Hi everyone I'm currently working on a monologue to send off for a competition at the Bolton Octagon. I've got my character and her personality but I need to make it a 40min story and I've only got 10mins done. I don't want to 'water' my monologue down or make it monotonous. Also does anyone know how many words/pages work out to make 40mins. Help!
BBC works on 3 words per second for short stories. 40 minutes would be 2400 seconds = 7200 words(
How did you work out that you have 10 minutes' worth done? You must have read it aloud - and if you didn't, you should. We read faster in our heads than we do out loud. Clearly you need roughly 4 times the number of pages - though it's not an exact science when some things need longer pauses, for instance, or more measured diction. Read your work exactly as you would want to hear it spoken; that may take longer than you think.
If you have 10 minutes' worth, to talk of padding out the extra 30 minutes says you simply haven't got enough - and you'll lose your audience pretty quickly. You've got to keep them gripped all the way through, so everything has to be relevant.
Thanks Fancesco I know about the word count etc but it makes it a bit more difficult when they only give you a time frame. How much easier it would have been with a set amount of words but I'll definitely give your suggestions a try it sounds workable. Thanks for the input.