Soliloquy Guidelines?

Question

Can someone give me a guideline for writing soliloquys? Stuff like required beats and lines please.

Answer 1

A "soliloquy" is merely a speech delivered by a character who is alone on stage. It does not necessarily have a certain number of beats or lines. Now, if you are talking about one used by Shakespeare such as those in Hamlet ("Oh, that this too too solid flesh would melt....." Or, "To be or not to be....." then there is a pattern of iambic unrhymed lines with no set number of lines. I hope this helps.

Chow!!

Answer 2

no required beats or anything...a soliloquy simply is a character speaking as if they believed they were alone...this is how the audience learns of a characters thoughts and feelings (no narrator for the stage, you know).
Often soliloquies are used to let the audience in on some sort of secret or plan they would not otherwise know...sometimes, as a bit of fun, there is another character on stage listening, "unknown" to the speaker....this is how some playwrights add dramatic twists.