#7 For "Praying" Out Loud
"I just want him to be a stone-cold hottie that can rock me all night long."
“I need an answer. Please. Tell me what to do.”
Julia Roberts in EAT PRAY LOVE (2010)
In this post, you’ll discover how PRAYING OUT LOUD:
Works in life
Works in storytelling
Works as a vehicle to reveal emotion and connect with your audience
Works in EAT PRAY LOVE’s prayer scene
Works in NEVER HAVE I EVER opening prayer monologue
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INTRO
Praying out loud works in life.
I can vouch for that long, dark road of forging a meaningful redemptive life through prayer and forgiveness, and just when you're about to give up…
IT happens.
All of IT. Everything you want.
Don’t give up. Until the stars align for you, keep telling and writing your story.
Then, the stuff of spiritual resilience and conviction of faith—the ingredients of your Writer's Secret Sauce—will pay off in promises you can’t imagine.
Benefits of praying out loud in life:
Praying out loud sparks your soul to deliver the goods.
I guess you only need one good reason.
Praying out loud works in storytelling, too.
On the other hand, writing a character selfishly praying coupled with the human trait of not always being able to forgive makes for great storytelling.
Praying out loud instantly reveals a unique character with a problem to solve and obstacles in the way.
If you don’t pray, writing a scene where your character prays may feel uncomfortable.
So what.
Benefits of praying out loud in a story:
Praying out loud will help you set SET UP your entire story.
Praying out loud will act as a container for your premise, character, and conflict.
Praying out loud will unleash and expose a character’s unshaped childish ulterior motives, providing an emotional arc to follow.
Praying out loud will launch a character’s deepest desires into motion.
The storytelling technique of PRAYING OUT LOUD works like magic.
Praying is not about what you or your characters want to believe.
Praying, with the conviction of faith, is a mind-changing portal. That’s the magic.
EAT PRAY LOVE
Eat Pray Love is an example of dramatic praying. First, a best-selling book by Elizabeth Gilbert turned romantic drama starring Julia Roberts, EAT PRAY LOVE (2010) is about a woman eating her path to praying and forgiveness that ultimately leads to love.
That is the exact reason I PRAY. I can relate.
Showing a character praying out loud provides a springboard for your audience to emotionally connect with the main character’s weakness and desire to grow.
My Rant: More Praying, Please
If I look at the world, I see most people are doing too much eating and too much judgey-thinking and not enough praying, so there’s a lot less loving.
On the other hand—there is not enough eating because so many females are taking the weight loss drug shot, turning their mindsets into anorexic forgetfulness.
Finally, the “Weightloss Shooter-Uppers,” in their forgetfulness to eat, lose sight of WHY they wanted to stop eating in the first place: it was so they could find love.
No matter what EAT-PRAY-LOVE-FORGET cycle is happening in or around you, don’t forget to pray.
Better yet, make your character pray. Then you will know EXACTLY what they desire.
Either way, put the praying back into your story!
The world, our audiences, need prayer.
View Julia’s praying scene from EAT PRAY LOVE. Do you relate? Do you feel emotion?
HOW PRAYING OUT LOUD WORKS IN STORYTELLING
To explain how PRAYING OUT LOUD works in storytelling, I am using the opening pilot scene of NEVER HAVE I EVER, a YA TV series by Mindy Kaling and Lang Fisher on Netflix, to analyze how the writers leveraged PRAYING OUT LOUD to set up the entire story and series on PAGE ONE.
Combining the storytelling techniques of PRAYING OUT LOUD and PAGE 1 TELLS THE WHOLE STORY, you can accomplish the following:
Establish Main Character
Reveal the Main Character's weakness/need + motivation
Show the Main Character's goal
Reflect the Story's theme/tone
Set Up the Antagonist's plan (main opponent and opponent's goal)
WRITING TIP: The storytelling components above help you establish your premise, character, and conflict in an opening scene. Once you’ve accomplished this, you’ll have a strong handle on your story’s narrative drive and central conflict.
NEVER HAVE I EVER: Praying Out Loud - Opening Monologue Scene
The writers of NHIE use PRAYING OUT LOUD and TELL THE STORY ON PAGE 1 because, as a 30-minute pilot episode, they had to accomplish the following:
set up the story
set up the main character
reveal the main character’s desire line
pay off the pilot's ending with having the main teen character’s wish or PRAYER come to fruition, leaving the audience with a teen rom-com cliffhanger
Storytelling techniques explained:
1. Praying Out Loud
2. Tell the Whole Story on Page 1
In ONE page, NHIE's opening PRAYER monologue takes the actress 45 seconds to perform and effectively accomplishes the following:
Sets up the Story's premise, character, and conflict
Sets up the character's skewed or humorous POV
Sets up their cultural beliefs.
Tells the character’s wants and desires.
Foreshadows their nemesis
Devi Vishwakumar's Opening PRAYER Transcription
Praying out loud and telling the whole story on page one are two powerful storytelling techniques that cannot be overlooked or underrated.
Read NHIE’s opening prayer and monologue. Using the storytelling techniques above, spot how the writers set up the entire story and series on page one.
Hey gods, it's Devi Vishwakumar, your favorite Hindu girl in the San Fernando Valley. What's a-poppin? First day of school and I thought we should have a check in. I think we can all agree that last year sucked for a number of reasons, so I thought a few ways that you guys can make it up to me. One, I'd like to be invited to a party with alcohol and hard drugs. I'm not gonna do them. I'd just like the opportunity to say: "No cocaine for me, thanks. I'm good." Two, I'd love for my arm hair to thin out. I know it's an Indian thing, but my forearms look like the frigging floor of a barbershop. And lastly, most importantly, I'd really, really like a boyfriend, but not some nerd from one of my AP classes. Like a guy from a sports team. He can be dumb. I don't care. I just want him to be a stone-cold hottie that can rock me all night long. Thanks for considering, I love you guys.
PRAY OUT LOUD + TELL THE WHOLE STORY ON PAGE 1
ANALYSIS
In the opening scene of the NHIE pilot, Praying Out Loud is used by the central character to tell Devi's backstory, set up character traits, location and setting, and her weakness/need—the fact that she's insecure and that she'd like to change certain characteristics of her body and cultural background.
Yet, she has solid religious beliefs, so she prays out loud some more to the Hindu gods for three things. She wants, most of all, a boyfriend, so this now is an easy way to see what she desires and her physical goal based on her weakness/need—she doesn't accept herself, she's not great enough…yet.
Devi Vishwakumar is an Indian American girl about to start her sophomore year. She prays that after a traumatic year, she'll have thinner hair, a hot boyfriend, and be popular.
Writing Challenge
Write an opening scene, whether your character is religious, spiritual, agnostic, or undecided, and show how your character is motivated by a blindsided weakness/need so that they turn to a power higher than themselves to be fulfilled.
TELLING FEMALE FORWARD STORIES
For me, EAT PRAY LOVE is a female anthem for jumping off the cliff and knowing I’ll fall but still land on two feet. It's embracing love without fear, something I am going through right now.
Reflecting on what I am praying for shows me the way of my path and intuition, just like a character in a story.
Similarly, I like the TV series NEVER HAVE I EVER because it is female-forward in the most awkward teen way. I love that the show is set in high school and continually teaches us. So, no matter how goofy I feel, I must love myself enough to pray for what I want.
These ideas are so FEMALE, so inside, and can be cultivated for any character.
I applaud the NHIE series for focusing on fresh female voices (young and adult) and for weaving stories of unique female characters who find ways to belong through the conviction of owning their self-empowerment.
Most of the NHIE female characters experience rejection, so their stories remind me of me.
Use NHIE themes for your female-forward stories.
1. Strong Educational Elements: NHIE offers an engaging platform for teaching and learning, not just about the characters' lives but also about broader themes like cultural identity, adolescent struggles, and the complexities of family dynamics. Much like my passion for teaching, the series provides insightful narratives that delve into the lives of its characters, offering valuable moral life lessons and alternative perspectives along the way.
2. Fresh Voices and Diverse Representation: The show stands out for its commitment to representing diverse voices and experiences. It explores characters' lives from various cultural backgrounds, shedding light on their unique stories and struggles. This commitment to diversity and inclusion mirrors my appreciation for developing fresh voices.
3. Themes of Belonging and Self-Empowerment: NHIE masterfully weaves together characters' narratives, navigating the complexities of adolescence and striving to find their identity, power, and place in the world. Despite facing rejection and challenges, they keep going, ultimately finding ways to belong on their terms. This resonates with my experiences, especially now, when belonging is a priority on my list of needs and desires.
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I look forward to reading your stories and connecting in 2024!
Best wishes,
Kelly E. Keough
Oh I love love love this! You're so right. The desperate plea out loud IMMEDIATELY bonds me to the character. Having a character pray out loud is so effective because it tells a story without being preachy - it's just real. Thanks for this!