A monologue is really any extended speech by one character (anywhere from maybe thirty seconds to a one-person show that’s more than ninety minutes in length). Monologues are usually part of a larger play, but sometimes they are written to stand alone. There may or may not be another character on stage. I tend to avoid long monologues in my plays, because if you’re not careful, monologues tend to slow plays down. But a good monologue is a wonderful thing, and actors always need them for auditions. So if you want to write a monologue, whether as part of a play or as a stand-alone, remember a few tips:

The character delivering the monologue must want something in the present. In other words, why is he telling us this? What does he want right now, and how is delivering the monologue helping him get it? Monologues whose only purpose is to describe something that happened don’t work.

Monologues, like dialogue, have two functions: to move the plot/story forward and to tell us more about the character. That doesn’t mean that the character literally should tell us about herself. We should learn more about her from what she says and from how she says it.