Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Repetition

Repetition,

I use repetition in teaching my One Act Play Course. If I think something is hugely important I keep coming at it from different angles and saying it over and over again. My Dad told me once that to get people to pay attention you have to say something at least three times. That axiom has shown itself so many times in my life I take it for granted. I think it is a universal truth and thus a reader or audience doesn’t mind repetition if it contains an important message.

This is a great device in story telling… I once saw a play where it was used in conjunction with an undercurrent. It was a kitchen scene where a bachelor was cutting strips of bacon off a side of pork….

There was a conversation taking place as he sliced away, not very skillfully, one piece after the next. A female supporting character stepped in and took the knife and continued the slicing, much more adeptly as the conversation continued uninterrupted. There was a message here… That even in the least of us there are skills ideas and perspectives that can be extremely valuable.

Another of my students wrote a play where there were three generations of women in a family… Grandma, mom, and daughter. These three females were supposed to be different and indeed their ages and demeanor and style of dress, social views would lead you to think so but they were really acorns off the same tree. I tried to get the writer to show a bathroom ritual where these three who were supposedly so different prepped in the same way or a sewing ritual where they each threaded a needle with the same grip, hold to the light and squinty eye ritual. When the audience sees this they say “Oh my gosh!” These three might look and act different but they are the same model, versions separated only by years and a different set of conditions.

Another variation is a mannerism or habit that keeps repeating in a character. Maybe chin stroking as she ponders and gets close to the truth… Another might be a stammer when confronted by an undercurrent which is the true cause of the speech impediment…. And on and on and on the variations are endless. If done right, with an artful touch they can be very powerful in making a point indirectly…. And used in conjunction with symbolism can show the reader or audience things a character doesn’t realize… giving them a sense of insight or superior knowledge without coming right out in a monologue or dialogue (exposition) and trying to tattoo it on the reader/audience forehead.

For most of my students this is a graduate level type of artfulness and I am usually involved with getting the basics nailed down before trying to get too cute with the fancy stuff, but these are tools and techniques that are fun to play around with and give the story a dimension that otherwise it won’t have.

Still the basics come first. In the model there is a Central Character. You would be surprised how many times who the student thinks is the central character and who, by the nature of the story is really inclined to be that central character. My best technician in this last class had a central character who in my view was not central. My best blend of technician and artist had the same problem. Central means central. This is the person in the middle of the drama, like the center on a basketball team. The author or playwright need to get this right. Here is a checklist that comes to mind.

1. Is the CC center stage smack dab in the middle of things from the get go. Not somebody that shows up midway through the second scene skipping around the set looking in the windows.

2. Is the CC on the verge of a life changing situation? Going on a date, baking a pie or cleaning the house is usually not a life changing event. This event needs to happen early.

3. Does the CC have a problem? He/She might not see it in the beginning of the play but the reader or audience needs to be given enough information to raise an eyebrow. Indeed superior knowledge of a reader or audience is an ingredient of good story telling. It can take the form of an undercurrent where the CC cries out…”Hey everybody, I have this real bad problem and I can’t for the life of me figure out how to deal with it.”

4. Does the CC decide to get off his/her butt and do something about it. This needs to be the CC and not some supporting character who steps in and solves the problem for the CC. A writer isn't a parent of the characters, (even though they often look at their manuscript thru the same lens they use with their children.... What the heck do you mean my kid has warts?) Don't solve a CC's problem for them. I won’t tell you how often I see this happening.

5. Once the CC is resolved to do something to correct the sad state of their lives, do all manner of things (crisis) begin to happen to keep the CC from reaching their goal?

6. Do these start small and build on each other, each larger than the last until the big tsunami comes crashing down?

7. In the course of the play/read do we see a before and after snapshot and in-between growth at work, changing the outlook and/or persona of the CC. Again I had a student with a CC who flatlined across the entire play. Despite a series of minor inconviences (crisis) the character remained static, essentially unchanged from when first introduced.

Now there is a lot more to writing a short story, novel or stage/screen play than getting the CC right but let me emphasize that this is a huge component. I encourage my readers to take this checklist and assess their CC’s compliance with the Story Telling Model before seriously beginning to write.