 Drama: December 31, 2008 Issue [#2784] |
  Drama
This week: Edited by: Joy  
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"She's afraid that if she leaves, she'll become the life of the party."
Groucho Marx
Hello, this is Joy , this week’s Drama editor. In this issue, we'll look at the drama in the New Year's Eve: its celebration, people's resolutions, the start of positive or negative issues, and the hope and despair it might bring.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and days of auld lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll take a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne.
Robert Burns
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Welcome to the Drama newsletter
Do you ever play the “what if “ game? What if you took one of your old stories and set it up inside or start it with a New Year’s Eve ball? You would probably inject more energy into your story, and maybe, your story would turn into a different story.
New Year's Eve is a worldwide affair as the last day of the calendar year or December 31 in the Gregorian calendar. It rolls in with music as live folk and country, jazz and blues, with dancing and partying, or with "The oppressive cheer of the holidays" as New York Times called it.
This is when we lose our heads to merrymaking while we think back in remorse, even if it is too late for bashing ourselves, and we make resolutions for the future, which we fail to keep. This is when New Year’s Eve balls and gatherings bring together all the quirky characters, opposites, introverts and extroverts. This is when the ball drops in Times Square and in other locations and even ESPN comes up with daredevil shows.
With all that energy behind it, New Year’s Eve is a boon for writers because its drama has tremendous power as it brings out the best and the worst in people.This is when people lose their heads and fall in love or lust, or possibly, new relationships start and old ones end.
Present day romance novels have a ball with the New Year’s Eve parties. In Kiss and Tell, Suzanne Brockman dresses up her main character as Cinderella for a costume party, and from that moment on, the plot rolls off smoothly.
The Romance genre is not the only one to make use of this once-a-year event. In George Eliot’s Silas Marner, (author's real name is Mary Ann Evans) New Year's Eve changes the life of the main character when Molly, an addict, walks through the snow to crash a New Year's Eve Party. Molly falls down dead, and her child wanders into Silas Marner's home. James T. Farrell's New Year's Eve, 1929 depicts the life of a young woman, Beatrice Burns, with the goal of spending New Year's Eve at a party, but Beatrice is ill with tuberculosis, and her attempt to enjoy a party masks her fear of death. Nick Hornby, an author of our time, brings together four desperate people on New Year’s Eve in a London setting famous as the last stop for those ready to end their lives in A Long Way Down.
Mystery and suspense writers use New Year’s Eve to their advantage the most. In the Devil's Teardrop, an intense psychological thriller, the mystery writer Jeff Deaver, on New Year's Eve 1999, sends his killer, called "Digger," with an Uzi into Washington DC's Metro Station. Then,threats are issued later in the day that Digger will repeat his killing spree during the height of New Year's Celebrations. Anne Cleeves starts her chilling novel Raven Black in the Scottish Shetland Islands, on a New Year's Eve with a lonely outcast named Magnus Tait who stays home waiting for visitors that never arrive. The next morning, the body of a murdered teenage girl is discovered in the snow, and an investigation begins.
Playwrights, too, have taken this juncture in time into account. Noel Coward's Play Cavalcade is a tale of joy and woe, chiefly concerned with the experiences of Robert Marryot and his wife, Jane, their children, and their servants, beginning with New Year's Eve in 1899. The co-writers Brendan Millburn, Rachel Sheinken, and Valerie Vigoda also tell us in an off-Broadway show, titled Striking 12, the story of a grumpy guy who turns into door-to-door salesman of special light bulbs, as the play dips into Hand Christian Andersen’s The Little Match Girl. This production later made the rounds throughout the USA.
Drama is pain, joy, elation, anger, vengeance or any human emotion acknowledged in ourselves and in others. We take the emotions we feel and give them color, light, words, and then, a story. A New Year’s Eve occasion is the perfect time and place as the turning point or a beginning of a tale because:
 It is a setting that matters to the characters.
It is a setting has can influence the action greatly.
It is a setting where elation and distress can clash to create an incredible conflict.
It is a setting that will be of interest to the readers for its worldwide appeal.
It is a setting that you can arrange the decoration and the props to your liking
It is a setting that most of us writers know enough about to handle with ease.
A word of caution, however, is: Do not treat the setting as a large block of description. Rather, insert it in sprays of description inside the action that can show the inner traits of your characters.
Happy New Year, Writing.com!
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Thank you for reading this newsletter. First, let's take a look at a tip.
This Issue’s Tip:
* On the average, the writing style needs to fit the POV (Point of View) from which the story is told. For example, if you use ornate and convoluted language to tell the story of a street person who uses slang continuously, the story has a good chance of confusing the reader.
Do you like these short tips? Let me know. 
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francie
Thanks for the tips on how to use use every day life to build a story. I know I needed that helpful advice. Thanks
Thank you, too, for the feedback, Francie. 
Most writers do use their creativity to generate a story based on their experiences. The hard part is in making the story interesting,
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