mental downloadables

the quest log for to git gud in acting 'n stuff

The Main Event

Phew. You memorized your lines. Now what?

How to NOT Forget Your Lines as an Actor

You've been working really hard to get a monologue in your brains for you next audition. Good on you.

In fact you've remember at least 5 different scripts over the past six months. You're rocking it!

Tiny problem:

You can't remember them just a few weeks later.

no bueno

I mean you memorized them at some point, right?

They're in your brain somewhere. Somewhere.

But at that last audition they asked you if you had "something else" and you froze!

You thought:

"I think I remember that one monologue I did in high school?"

"Will they recognize this obscure pop song from an anime if I speak it like it's a monologue?"

"What was that poem I wrote for that poetry slam last summer?"

and then it hits you

You can't remember what you memorized!

Now you are gonna wonder for the rest of your life, if you had one more monologue prepared for that audition, would you have gotten cast?

Let's not let that happen.

Forever? ForEVER ... Ever ... Ever ... ever?

Here's how you can keep a library of monologues in your brain and essentially have something cool to say for every occasion. You'll be like your friend who can quote every single line in a Will Ferrell movie except you'll be able to do that with monologues.

It's time you've adopted the practice of Riding the F.L.O.E.W. of Review

but first

a side quest...

Quest Log for Monologues

A journal records a traveler's experiences during a journey.

Your acting career is a journey.

Every audition

Every monologue

Every rejection and redemption

is an epic quest to become the actor you know you were born to be.

That's why I recommend you keep a journal of all the monologues you memorize over the years in one place so that you can look at ... and have access to them any time you need 'em.

But, what exactly are we going to put in said journal???

Riding the F.L.O.E.W. of Review

In addition to the Writing the Monologue out by Hand​

You need to get into the F.L.O.E.W.

This is an acronym for:

First Letter of Every Word

From now on, you're gonna write the first letter of every word of every monologue you'll ever learn so that you won't completely forget them later.

So:

1. Go to a blank page in your Monologue Quest Log (Journal)
2. Get your script you are memorizing
3. Using your script (and making sure you do this correctly because we are depending on this document to be accurate), write the first letter of every word of the text that makes up your monologue. (Example: The line “O, had the gods done so…” would look like “O, h t g d s…"

When you are done your new verbatim ‘script’ may look something like:

​

And on and on until you have the first letter of every word present in the continuous monologue on the opposite side of the same page.

​

Keep the punctuation when using this technique ​ Say each word out loud as you write its first letter to make sure that you are writing the correct word in the correct order (accuracy is important with this segment) ​ Attempt to go letter by letter and say the lines of the text (referring to your text if you get stumped on what to say next). This will reveal what part of the script you don’t know verbatim, and thus you know where to place your efforts with another imprinting.

​

Once you've got the F.L.O.E.W. written the only thing left to do is...

Review it!!!

Once a week

Before every audition

Waiting in line at the grocery store

Go over the first letter of every word of monologues you've already memorized and this should help you keep them in your brain long term.

in conclusion

You worked hard to memorize your monologues!

Don't forget them!

Remember (see what I did there):

1. Get a journal. A Monologue Quest Log
2. Write monologues down
3. Write the First Letter of Every Word of each monologue.
4. Review on a regular basis to keep the monologues stored in your long term memory.

With just 30 minutes a week you can keep your monologues fresh in your memory!

Time well spent

​

See you next week!

​