PODCAST – The Magic of Tone: Diary of a Teenage Girl

Tone, in fact, is something that is layered on top of truth. So, our first step as writers is about getting our own personal truth on the page. In order to do that, sometimes we need to let go of our desire to control the tone. Sometimes we need to write the scene in our comedy that makes us cry, or makes us disturbed, or goes to that incredibly dark place that we don't want to go to. Sometimes we have to write the scene in our drama that gets experimental or playful, or oddly, inappropriately funny.

In acting there is actually a technique for this. If you've ever been in a play or in a film rehearsal there is often a period where the performance starts to get really tight. Usually at the first reading everything seems great: the actors haven't figured out the character yet and they're just playing. They're just having a good time. And everything is filled with energy and excitement and fun. They seem to be hitting all the right notes, flying free and using their instincts.

But there then comes a point where they've started to figure out the piece. They've started to figure out their character. They've started the figure out what's really going on, the structure of the character's arc, how things are changing, who the character really is and how to play them.

And at that time, a strange thing happens...

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