  Drama
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"Drama is life with the dull bits cut out."
Alfred Hitchcock
Hello, this is Joy , this week's drama editor.
Drama exists everywhere, and it often offers solid reasons for its existence by filling us with tension and excitement. Drama can be tragedy or comedy, and it can come in the shape of a play, movie, fiction, real life story, and poetry.
One way to create drama is through the characters and the changes they go through.
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Welcome to the Drama newsletter
From reading your wonderful stories in our site, it is easy to sense the talent with which so many of you are creating your fictional characters. Since characters are the main elements in creating drama, let’s examine today the changes that may happen to a character throughout the story and how a writer can show that change.
As has been indicated by writers and writing coaches, in a good story, characters create conflict; consequently, conflict creates drama. In addition, a story shows more depth if its characters go through changes.
The question is: How can a writer go about showing the changes inside his characters during the trajectory of the story?
Let us take a look at how some characters may go through a change in a story.
If a story is written from the first person point of view, the character may show the workings of his mind when he talks about his feelings or the change can be followed in a character's journal. In Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes, the main character, Charlie Gordon, keeps a journal of his progress throughout the story to let us follow the drastic change in his mental progress and decline.
In a play, a character may show his inner change and his inner workings through asides and soliloquies. If a narrator is there in the play like the chorus in ancient Greek dramas, he could inform or warn the audience about the change.
The change can also be shown through the interaction of characters called confidantes. A confidante is someone in whom a character confides his inner turmoil, joys, and sorrows, thus revealing the gradual or abrupt change in his make-up. In The Door into Summer, Robert Heinlein's Dan Davis talks to his cat Pete, letting the reader see how his plans and feelings are changing.
If a major character has his opposite, at the end of the story after that character has changed, the reader finds that the character's understanding and values has neared to that of his opposite. An opposite in a story is sometimes called the foil. A foil is someone whose character contrasts the character of the protagonist or any other important character to highlight the protagonist's or some other important character's personality. The foil is not necessarily the antagonist to the protagonist, although he could be.
The most important fact is that all character changes in a story must happen through the events in the story. Strong will in a character is also important for conflict and drama, especially in a short story, even if the character goes through a change as the result of the events in the plotline.
A weak character does not offer much drama if he shows no change; however, when a character starts out as a weakling and changes to become stronger and overcomes many obstacles, the story becomes a success. In the Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins is a wimp in the beginning. By the end of the book, he is strong, responsible, and self-assured; therefore, he makes the reader feel good for the change in him.
Some character changes come about slowly throughout the story; others happen instantly as the result of one dramatic event. The best way to show this change in a character through the events is to write it in scenes with one specific scene being the instigating factor for change.
Each scene of the story needs to have well-drawn characters, its own conflict, time, place, and mood. To show the change a character is going through, the character's mood has to fit the mood of the scene to highlight the change in him. In Shakespeare's Hamlet, Act 3-Scene 4, in the queen's closet scene where Hamlet kills Polonius, we see the change in the queen from a self-confident woman to one who becomes thrown-off-balance to fit the drama of the scene.
If a character does not change totally except for one or more aspects of him, the writer's task is to dramatize the changing parts in him. For example, if a victim is out for revenge but witnesses someone else suffer as the result of his attempts for revenge, he may learn to forgive those who have wronged him. Then, the writer has to dramatize his witnessing the partial results of his revenge. In other words, the change in a character has to be shown through and within a scene or several scenes.
The change-instigating scene needs to be written well, especially when the motivation of the character changes. In The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, the instigating scene is the one in which the ex-convict Tom Joad picks up the turtle and tells Casy, the minister, to start leading the people. The turtle is a metaphor for the middle class farmers and their struggles. As Steinbeck did in Tom Joad's case, it is important to dramatize the emotion of the character whose motivation will change.
When the characters do not change as to their personalities but what they want changes, the plot needs to be adjusted accordingly. For this reason, some writers do not like to make a detailed outline of the plot in the beginning; they prefer to write the story as their characters progress and change. In the long run, whether writers have a plan or not, stories with fully developed characters will succeed if they leave an emotional impact on the reader at their end.
One thing to always keep in mind when we write is this affirmation: A writer never quits. As such, here in Writing.com, we try hard by writing, rewriting, editing, and re-editing, and then trying some more.
May all the characters you create come alive and shine with truth and imagination. 
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A delightful story about a character coming back to its writer. Nothing like a little competition to encourage this comeback.
An internal struggle or a dream. Either way, this character experiences some tough moments.
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Sometimes a creepy character can overwhelm another person.
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He once had the road and the cornet. But then...
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Can you tell what happens to a character after his story is over? Here is one version of it.
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something from english class. follow a character from "All Quiet on the Western Front"
#1405367 by oliviaspen  |
Sometimes a song can inspire a character or a full story, leaving the reader stunned.
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Can a bus ride change one's mind? Read and find out.
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A few contests in Writing.com
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pooja_sr says:
Your Drama newsletter was really informative.
Keep Writing, and making a difference, Joy!
Thank you very much, pooja_sr. 
All of us drama editors try very hard.
kamille
Great information. it is well needed. I am currently studying the Merchant of Venice which is a comedy Written by William Shakespeare. This play contains conflict between the jews and christians.
Thank you very much, E.
Conflict is the backbone of drama, and although, the subject has been dealt with on this site numerous times, I wanted to bring up just one more time to keep us on our toes.
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Drama: July 02, 2008 Issue [#2459]
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