This week: The Drama of War Edited by: Joy  
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I made mistakes in drama. I thought drama was when actors cried. But drama is when the audience cries.
Frank Capra
“We disconnected. And I wondered if we had ever truly connected.”
Eric Jerome Dickey, Dying for Revenge
“The next thing I knew, I was falling. I dreamed I was being thrown into an open grave, but jerked awake and landed on a bed.”
Eric Jerome Dickey, Finding Gideon
“Out of the corner of her eye she thought she saw Jace shoot her a look of white rage - but when she glanced at him, he looked as he always did: easy, confident, slightly bored."
Cassandra Clare, City of Bones
Hello, I am Joy , this week's drama editor. This issue is about the drama of war.
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Welcome to the Drama newsletter
Why drama and why war, you might ask. I like drama because I like depth and intensity, and most any drama has to a lot to do with intensity. As such, war means immense and intense drama where life death, loyalty, fear, and survival play out within the minds and souls of those involved in wars in any shape or form.
On the other hand, war is a human failure. In my opinion, the drama and the trauma of war should never be glorified, but this doesn't mean we shouldn't touch the subject. Quite the opposite! The stories and the aftereffects of war should never be forgotten. This is because writing about war and especially personal stories remind us that a war can be survived and we should always strive to avoid wars and conflicts that lead to wars.
Where wars are concerned, speaking for myself, I was never in a war, although I was born during the World War II. The closest I could get to a war was through my father whom I barely remember and a friend's son who returned from Vietnam, totally messed up emotionally and functionally.
With war, even when an up-front peace is achieved at the end, is such peace a real achievement? I ask this question because, even after a war, different kinds of dramas surface: at the home front the anguish of waiting, the awful news of a loss, and the remains of nightmares from the experience like the survivor's guilt that leads into depression and self-destructive behavior. Then, this often reflects in family relationships, where families are torn apart not just by loss, but by uncertainty, guilt, and the slow unraveling of what used to be normal in people's lives. This is because the trauma of war doesn't end when the fighting stops. It echoes long after the last bullet is fired.
In addition, for civilians in war zones, especially children, the trauma is too deep. Growing up in fear, displacement, or witnessing atrocities can change the course of a life permanently. In this way, trauma becomes a silent inheritance passed down through generations.
Maybe this is because war intensifies everything: relationships, decisions, emotions and especially fear. In a war, moments of courage are born from desperation and acts of betrayal from fear. War tests our collective human spirit.
Then, because war tests the human spirit or rather shows the failure of it, all arts and especially literature and film can become ways for survivors to process pain, reclaim normalcy, and connect with others who understand. And not just survivors but those who never knew what a war is must be educated about what it can be like.
In the same vein, no wonder some of the greatest literature have come about from trying to make sense of war's chaos and pain, possibly starting with the Trojan War in Homer's Iliad to Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front. There are also other dramatic works in all arts that have given voice to the inexpressible. Of the latest novels about war are: The Women by Kristin Hannah, The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe and Now I Am Here by Chidi Ebere.
In writing a war story, the most elemental points to keep in mind are: the story's global value, external conflict and politics, interpersonal conflict, and internal conflict. All this must reflect the controlling idea or the story's general theme. Our research if we are writing a war story should include a cause for the war and precipitating events, key figures in the war and which outcome we want to highlight, weaponry, social customs, landscapes, and costumes of the time period, daily routines of soldiers, their slang, profanity, and communication patterns, communication devices and transportation methods
Most importantly, while my writer friends try writing about a war, and regardless of the great works of literature that have to do with wars and their aftereffects, I certainly hope our world would stop all its wars and never cause them to take place, ever again.
Here are a few online sources about wars:
https://militaryexperience.org/everyday-danger-war-trauma-in-the-absence-of-dram...
https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2015/marchapril/feature/theater-war
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_film
https://time.com/archive/6634687/the-war-the-greatest-drama/
May we all live in peace!
Until next time! 
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 Enjoy!
| |  | Crack (GC)
Michael endures hardship for his family, while Karim clings to faith in a war-torn world.
#2335717 by Ahmed Elfeky  |
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 This Issue's Tip: Make sure your war story often compels the protagonist to act without much choice beyond do or die. Also, forced to respond, the protagonist and other soldiers act out according to their positions on the power hierarchy.
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Feedback for "Oh, The Rhythm at the Beginning!"
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Lornda 
I enjoyed reading your newsletter! Great advice for the opening of a story, and thank you for highlighting one of my stories. 
Thanks for your kind words and you're welcome!
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Quick-Quill 
While there are good intro's and great intro's, neither will deter me if I want to read what I read in the Synop, saw on the cover and the title. I feel the emphasis on the first line is only what people think about AFTER a book becomes a bestseller. There are great first lines to mediocre books, but no one says a thing about them. So write the ONE book and your first line will be remembered.
That is so true. People will remember what they choose to remember; however, the beginning is important for keeping a reader's interest.
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Drama: April 23, 2025 Issue [#13080]
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