Playwriting - Part 5G - Creating Characters with Shared Milestones

While you may have a play where characters only first meet each other during the play, that is highly unlikely. It is likely that at least two of your characters are going to share at least one milestone. Each character is going to have his or her own memories and perceptions of what happened.

When characters share a milestone, if you use character creation techniques and monologues, then you should have each character give his or her monologue about that milestone. The characters aren't going to have the exact same story. They are both only going to remember that the event happened. Let them each tell in their own way.

Once you have written a monologue for each character about the event, then you can have the two dialogue about the event. Find the feeling of how the two characters interact with each other.

Remember that just because the two character share the same milestone, it doesn't mean that they like each other. The two characters could've always hated each other and still hate each other. They could've not liked each other and then "grown up" to start getting along. On the other hand, they could have always liked each other and could still be friends. Or they could have liked each other and something could've happened to where they don't like each other.

It's your play. Any of those scenarios or even a different one is valid. Don't let others tell you that the scenario is not valid. Write your play.