Finding False Monologues

THE PLAYWRITING SEMINARS > WORKING > EDITING > DIALOGUE > FALSE MONOLOGUES >

'As a playwright, I think you learn more from staged readings than from productions. You learn that if the words can't tell the story, all the other stuff is meaningless.'

-- Jack Heifner

False Monologues are just that: At first glance, they look like short Monologues, but they're actually a series of minimally connected thoughts. These things can be a good source of dialogue when they're broken apart into individual lines. This is made easier by the odd fact that you'll often write these in pairs. The solution: interleave the lines, alternating between each of these culprits.

An example of a False Monologue [two, actually] with its twin . . .


				JOAN
	Well, I don't know. I mean ... you know he could be
	anywhere. Anywhere at all. That's what these guys are like.
	You didn't think of that?

				LARKIN
	Where could he be? He can't be anywhere. He has to be some
	place he would've been before. That's common sense. That's
	what I've been thinking.

And these False Monologues converted from a sow's ear . . .

To Dialogue

A Minor Caution: False Monologues are the reverse of Hidden Monologues.

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