In many ways, I learned more about writing from my music and drama classes than I did from my writing classes. I learned about rhythm, cadence and flow from music. How to build tension and action to a crescendo in the work and then how to release it for a satisfying ending. Those are the building blocks of music theory. I learned how to explore character, motivation and emotion in my acting classes. All of those are valuable lessons for a writer.
My writing classes taught me the craft, but music and acting taught me how to add depth and bring those mechanics to life.
Here’s what I learned from my drama classes:
1. There should be a motivation for each action—a reason the character is doing something.
2. Character entrances should be natural, like an extension of what is happening off-stage or in the character’s backstory. That means they should be a continuation of action, not the beginning of it.
3. Dialogue should be natural and follow how people speak, not how people write, which is far more formal.
4. Dialogue should sound like the character, not everyone else on the stage.
5. Every word and action should be based in emotion, not divorced from it.
6. Actors should use sense memory to bring up the right emotions for each situation. Likewise, writers should tap into their emotional memory bank to write with empathy and insight.
7. Acting and writing need a broad emotional range that gets characters through obstacles.
8. Everything should serve the story. Nothing should overshadow it, not even emotion.
9. Bringing a character to life requires introspection into oneself and the character. Each actor/writer needs to find those unsuspected emotional nuances inherent in the dialogue and actions.
10. Actors and writers need to understand human needs and desires and how they manifest in action and emotion. They need to know psychology and human nature.
11. Acting is often reacting. Characters need to react to each other, not just speak for themselves, but in concert with the other characters on the page.
12. When preparing a scene, an actor will break it down into beats or bits. The same type of analysis helps writers create scenes that are meaningful from start to finish.
13. Each prop has meaning or purpose. The same should be said for description and setting details on the page. Don’t add things that have no purpose or meaning. If you mention a chair the color of emeralds that should relate to something within the story otherwise it’s just a chair.
14. Actors link emotion to the objective and obstacles within a scene. Writers need to do that too.
15. “The “Magic If” works. This was Constantine Stanislavski’s way of making an actor ask themselves “what if” they were in that situation or facing that obstacle, how would they feel? It helps establish empathy. The “Magic If” works for writers too.
16. Actors train their senses and concentration on and off the stage. It helps them recreate their sense memory and more firmly establish themselves into scenes. The same is true for writers creating those scenes. Train yourself to pay attention to the finest details and how they make you feel. Keep notes to refer to when you are writing.
17. Grow your ability to empathize and sympathize so you can relate to a variety of characters, even those who are your opposite in nature. This is a useful tool in life too.
18. The biggest lesson in acting is to “Be” the character not be caught acting like the character. Be in the situation. Live the play. This helps writers too. Be your character. Figure out how they would speak and move, act and react.
Studying acting helps identify and build sense memory, empathy, action, and becoming a character. It is not without its problems though. Using only your memories or emotional responses can give you a false sense of understanding, particularly among marginalized people. If you are writing about something you have not experienced or are not a part of, do your research. Talk to experts. Talk to those who are most like your character. Ask questions. Read memoirs and biographies to get another look into that world. Be open to the fact that your experiences are different and that looking from the outside will never give you inside understanding of that life. The closest you can come is to be open, have frank conversations and listen with an open heart. Do not just rely on research and facts or, worse, imagination. That is doing a disservice to your characters and those they represent.
Writing characters should be done carefully. The best characters are those who arise from personal experience and emotion, not to recreate your life or that of your experience, but to shine a light onto that experience. Acting will help you bring your characters to life, but only life will make them real.