I happened to love to act and to write and find I use my
tools in a crossover fashion. So today I want to share a basic concept from
acting that I use in writing. As an actor/teacher/director/producer, I use
Michael Chekhov’s imagination driven approach for creating characters, script
analysis and emotional connection with the audience. Here is a three part
series that looks at using Michael Chekhov’s acting techniques for writing.
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What if there are
Pre-Existing Images?
While it calls me to write a whole book on this, the most
basic principle that distinguishes Mr. Chekhov’s approach offers the idea that
the stories and characters already exist. The artistic work has already been
created in some other dimension and yearns to be expressed by you. He suggests
that this is why Michelangelo knew David was inside the rock and Beethoven was
haunted by melodies insisting they be written.
IF this is true, then your story already exists. Now, let’s
look a little more closely at that “IF”. By the way, we don’t actually need to
believe our story exists in order to use this tool. You can pretend as if it
does. This “Magic If” says: If this story already exists, then all I need to do
is allow it to be revealed through me.
Many artists sense great relief in this concept. Finding and
downloading a pre-existing word doc. image from the cloud is easier that
creating it from scratch. Trying this approach is free and it just might help!
P.S. My first two books were written in a weekend with this
approach under the guidance of Tom Bird, whose approach happens to coincide
with Michael Chekhov’s idea. Clearly, neither of them created it, and to both
of them I am grateful for imparting it.
Tapping Into Your “I”
Cloud
What if we each have our own “cloud” of images that live in
our highest realm of imagination. Pretend that your imagination is such a huge
cloud that it envelops the whole planet, outside the ozone layer. Like on Star
Trek, you have the ability to beam yourself up to it, and explore it. At the
same time, you can beam stories, plot points, and characters down to your Earth.
In a quiet state, center your concentration on a point near
your heart, about three inches down from your collarbone and right in the
middle of your chest. Imagine there is a powerful radiant energy like the sun
right there inside of you.
Pretend that this sun inside of you fills your whole being
with creative juices that stir a vibrancy inside of you. Now, focus a beam of
energy from the center point, up through the ceiling, the sky, the ozone layer,
bursting into your unlimited cloud of images. Invite your story to appear to
you.
Listen and write as quickly as you can when something begins
to appear. Avoid correcting, researching, judging what is coming through. Just
let everything flow. Don’t stop for research. Just keep writing quickly with
abandon.
After you have downloaded the inspiration the image has
given you, you can click the “save”
button of your mind, sending the image back to your I-cloud (Imagination Cloud)
for the next time you want inspiration.
Defining the Plot
Whether telling a true story, presenting a set of
non-fiction concepts or pure fiction, audiences have responded for millennia to
a fundamental rhythm that we use in theatre to generate compelling dynamics for
the audience.
In the Michael Chekhov acting/directing technique, all
stories are seen to consist of three acts-your basic Beginning, Middle, End. Each
of those acts will have their own beginning-middle-end and each will have one
climax and two lesser climactic events. These are sometimes called turning
points. Three events in each of three actors creates a total of nine major
events.
None of the events has exactly the same dynamic and the
energy rises to a peak in each act and each succeeding act rises higher and
falls deeper than the previous, until the resolution.
To qualify as an “EVENT,” something must happens that
affects all of the major characters and if it does not happen, the story cannot
continue as it does.
Sometimes, there are subplots that have their own line of
events.
When writing using the free-flowing Images mentioned above,
when you are done, then you can go back to identify whether you have the needed
events. You can rearrange the story in non-linear fashion, build up or lessen
an event to create the arc.
If
you like storyboarding or outlining before you write, you can create these
events first and build around them. Next up we will talk about building
dynamics and then creating contrasts, characters and atmospheres.
Dalton appeared in more than 200 films, television shows and commercials in New York, Hollywood and Texas, including work in Ghostbusters, Money Pit, Crocodile Dundee, Married to the Mob, FX, Legal Eagles, and Splash on the big screen and ER, HBO’s Carnivale, Dr. Quinn and Melrose Place among her many TV credits.
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Writing Tips Using Acting Techniques Part 1
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