Monologues are the raw material of the theater. In an effective monologue, a single character takes control of the scene or screen to open their heart and express their inner turmoil. Or make us laugh. Well done monologues tend to make up the most memorable scenes from our favorite movies or shows, moments that allow actors to shine and show their talent. If you want to write a monologue for your show or movie, learn how to place them appropriately and find the right tone. Skip to the first step for more information.
Steps
Method 1 of 3: Part 1: Learning to Use a Monologue
Step 1. Study famous monologues
From Hamlet's famous inner distress to Quint's heartbreaking reminder of the war in Jaws, monologues can be used to give depth to a character. The monologues allow us to discover the ideas and motivations of the characters. It's more of a character study aloud, rather than a plot tool (although it must always serve to carry the story forward). Get familiar with some of the classic film and theater monologues to study the medium. Take a look at:
- David Mamet's opening speech by Americans.
- The monologues of Hamlet.
- The speech "I could have been somebody" from the Harbor Front.
- The "I ate my divorce papers" speech in Gabriel Davis' Hello, Charlie.
- Mascia's monologue (“I tell you who are a writer”) in Chekhov's Seagull.
- Almost all of Howard Beale's monologues in Fifth Power (https://it.wikiquote.org/wiki/Quinto_potere).
Step 2. Use the monologues at the right time
A text written for a stage or screen will be a complex interweaving of dialogues, actions and pauses. Knowing when to insert a monologue into the narrative will take practice. You'll want to have a lot of the plot and characters developed before bothering with the monologues. They should emerge organically depending on the text.
- Some monologues are used to introduce characters, while certain texts use monologues to allow a silent character to suddenly assert himself and change the public's perception of him.
- In general, a good time in the script to use a monologue is at turning points, when a character has to reveal something to someone.
Step 3. Learn the difference between monologue and soliloquy
For a true monologue, there must be another listening character. If not, it is a soliloquy. Soliloquy is a classical technique rarely used in contemporary texts, but is nevertheless sometimes used in single-character texts and in experimental theater.
Inner monologues or off-screen narratives are another category, more like a private moment with the public than a monologue. The monologues must presuppose the presence of other characters listening, providing an important interaction that can feed or motivate the monologue itself
Step 4. Always use monologues to show the change in a character
A good occasion for a monologue is whenever a character is going through a significant change of opinion or attitude. Allowing him to express himself and reveal his inner tension is beneficial to the reader and the storyline.
- Even if the character hadn't changed that much, his decision to speak could still be a change in itself. A silent character who engages in a long monologue is eloquent when placed in the right way. Why did he speak just now? How does our opinion of him change?
- Consider having the character change during the monologue. If a character starts out angry, it might be more interesting to make him pass into hysteria, or laughter. If it starts laughing, it may end thoughtfully. Use the monologue as a means of change.
Step 5. Give your monologue a beginning, a development and an end
By taking the time to pause the rest of the story to get a character to talk for a long time, it goes without saying that the writing needs to be structured like any other work of writing. If it's a story, it must have a time frame. If it is a lament, it must become something else. If it is a request, it must grow in intensity.
- The beginning of a good monologue will capture the audience and the other characters. The beginning should indicate that something important is underway. Like any good dialogue, it shouldn't gibberish or waste time with "hello" and "how are you". Go straight to the point.
- In the central part, the monologue should reach the apex. Bring it to maximum tension and then bring it back down to allow the conversation between the characters to continue or end. This is where the specific details, drama and touchpoints in the monologue will manifest.
- The ending should put the speech or story back on track. After dwelling on his own failures and struggles, Randy's breathtaking speech in The Wrestler comes to an end: "I don't want you to hate me, ok?" The tension of the monologue is dissolved and the scene closes on that sense of irrevocability.
Method 2 of 3: Part 2: Writing Drama Monologues
Step 1. Find the character's voice
When we finally have the opportunity to hear the character speak for a long time, his voice and his way of speaking shouldn't surprise us. If you are exploring his voice as you write, don't do it in a long important monologue, but in other parts of the script.
- Alternatively, as a free writing, consider allowing your character to talk about various topics to develop their own voice. Bret Easton Ellis' novel American Psycho contains numerous short chapters in which the protagonist, Patrick, talks freely about various aspects of consumer culture: stereo technology, pop music and clothing. It's plausible that Ellis wrote these parts as character development exercises and ended up leaving them in the final draft.
- Consider filling out a questionnaire for your character, or a profile of him. Thinking about the character even with elements that will not remain in the final text (such as his furniture choices, his musical tastes, daily routines, etc.).
Step 2. Use various registers
A monologue that begins one way and ends in another completely different will emphasize the tension, make the characters more multifaceted and the script that much more interesting. A good monologue should be funny, heartbreaking and moving at times, without focusing on a single feeling or mood.
In the movie Will Hunting, Matt Damon's character has a great monologue in which he puts a snooty Harvard student in a bar in his place. Although there is humor and triumph in the monologue, there is also a deep sadness, and anger clearly perceptible from his words
Step 3. Use the stories to build the characters
Monologues can be perfect occasions to pause the main plot and allow a protagonist to reveal something about his past, tell an anecdote or a bit of "background" about himself. When done right and at the right time, an illuminating or surprising story provides color and depth to the main story, giving us an extra point of view on the plot in question.
Quint's story of surviving the USS Indianapolis disaster layers his character a lot. He doesn't wear a life jacket because it reminds him of the trauma. The story doesn't necessarily carry the story forward, but it adds a lot of depth and pathos to Quint, who up until that point had basically been the archetype of the brainless gymnast
Step 4. Use exclamation marks sparingly
Don't confuse drama and tension with "screaming". Nobody wants to see a show or a movie where everyone screams at each other all the time, so learning how to build the emotional arc of dramatic moments is the real trick to create tension and avoid the out of tune of improvised writers who write arguments.
Real fights are like roller coasters. People get tired and cannot scream with all the anger in their bodies for more than one sentence. Be moderate and the tension will be even more palpable if we suspect that someone might explode at any moment, but they don't
Step 5. Let the silence also make itself felt
For a novice writer, it can be tempting to write more than necessary. To create the drama, there is often a tendency to add too many characters, too many scenes and too many words. Practice taking a step back and leaving room for only the most indispensable elements of the speech, especially in a monologue. What is left unspoken?
See some of the monologues / sermons in the show and film Doubt. When the priest talks about "gossip", there are many particular details that he has overlooked because he is faced with an entire community of people. The message conveyed to the nun with whom she is in conflict, however, is precise and clear
Method 3 of 3: Part 3: Writing Comic Monologues
Step 1. Try to correct a dramatic monologue by making it comical
How could you rewrite one of Al Pacino's monologues in Scent of a Woman to make it comical? What if I had to rewrite Quint's story so that it looks like he's lying? Comic writing is difficult because it has much less to do with the content of the text and much more to do with its presentation.
- As an exercise, try to rewrite "angry" monologues in a humorous key. Comedy and drama have common boundaries, making this task more feasible than it seems.
- Gabriel Davis is a modern screenwriter with a knack for humor and witty scenarios full of hilarity. A woman eating her divorce papers? A man who decides to take communion at 26? It has them. Check out his frequent use of humorous monologues.
Step 2. Aim for complexity
A good monologue won't necessarily be all funny or all serious. For example, if you wanted to vary the anger level of a fight scene, inserting funny content in an otherwise tragic situation will relieve the tension with a laugh and help the audience to perceive something complicated. That's what good comedy is for.
Martin Scorsese's films often stand out for the combination of extremely funny moments with others that are very tense. Jake Lamotta's monologues as he prepares to take the stage in Raging Bull are both comical and poignant
Step 3. Make it fun, not clumsy
Successful comic monologues will usually not involve toilet humor or bodily functions, unless other aspects of the drama somehow make it necessary. Writing with a sense of irony, sarcasm and a kind of complexity of humor will make it much more palatable and interesting for the average viewer.
Step 4. Write from one extreme to the other
Before writing a monologue, decide where it will begin and where it will end, even going so far as to write the first and last sentence; get an idea of how long you would like the monologue to be, and then fill in the space in the middle. How would you complete the following first and last lines of a potential monologue?
- Your dog is dead. / Get that stupid smile off your face!
- What's your mother's problem? / I'm not going to Skype with a cat in the room.
- Where is the abandoned skimmed milk? / Forget it, forget it, forget it, I'll take the horse.
- Come on, just this time. / I will never go into a church again.
