Writing a One Act Play

[robelly23]

So...I need to write this one act play for school and I don't have any ideas at the time.
Help?

[igotwowhacke]

Maybe you could do a courtroom or something.

[Scyze]

If you're completely stuck for an idea, there's a few different approaches.

[b]Good artists borrow, great artists...[/b]
If you really can't think of anything, think of some awesome idea that you really enjoy. Then, take the idea and run with it in a completely opposite direction until it becomes something of your own; you don't want to be accused of copying something, and you shouldn't be, in the first place. It's just a place to start from for inspiration. I've only written one play but it was actually produced by high school students with professional mentors and went quite well, and I got my idea from a previous play that had been run two years back at the same theater. I took one element of that play, and completely flipped it around until it was my own creation.

[b]Ask questions.[/b]
This is one of the best ways to get ANYTHING done in terms of writing. Hammer yourself with questions. What do you want to write? A comedy? A drama? What interests you? What makes you feel impassioned? It's important that you write something that you'll enjoy writing, that you feel strongly about. It doesn't have to be an activist sort of thing, but you [i]need[/i] to be enthusiastic. If you can figure that out, how can you form that into a play? What can you say about it/do with it? Who would be involved in this story? Why would they be involved in it? What do they think about it/how do they deal with whatever they're involved in? Ask questions all the way through and the story practically builds itself. At times you'll have to do a little mental teeth-pulling, but that's all part of the process.

[b]Sit and stare at the ceiling.[/b]
This sounds weird, but no shit, try it sometime. When I'm really stuck I'll lean back in my chair, tilt my head up and look at the ceiling. Sometimes, random images and ideas will come to me and they'll start flowing through my head and if I'm lucky, I can work with some of those. If you're SOL, give it a shot.