Now, all writers need to provoke themselves to go deeper into their subject to become great writers. But, if you want to write a script based on a real person and real events, then there are even more hard questions that need to be answered such as the ten below:
- Is my subject a suitable subject for drama? – Is their life story dramatic?
- Am I the right person to write their story?- Am I too much of a fan or too little?
- Am I prepared to be exhaustive in my research- research is more than just reading about the person.
- How do I deal with audience’s differing knowledge of my character?
- What is the perfect structure to hang this biographical tale?
- What is the dramatic truth of their life?
- Who is/ was your subject and who is your dramatic character?
- When have you done enough research?
- When should you step away from the facts into your dramatic truth?
- How will you successfully amalgamate the secondary characters?
These questions (and more) all came to me at the beginning of writing my first biographical drama. I turned to popular scriptwriting manuals for answers to find that there was next to nothing out there.
I was forced to answer these questions while I wrote my play.
After going down some rabbit holes and plenty of re-writes I finished the play and it was a big success. This let me to think that I should write the book about Bio-Drama that I was looking for!
This took another year of my life but it fulfilled my aim in life, to not only write the best scripts I can, but to be the best teacher I can be. The best educators motivate and steer their students to do their best work.
My book Writing the Bio-drama aims to guide, inspire and provoke you to write a dynamic script based on a real person’s life.
Please register your interest here.
