Homework - Creative Writing

Dear Readers,

Are you bored? Do you want to learn drama stuff? Then just do these drama assignments!

See, I just finished teaching drama, and I'll never teach again for the rest of my life, so I have all these assignments, and if you want to read them, or do them... then you can

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Name:


Write your own scene


For the next few days, while we continue to rehearse our plays, we will be doing some creative writing. We already wrote our own original monologues. Now we’ll write scenes. To write a good scene, you need to imagine two characters, a setting, and a conflict. Use your imagination to answer the following questions.


Create character 1


Name:


Age:


Gender:


Likes:


Dislikes:


3 adjectives describing the character:


Describe the unique way he or she talks:


Describe the unique way he or she moves:


Objective: (a.k.a. goal, a.k.a. motivation)


Create character 2


Name:


Age:


Gender:


Likes:


Dislikes:


3 adjectives describing the character:


Describe the unique way he or she talks:


Describe the unique way he or she moves:


Objective:


Create the Setting


Place:


Time:


What does the setting…


Look like?


Smell like?


Taste like?


Sound like?


Feel like?


What props or set pieces are there?


Create the Conflict


What is the conflict?


Now that you have created 2 unique characters, a setting, and a conflict, start writing your scene on a separate piece of paper.


Requirements. Your scene needs to…


1] Have a title.


2] Have at least two stage directions in parenthesis.


3] Be at least one page long. Get at least 3/4 down the page. If you write big, get to the other side of the page.


At the top of your paper, put this information:


Playwright Name: (That’s you!)


Title of Scene:


Character Names:


Setting:


Here is a model of what your scene should look like:


Playwright: Mr. Telemoonfa


Title: Balloons for Sale


Characters: Martha, Tom


Setting: a county fair


TOM: (holding a bunch of helium-filled balloons) Balloons for sale! Get your balloons here! Balloons! Balloons! (Martha enters) Hey little girl. Hey! Would you like to buy a balloon?


MARTHA: I don’t think so.


TOM: I got pink ones.


If you can’t think of any good ideas for your scene, use one of these situations:


Two friends are starting to hang out with different groups of people. One of the friends feels betrayed.


A teenager is applying for his or her first job.


A teenager is explaining to his or her parent what happened last night.


Best friends are separating because one of them is moving to another state.


A father is teaching his son how to play chess and talking about life.


You will do a rough draft and a final draft for this assignment. Put “rough draft” or “final draft” at the top of your papers so I know which draft it is.


This worksheet and your rough draft is due at the beginning of the period on Monday, April 12th. 25 points. Your final draft is due by the end of the period on Wednesday, April 14th. 25 points.

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Name:

Write your own monologue

For the next few days, while we continue to rehearse our plays, we will be doing some creative writing. First, we will be writing our own original monologues. To write a good monologue, you need to imagine a character, a setting, and a conflict. Use your imagination to answer the following questions.

1] Create a character.

What is your character’s name?

What is your character’s age?

Is your character male or female?

What are your character’s likes and dislikes?

What is unique about the way your character talks? For example, does your character say, “like” a lot? Does your character ask a lot of questions, or make a lot of jokes, or use big words and long sentences?

Use 3 adjectives to describe your character.

How is your character feeling during the monologue?

What is unique about your character?

2] Create a setting.

Where does your monologue happen?

When does your monologue happen?

What does the setting look like?

What does the setting sound like?

What does the setting smell, feel, and taste like?

Are there any props or set pieces in this monologue? If so, what are they?

3] Create a conflict.

What is your character struggling against?

What does your character want?

What is preventing your character from getting what he or she wants?Now that you have
created a unique character, setting, and conflict, start writing your monologue on a separate piece of paper.

Requirements. Your monologue needs to…

1] Have a title.

2] Have at least two stage directions in parenthesis.

3] Be at least one page long. Get at least 3/4 down the page. If you write big, get to the other side of the page.

4] Be in first person. (First person means using the pronoun “I”)

At the top of your paper, put this information:

Playwright Name: (That’s you!)

Title of monologue:

Character Name:

Setting:

Other advice: Your character may talk to the audience directly, or to an inanimate object, such as a teddy bear, or talk to another character that is offstage or unresponsive. Or your character could be talking on the phone. Or your character could be just thinking out loud. Remember to write your monologue in a way that doesn’t waste any words. That means don’t just keep repeating the same stuff over and over. If you can cut out some words or whole sentences and the monologue still makes sense and sounds good, then cut that stuff out. If you don’t need it, get rid of it!

If you can’t think of any good ideas for your monologue, use one of these situations:

o You’re a young married adult who has just become a parent.

o Your best friend has done something dishonest and doesn’t see anything wrong with it.

o You confront someone with irrefutable evidence that he or she has wronged you.

o You tell someone how much you appreciate his or her help with something.

o You try to explain to a parent or guardian why you need to use the car on Saturday night.

You will do a rough draft and a final draft for this assignment. Put “rough draft” or “final draft” at the top of your papers so I know which draft it is.

This worksheet and your rough draft is due by the end of the period on Tuesday, 6th. 25 points.
Your final draft is due by the end of the period on Thursday, April 8th. 25 points.

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Write Your Own Fable!

Instructions: For this assignment, you will write your own fable, and then read it dramatically to the class. You will be turning in your written copy of your fable after you read it to the class. Your fable must have the following five elements:


1. Title (for example, The mischievous pig)
· 2. Talking animals (for example, a cat and a dog)
· 3. Setting (for example, a vacant lot)
· 4. Events (for example, a dog encounters a cat who has a piece of meat)
· 5. Moral (for example, pick on animals your own size)

You may use one of the following morals, or come up with your own:

Pride leads to a fall. The early bird catches the worm. Haste makes waste.
A stitch in time saves nine. Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.
Honesty is the best policy. You can’t judge a book by it’s cover. Look before you leap.

Rubric: You get 10 points if your fable has talking animals, a setting, and events. You get 10 points if your fable has a moral. You get 10 points for the quality of your reading to the class. 30 points possible.

Example:

The Frog Singer

Once there was a frog who loved to ribbit all day long. He would just sit on a lily pad and be noisy all day, sometimes trumpeting loud ribbits, RIBBIT RIBBIT RIBBIT and sometimes breathing out softer ribbits, ribbit ribbit ribbit. But by the time the sun went down, the frog’s voice was quite worn out, so he stopped his ribbiting. Some of the other frogs nearby said to him, “Keep up your beautiful music. We want to forget about the sorrows of our animal lives. Never mind that the sun has gone down.” But other frogs said, “Thank goodness the night has come and that old frog has stopped his bothersome noise-making. Now we can get some sleep.”

Moral: A song that is melodious to one is raucous to another.

Fables are due on Monday, May 17th. They will be read to the class on that day.

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By the way, my original fable, "The Frog Singer" has a secret message for my drama classes. My secret message is, "some of you love drama, and some of you hate drama. Some of you build up, and some of you destroy. Some of you are full of light, and some of you are full of darkness."

I read "The Frog Singer" out loud to my classes in a dramatic way as I was explaining the assingment. I wonder if any of them thought I was sending them a secret message, like Jesus did when he told parables.

Take care.

Sincerely,
Telemoonfa