Playwriting - Part 6B - The Working Process, Storyboarding

The first thing many people think of when they hear the word storyboarding is movies. It is understandable that they think of this because that is usually where storyboarding tends to mostly be seen. People don't tend to associate storyboarding with writing. However, if you think about it, it really is no different than a movie. A movie is telling a story in picture format and a play is first telling a story in the format of words to later be told in live pictures.

If you're not sure what storyboarding is, it is putting small parts - scenes or plot points - on a separate card or piece of paper so the points can be rearranged to where they can make a story.

This can be done physically with notecards and taping them on the wall or using pushpins to pin them to a cork board. I know that I started storyboarding by simply using a text document on my computer and moving plot points around on it by using copy and paste,then deleting the duplicate that was where I didn't want it. There are also software programs that allow people to storyboard.

It's hard to think that Shakespeare storyboarded, but maybe he did. Perhaps he did not have everything in Romeo and Juliet planned out in order at first. While it is based upon the poem The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Iuliet by Arthur Brooke and from a story in the collection The Palace of Pleasure by William Painter, Shakespeare had to write his play, too.

Maybe, at first, Shakespeare had a storyboard with plot points that went like this:

1. Romeo is in a relationship with Rosalind.
2. Romeo falls in love with Juliet.
3. Tybalt kills Mercutio.
4. Romeo kills Tybalt.
5. Romeo is banished.
6. Roslind becomes upset that Romeo is banished.
7. Juliet becomes upset that Romeo is banished.
8. Rosalind and Juliet meet and they explain why they are upset to each other.
9. Rosalind gets upset with Romeo and decides to break up with him.
10. Romeo gets Rosalind's letter.
11. Juliet is upset with Romeo, but she still loves him.

Of course, this isn't at all how the play goes, but it still would have been a valid story. Shakespeare would have moved each little plot point around and moved or edited the ones that no longer fit as he moved them.

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_{Yes, this counts as my March 30th post.}