  Drama
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Greetings, I'm honored to be your host for this week's edition of the Writing.Com Drama Newsletter!
"A talent for drama is not a talent for writing,
but is an ability to articulate human relationships."
Gore Vidal
"A good melodrama is a more difficult thing to write
than all this clever-clever comedy: one must go
straight to the core of humanity to get it…."
George Bernard Shaw
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Why not get melodramatic?
For most of us, the word "melodrama" itself conjures up visions of silent-screen mustachioed villains tying helpless maidens to the train tracks, day or nighttime soap opera plots, and caricature imagery in prose and verse. Writing guides for just about all 'genres' caution one to avoid the use of melodrama in writing prose and verse.
As a form, it has been minimized and looked down upon—the word itself suggests a criticism. But let's get past the stereotypes and consider the complexity of melodrama. But melodrama is far more complex than these stereotypes would suggest. And melodrama has evolved with the times, incorporating some psychological depth while maintining the manipulation of emotion.
Traditionally, melodrama includes:
 A strong plot, with high, intense, emotional stakes
Identifiable characters, typecast if you will
A moral tale, where virtue triumphs and/or evil is punished
Sensational incidents and effects
If you look at the above items, there's nothing inherently wrong with them. They are familiar codas to writers and readers. And the 'moral' tale, of course, subject to interpretation and evolution over time, remains of interest to readers and writers both.
In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, morality was more strictly defined, and the characters in stories, verse, and the theater were easy to recognize to readers and listeners, affirming the triumph of morality in a time of social upheaval and change, i.e., the industrial revolution, increased travel and communications, social and global cultural clashes and assimilations. The popularity of pulp westerns, for example, where the moral cowboy in the tall white hat saves the damsel in distress in a clash with the 'dastardly villain' (I'm mixing genres here) and leaves the town in better straits than when he arrived.
The depth of emotion, an emphasis on visual imagery, and strong, often linear plots, survive to the present in literature prosaic and poetic (books and film and theater) from the days of Shakespeare's King Lear (poetry in motion?). Don't toss all the cliches ~ manipulate the familiar to draw your reader in and then offer them your own vision of the hero's success (or tragic failure).
I think that's the key to effective melodrama, manipulating the emotions of the characters (and your readers) with dramatic impact by showing the action, revealing the intensity and passion of the characters in an exaggerated battle between 'good' and 'evil.' The hero becomes 'bigger' than the guy next door, and the villain more vile than the pickpocket at the busstop. And the cause over which they battle will definitely be larger, be it a person, treasure, city, country, humanity, the earth...? The term, 'melodramatic,' if commonly used to refer to plays or stories or situations in which the action or emotion is exaggerated or simplified for effect. But note here as well, it's manipulated by the writer. The writer controls the depth of revelation and interaction, and, in melodrama, there can still be a happy ending (although there need not be).
Consider Hannibal Lecter, in Silence of the Lambs. His action and interaction manipulates the intensity of emotion as well as the action/reaction of the other characters, both 'good' and 'evil.' Yes, it's horror, with psychological drama in the interaction of the ancillary characters, but it's the melodrama that makes it memorable, served with 'fava beans and a nice chianti." (If you somehow haven't read the book, sorry you missed the reference.) Also, courtroom stories where the vile criminal is brought to justice by convincing (manipulating) the jury of the evildoer's guilt visually, tangibly, and with visceral impact. Politics, as well, is subject to melodramatic treatment, i.e., my party is right, and yours is wrong/evil/bad. I'm sure each of you knows someone with such intense beliefs = that's melodrama, creating from the mundane by visual, verbal, and tactile effect, something larger than life, out of the 'ordinary.'
Melodrama is memorable. And you will find it, and create it, in mystery, horror, romance, adventure, science fiction, fantasy, in verse and prose to make your character, your scene, your climax or ending, memorable and satisfying for your reader/listener; your words drawing images that remain after the book is closed or the breath of a poem finds the final stanza, or the final curtain call of your play.
Now, for some writing that's a bit bigger than the mundane, I hope you enjoy the following selections ~ in prose and verse by some of our members ~ and then go on, why not give it a shot yourself ~ get a little melodramatic with a bit of your story or verse.
Write On!
Kate
Kate - Writing & Reading
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Check out the depth of expression, the voices rising in verse and prose, whether outcry or in the deepest realms of the mind and let the writers know if they've captured your 'intense' attention
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Consider this challenge, daily offering inspiration for the muse creative to wax poetic or prosaic with intensity and verve
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As a guest host, I don't have a regular ask and answer, so I thank you for sharing this exploration with me and hope that you also will be less inclined to put down the 'drama queen/king' without hearing/reading through the work. Or, better yet, give it a try yourself, and see if a bit of melodrama, a play on cliche, will add depth to your own story or verse.
Until we next meet,
Write On!
Kate
Kate - Writing & Reading
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Drama: April 28, 2010 Issue [#3648]
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