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24 February 2024

Posted by Suki & Claire

Young Writers - Week 6 (The Art of Writing) - Script-writing & Dialogue

Hi Writers,


Welcome after half term! We hope you’ve all had a fun week off. This week we had a fabulous session on Scriptwriting & Dialogue. Led by Suki


During our check-in we all described our weeks as a Game [board games ect…]


  • Berry’s was Pit - a frantic card game

  • Poppy’s was hide & seek - a bit scary

  • Suki’s was Tag - played a lot in arial class

  • Claire’s was operation - fiddly stuff to do


Then we did our reading check-in


  • Berry is reading The Final Year and Last Bear

  • Poppy is reading Far From the Madding Crowd

  • Suki is reading lots of non-fiction, some Manga and Immortal Rain

  • Claire is reading The Witches of Vargo


Scriptwriting & Dialogue


We then had a discussion about the difference between scriptwriting and dialogue, and listed all the different types we could think of.


Dialogue: speech marks, characters speaking to each other in a story, speech tags ‘he said, she said’


Script: Conversation. Films. Plays. Shows. TV. puppet shows. Radio. Podcasts. 


Then we read through our examples. The group enjoyed getting to play different characters and perform the pieces of dialogue & script.


  1. Video Game: Skyrim

  2. Film: Frozen

  3. Play: Merchant of Venice


These excerpts were a great starting point to open up discussions on how conversation can be very effective in setting a scene, building a world, creating tension & conflict, and portraying character (especially through monologue).


Next we did our writing exercise


Write a script, using no more than 3 characters, starting with one of the following prompts:


Misunderstanding

  • Two characters are trapped in a broom cupboard, one character believes they are both in on a secret and the other is completely oblivious.

  • Two characters meet on the street and one sincerely believes that they know the other whilst the other insists they have never met.


Hiding a secret

  • Three characters are sitting at a bus stop. Two of the characters know something and are trying to keep the third character from finding out.

  • Two characters have scheduled a top-secret meeting. One of them is a superhero and is about to reveal their true identity.


Emergency

  • Two strangers are stuck in a lift. One is calm, the other believes the walls are closing in.

  • Two characters are waiting in line to buy train tickets, but their train is about the leave the platform and the queue isn’t moving. They have one minute to decide what to do.


Group Tasks

  • A group of actors are on stage, every single one has forgotten their lines, along with the plot, and even who they are.

  • A group of characters are waiting in a queue. The first character knows what they are waiting for, the others do not and continually wonder out loud what it could be.


Extra prompts:

  • You’re walking your dog in the park and suddenly he runs away.

  • You are a dark wizard planning to take over the world.

  • Your aunt is coming to stay and you’re trying to convince your family you are allergic to her.

  • You’re sitting in the classroom minding your own business when suddenly everyone disappears.

  • There’s a knock at the door. You open it to see your childhood hero.

  • You’re an international spy trying not to get caught by your rival.

  • You arrive at school and realise you haven’t done any of your homework.

  • There’s a secret realm behind the blackboard, but only you know about it.

  • An alien has crash-landed in the playground.


This challenge produced some great results;


  • Berry wrote a scene set in a lift - Katie, Max and Jake - all trapped and having different reactions

  • Poppy set up a football match scene - Mrs Bartholomew, Carl and Susan - a power play dynamic


We had enough time to write up a follow on scene.


  • Berry set her group in another lift - on a far future occasion

  • Poppy continued the same characters, but added more tension


Everyone did so well, acting out each other’s scripts. This was a great class.


We’d love to see some more new faces this term, so if anyone knows a budding writer aged 7-10, we’d love to hear from them! 


All of our Young Writing sessions are free and bookable through the Forest Arts Centre, so come along and have a go with us!


See you next Saturday

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