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Oh! And my name is Sara. I wrote an intro thread a few days ago if you want to check it out.
Hi Sara! Unfortunately, I’m not sure how much I can help you, other than encouraging you to study anything you can about playwriting. If you like audio drama you have definitely got to check out “On the Night Train” by The Merry Beggars and written by Kiley Hatch. It is fantastic! She’s recommended this book. Perhaps you would find it helpful.
Sorry for not getting back to you sooner, my week ended up containing some very big family-life changing events, lol. I wish I was able to work on a collaboration at this point, but unfortunately I have a habit of swamping myself. Conversations are still allowed though! Would you mind if we kept our discussion on the forum? (Start a thread or topic or whatever, still not sure how that works, lol.) Anyone else interested in the topic could join, too! There’s just not much out there one Making a Musical 101. 🙂
I totally understand not having the time, and I’m kind of in the same spot myself. I’m not super active on here, but a thread about stage writing could be nice, but I know that isn’t Story Embers’s focus, so I don’t know if they would want that or not.
Best of luck with your writing!
Nice to meet you Abby! I’d love to talk more about our work, and I’m also open to collaboration, since it seems like we have the same goal (writing musicals) but different skillsets (songwriting/composing vs. bookwriting). My email is donahuegraham at gmail dot com
I hope to hear from you!
Kite,
That is interesting. I am writing a musical, so actually the inner monologue aspect of novels can be incorporated through songs, and that is a major part of the art form, and what separates if from plays and movies.
I haven’t studied plays much, but for musical theater at least, I think the biggest difference from novels is that in musicals your characters need to be active. In a novel you can have characters that largely have things happen to them. Certainly they may be quite active, but often you can get away with stories where the main character is dealing with more internal struggles, and has things happen to them more passively. However in a musical this does not work. The main characters need to want something and need to take action to get it. Interestingly enough, I think this is why a lot of the iconic main characters in musicals are actually not very good people. It’s easier to make a character active when they are willing to do anything to get what they want.
Also, if the idea of “show don’t tell” is true for novels it’s like 100 times more true for musicals because it is such a visual, in-the-moment form of storytelling.
That is great you are wanting to write songs! When I started playing music I knew absolutely nothing about music, so it can totally be learned!
I like different styles of music, though my background is in Bluegrass and related styles. I also love jazz, celtic, traditional “musical theater,” and some contemporary styles as well.
I am generally drawn to stories that are set in the real world. One of my projects is an adaption of L. M. Montgomery’s Rainbow Valley. I like fun, realistic characters living in community. However, I also have an idea for a musical involving queens, precious jewels, and so forth, so that one is probably more in the fantasy genre.
