Through the Years

Has your writing training “ruined” you in some ways? Do you notice plot holes, awkward point-of-view changes, and overly-predictable twists? I experienced this phenomenon recently.

My pastor asked me to produce and direct our church’s Christmas play, which is nothing new. I have been doing productions in some form or another for years, and I was thankful for the early heads up, as opposed to waiting until November to try to throw something together. He asked me to look over a play from a drama service he had found, so I paid the fee and downloaded the sample.

I am not one to knock someone else’s work, but my writing training radar kicked in as I read–and not in a good way.

The play in question hit me over the head with the biblical message, with several “sermonettes” tacked randomly into the dialogue. How many workshops have I attended about avoiding preachiness and subtly weaving in the spiritual message? Too many to count.

Another important lesson I have learned over the years is the “Show, Don’t Tell” rule. In the scenes I write, my characters should be actively DOING things, not just talking about them. Having my character “shiver to the bone under his light jacket in the unexpected snowstorm” is better than having the character exclaim, “It’s so cold!”

This play had a lot of telling, with characters standing around talking about what they would do or what they had done. Long monologues about random characters were featured. Much talk with little action had me squirming in my recliner as a I struggled through the piece.

Once finished, I flipped back to the front and noticed the copyright date: 1977! That would explain the awkwardness, as well as the references to records and outdated phones.

We’ve come a long way, baby.

There were certainly some great pieces written during that time and before, but today’s writers—and readers—are different. Many expectations have changed, and we must meet them before audiences turn us off or put away our pieces before finishing them.

So what to do about the Christmas play? I found the very first play I ever wrote, circa early-2000s, and dusted it off. A few changes and updates here and there (Cell phones have changed everything, haven’t they?), and I think ’ll have a solid production. The story holds up surprisingly well, and I miraculously managed to do a lot of showing instead of telling, even though I was a greenhorn at the writing thing back then.

Here’s hoping my other pieces will hold up over the years!

Carlton Hughes wears many hats. By day, he’s a professor of communication at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College. On Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings, he does object lessons and songs with motions as Children’s Pastor of Lynch Church of God. In his “spare time,” he is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in numerous publications, including Chicken Soup for the Soul and several devotional books from Worthy Publishing—Let the Earth Rejoice, Just Breathe, So God Made a Dog, and Everyday Grace for Men. Carlton and his wife Kathy have two college-age sons, Noah and Ethan. He is on the planning committee for Kentucky Christian Writers Conference and is a year-round volunteer for Operation Christmas child.