts in one place and ends somewhere else will make the tension more dramatic, the characters more convincing, and your script much better. A good monologue should alternate between funny, anxiety-inducing and touching moments, while showing that no emotion or state occurs on its own.
- In film Good Will Hunting, Matt Damon's character reads a long monologue in which he grabs a grumpy Harvard student at a bar. While there is both humor and triumph in the monologue, there is also a deep sadness and anger in it, which is also felt in his words.
3 Use history to build character. Monologues can be a great opportunity to pause the main plot of the story, and allow the protagonist to reveal something about his past, tell an anecdote, or add a little background about himself. When done well and at the right moment, an explanatory or surprising story adds color and texture to the main story, giving us another opportunity to get a close look at the plot.
- Quint's story of surviving the disaster of Indianapolis USA gives us an opportunity to understand the depth of his character.He does not wear a life jacket because it reminds him of his injury. There is no need for the story to move the plot forward, but it adds tremendous depth and pathos to Quintus, who was largely the model of a real man up to this point in the story.
4 Save exclamation marks. Don't confuse drama and tension with screaming. Nobody wants to watch a play or movie in which everyone is yelling at each other all the time. So learn to work on an emotional step in dramatic moments, this is a real trick to create tension and avoid the shrill screams of inexperienced writers describing fights.
- Real fights are roller coasters. People get tired and cannot shout about their innermost shocks in more than one phrase. Use restraint, and the tension will be even more noticeable if we suspect that someone might explode, but does not.
5 Let the silence speak. This technique can be tempting for writers who are just starting out as a writer. When creating a drama, it is often very tempting to add too many characters, too many scenes, and too many words. Learn to look back and allow only the most essential components of speech to come into play, especially in a monologue. What remains unspoken?
- Watch some monologue sermons from the play / film Doubt. When a priest preaches on “gossip,” there are many specific details that were not taken into account because he is standing in front of a crowd of people. The message given to the nuns with whom he is in conflict is critical and obvious.

Method 3 of 3: Writing a Comedy Monologue

1 Try to turn a dramatic monologue into a comedic one. How would you rewrite one of Al Pacino's monologues from Smell of a Woman to turn it into a comedic one? What would you do if you had to rewrite Quint's history in such a way as to suggest that he might be a liar? Comic writing is more difficult because there is less to do with the content and much more with the presentation of what is written.
- As an exercise, try rewriting the “angry” monologues for the play by adding humor. Comedies and dramas border on each other, showing that this is easier than it might seem at first glance.
- Gabrielle Davis is a contemporary playwright with a great talent for humor and witty screenwriting. The woman who ate her divorce certificate? A man who wants to perform a Bar Mitzvah at the age of 26? Check it out. Check out how often he uses monologues to create comic effect.
2 Strive for complexity. A good monologue doesn't have to be all funny or serious. Likewise, if you want to change the level of anger in a fight scene by adding a touch of humor to the opposite tragic situation, you will get the leaven of laughter drama, and by doing so you will help the audience feel that something difficult is going on. That's what good comedies do.
- Martin Scorsese's films are often distinguished by combining very funny moments with intensely intense ones. Jake Lamotte's monologues as he prepared to take the stage in Raging Bull were both funny and heartbreaking.
3 Keep the line between funny and stupid. Successful comic monologues usually do not include dressing or bodily humor, unless they are dictated in some way by other aspects of the drama. Constructing the text with irony, in some respects, sarcasm, and a kind of complexity of humor, will make your text much more successful and interesting for a wide audience.
4 Write from one pole to the other. Before you start writing a monologue, decide where it will start and end, even going so far as to write the first and last sentence; Think about how much you would like to write, and then fill in the middle space.How would you complement a possible monologue with the following first and last lines?
- Your dog is dead. / Wipe that stupid grin off your face!
- What is your mother's problem? / I'm not going to skype with the cat in the room.
- Where are those sad fifty-fifty? / Forget, forget, forget, I'll take the horse.
- Come on, just this time. / I will never go back to church.