How Addiction Happens

Question by : Constructive critisism: self-written monologue?
My friend is going to perform a monologue I’m writing for him in his acting class. I’ve never written one before. It is a dramatic monologue and needs to be at least 1 minute long. The maximum time is 1 minute and 30 seconds.

“Addiction: something you don’t stop but want to or should. I just watched a video in psychology about people that went into the hospital for addiction. A guy had a heart attack, received CPR, and died in front of my eyes. Sure, he was addicted to drugs, but he couldn’t stop that. How could he stop something that he felt like he needed to have? I sobbed silently — crying without tears, and no one looked my way. I know what he’d felt. I understood his pain. I feel it every single day; the need for something so powerful, something that makes me feel good, something — addictive. I don’t understand how I hold myself together to the point that my tears won’t let go. My words won’t leave my head. They sit and stir themselves to the point my cries gather in my throat and I feel like I’m going to scream but it just never happens. I simply won’t allow myself and I don’t see why. Is that a weak quality? I’m so weak it’s pathetic; however, I still go on with the feeling everything’s going to end suddenly and my sanity’s going to wear thin. Can you be addicted to anything? Sure, the guy was addicted to drugs, but what about me? I think.. I’m addicted to sorrow.”

How does it sound?

Best answer:

Answer by rhapword
It’s good but it’s more of a soliloquy than a monologue. A monologue is one side of a dialogue – there is someone imaginary to whom the character is speaking.

So think about whom this character may be addressing. It could be a group of college students but then the piece comes off as preachy rather than dramatic. If you make it more personal, it could be a girlfriend or a boyfriend, someone with whom the actor is in the process of becoming intimate, where secrets and failures can be shared. You can modify the monologue accordingly.

I suggest you change the beginning so that the definition of an addict or addiction sets the scene (whom the character is addressing and where). For example, if you go with a boy talking to his girlfriend, imagine that she’s made an unkind remark about an addict. The monologue can then begin:
“Addict? Yes of course he’s an addict, Melinda. He’s doing something over and over that he can’t stop but wants to or shouldn’t.”

Then you can have the rest of the monologue and end with, “I guess if you go with me, you’re going with an addict. Can you deal with that?”

These are just suggestions. At the end of it all, do what your gut tells you. All the best!

Answer by eyeofthebeholder
I really like it, especially how you almost weave the two stories together. I’m just going to do a little nit-picking. I don’t think it’s necessary to say that the guy had a heart attack and received CPR. It will still be plenty intense if you say that you saw him die.

I really like the energy building during “They sit and stir themselves to the point my cries gather in my throat and I feel like I’m going to scream” but I feel like it starts to lose it’s momentum with, “but it just never happens”. Maybe replace it with something shorter and more intense like, “but I can’t. I just can’t.”

Also, the however In the fourth to last sentence seems a little unnecessary, and it sort of creates a “road-block” so to speak.

Other than that, great monologue. Hope this helps!

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