Playwriting...Help on Beginning idea?

Question

So i am in a Drama class and our assigment is to wriet our own play.

I know what i want to write about,
My play is about a boy and a girl who meet and end up falling in love w/ each other. long story short, she finds out about his past with drugs and alchohl, boy starts getting back into these habits because of outside life, girl tries to help boy, boy lies to girl as to avoid constent sadness for her, girl catches boy at a party, girl goes on a drinking rampage at the party, girl leaves the party to drive, girls dies in accident,boy changes because of her.

now heres my prob, i have evrything i need but i have no idea how i want the boy and girl to meet?! i want them to be around highschool age but i dont want them to meet at school, everything goes on outside school in my play. im having writers block and cant come up with a good idea... PLEASE HELP!

Answer 1

First of all, congratulations on getting so much of the plot down on paper. I usually start with a vague idea of where I'm starting and where I want to end and write till it's done.

Where do you want them to meet?

There are literally a million posibilities. Here are some:
1. Accident:
- He's a newcomer, on his way to school and she dashes into him just as he passes her gate. (Or reverse it - she's the newcomer).
- His friend stays opposite her and he accidentally knocks down her mailbox.

2. Brought together by well-wisher:
Depending on how much time you want to spend on the build-up, this could be a friend, an older relative, etc. and the situation could be elaborate or simple.

3. Don't explain it:
I must admit, I'm a fan of this treatment. Just don't explain it. They meet. That's all. Start the play with her storming out of the local meeting-up place, leaving him hanging, and take it from there.

If you've watched "Grease" (sorry, dated, I know, but I live in the past, occasionally visiting the future and stopping by the present if there's something interesting happening), there's no explanation for Danny and Sandy meeting. They just do. And it's topped by accident / coincidence too. Sandy just happens to be in the USA and just happens to land up in the same school as Danny.

Don't fret the small stuff. Just put them together and get on with your story.

All the best.

Answer 2

Your story is cliched. Drug and alcohol addiction reeks of "Degrassi," "Dawson's Creek," or anything else aimed at a tween audience. There's nothing wrong with writing that type of play, but it's been done countless times before. Tune into the CW or MTV any night of the week.

Question: Why does the girl drink because she sees him at a party?

The drunk driving accident is deus ex machina. If you don't know what that is, look it up. But bottom line, it's lazy storytelling and rings false every time.

They could meet anywhere. The action video aisle at Blockbuster. A party. Rehab.

My advice - scrap your story and start over. If it's any good, you won't have writer's block. The basic ideas will write themselves. Then you go back and make it all work.

Good luck.

Answer 3

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Answer 4

Make it personal. Where do you meet people? Church? After-school activities or clubs? The mall? Work or a volunteer group? Perhaps in your neighborhood? A good rule of thumb is to write what you know...

Answer 5

Boy meets girl at convenience store, he accidentally spills some soda on her, she gets flustered, he apologizes profusely, she feels bad for being rude, they start laughing and talking together...blah, blah, blah.

Nice idea you have for a play, but so trite and so overdone.