  Drama
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| Life is complicated. There's no getting around that. In drama, complications keep the plot moving, but at what point do they become more of a hindrance than a helpful tool? We'll tackle the conundrum of complicated complications in this issue, and maybe we can simplify one of the biggest traps into which a drama writer can fall. |
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As much as we try to avoid complications in our daily lives, we must embrace them when we sit down to write any piece of writing. Adding complications to move the plot is universal among all types of writing. Still, there are certain parameters that exist for each of the different genres. Some complications change meaning among the genres, and some complications don't even work across the board. Here are a couple examples:
Plot complication: After a young woman calls her father and announces she is seeing someone, she tells him her new beau is twenty years older than she is.
How this would work for drama: This announcement would provoke a strong reaction from the father, ranging from surprise to contempt.
How this would work in another genre: It depends on the drama. In mystery, it may provoke suspicion on the father's behalf. In comedy, this type of complication would not appear as funny unless further complications lead to an ending that emphasizes age being irrelevant in love. This complication can also be used for foreshadowing in other genres.
Plot complication: A wounded and mentally stressed soldier returns from war and develops an infection that threatens to claim one of his limbs.
How this would work for drama: It would change the soldier's setting, most logically to a VA hospital where receiving treatment can result in further complications, including losing said limb.
How this would work in other genres: Realistically, this would be tricky at best to work into a comedy piece. Still, it would work in other genres, especially mystery, where the infection can serve many functions, one of which being the cause of death the doctors and hospital administrators cannot pin down or figure out in any way. Thus, the infection would take precedence, and the soldier would become a minor character.
As you can see, complications have a mutable quality across genres. So what guidelines apply for drama? Here's what I find works best specifically for drama.
 The number of complications you add must be workable. If you insert too many, you'll lose track of the plot and may end up resorting to the dreaded deus ex machina sort of ending, where it literally takes divine intervention to resolve all of your conflicts. Besides being unrealistic, deus ex machina makes it obvious to the reader you lost control over your story somewhere along the way.
With drama, pacing your complications correctly can make or break the piece. That said, when you set up your complications, the main consideration is the length of the piece. Complications rolling in one right after the other can work well in a short short story, but for a novel, stretching it out works much better. You want to be able to get the maximum use out of your complications, but at the same time, you do not want to overload your reader's brain or get yourself in a messy situation that requires a hundred or so pages to clarify.
For the most part, you want to stick with plausible complications. That doesn't mean you have to find a formula and stick to it. Instead, you have to choose complications that relate to the main conflict. If your main conflict is an older woman trying to summon her children to her death bed, having her nurse announce she is pregnant will serve only to have readers scratching their heads to the point that the dandruff will make the shoulders of their shirts pure white. Every once in a while, you can get away with throwing in a wonky complication for comic relief, but that shouldn't be the case every other complication.
There is a fine line between dramatic complications and comedic complications. Sometimes, the types and frequency of complications can cross the line from drama to comedy, the best evidence being in parodies. Let's briefly compare two movies: Airport and its closest parody Airplane! (and if anyone cares, I personally prefer Airplane!). With the melodrama Airport, you have the conflicts of a bomber on an airplane and an airport shut down due to a snowstorm. Personal problems (including marital affairs) complicate problems in the air and on the ground. With the gut-busting comedy Airplane!, food poisoning incapacitates the crew of a flight bound for Chicago, and the only person on board who can fly the plane has a nagging inferiority complex (among his myriad of other personal problems). To make matters worse, the flight controller in the Chicago tower used to be his commanding officer when they were in the Air Force, and the two had a falling out over a botched mission. Both scenarios possess potential for drama setups, but the timing of the complications in Airplane! is a little quicker, upping the comedy ante. In Airport, the complications develop more slowly.
Keep in mind these guidelines have yet to be set in stone, but they tend to be followed among many drama writers. So as your work with complications, try not to complicate things too much, or you'll be stuck in a real conundrum trying to sort out your twisted plot and characters. Now that headache...is so not worth it.
Until next time,
(sig courtesy of Creeper Of The Realm  ) |
Have a look at some pieces that may not appear complicated but use complications in a fluid manner to further the story and keep it moving. Enjoy!
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Looks like the loglines caught some people's attention. That's always a good thing, and hopefully the use of loglines for focusing on a story will prove helpful to many more.
From Ms Kimmie  : No log line from me, Elisa, but I just wanted to say, I love that idea. There are so many tips and tricks out there to keep us motivated with our writing and this is one I haven't come across before. If you saw the plethora of books on writing on my shelves, you'd be surprised I could make such an assertion, but it's true. This little log line trick (which I just have to try now), well, I heard it here first. Thanks!
Hello there, Kim! Yeah, you tend to see this trick in the screenwriting books but not other writing tip tomes. What I like about it (as opposed to making webs and other forms of pre-writing) is that it can be done at any point in the writing of a given piece, and it's condensed. That combination makes it perfect for all writers, especially the scatterbrained ones such as myself. 
From Robert Waltz  : I have trouble with creating and resolving conflict in my stories - I guess I'm just a peaceful, conflict-avoiding kind of guy. So my biography logline may look something like: "A mediocre writer struggles to improve his writing by incorporating conflict into his stories."
Well, erm, Robert, avoiding conflict doesn't work so well with drama, or any writing for that matter. I can imagine how this rather "complicated" newsletter will boggle your mind.  Also, thank you for the lovely logline (and a biographical one at that). Enjoy your 3000 gift points.
From Write : Elisa,
Sorry to disappoint you, but I didn't care for scriptwriting. However, this week's logline is right up my alley. I'm going to disgest it well. Thank you.
You know, CW, I had some conflicting feelings about addressing scriptwriting in my newsletters. I had actually received some angry e-mails complaining about how I didn't cover scriptwriting. It took a few weeks to cycle out of writing about scripts, because once I got going on the topic, I was on a roll. Ask anyone who knows me, and they'll tell you that me on a roll with anything is a frightening thing. In any case, the logline idea literally struck me as a way to bridge the form aspect of drama with the genre aspect. I'm glad you will be digesting the idea. On a lighter note, I'm glad to see someone besides me use the word "digest" in that manner.
From bazilbob: Great tip, loglines sound like a really useful tool. Thanks for that.
You're very welcome. I think it will come very much in handy come time for NaNoWriMo (which I recommend for anyone who has ever wanted to write a novel). If you ever get stuck and find yourself writing in circles, brainstorm a logline so you at least have a vague idea as to where you want to go. If anyone uses a logline for NaNo, let me know how it goes. I'd be interested in finding out.
For the next newsletter, I'll continue to look at complications and respond to any sticky situations you have had involving adding complications to the main conflict of your story. I'll also address how loglines can affect how you complicate a story. So, send your comments this way! 
And if you happen to miss or misplace a newsletter, feel free to stop by "The Drama Box" [13+]. |
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Drama: August 16, 2006 Issue [#1207]
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