 Drama: June 02, 2010 Issue [#3747] |
  Drama
This week: The Lost Object Theme Edited by: Joy  
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"You must lose a fly to catch a trout."
George Herbert
"Just think how happy you would be if you lost everything you have right now, and then got it back again."
Frances Rodman
"I felt like I'd been misplaced in the cosmos and I belonged in Maine."
Terry Goodkind
Hello, I am Joy , this week's drama editor. In this issue, we are going to focus on the lost object idea.
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Welcome to the Drama newsletter
In the poem One Art, Elizabeth Bishop says: "Lose something every day. Accept the fluster/ of lost door keys, the hour badly spent./The art of losing isn't hard to master."
Taking a cue from the poet, we are going to focus on lost objects in this issue. By lost objects I mean the tangible -that is, things that can be perceived. At this time, the intangible lost things like love, hope, will to live, etc. will not be our subject directly.
Young or old, rich or poor, busy or relaxed, we all lose things. Maps, keys, cash, documents, jewelry, antique or household items, paintings, luggage, books, manuscripts, purses, guns. eye-glasses, umbrellas, pill boxes, IDs, tools, pajama tops...The list is endless.
The loser hunts the lost object in a random and frenetic fashion and ransacks the places where it might be. The loser's day has gotten stuck as he puts his life on hold with glassy eyes and one-track mind. He's totally unhinged over the lost thing.
Has this ever happened to you? Well, maybe not to this degree, but going crazy over a lost object keeps happening to me and the people I know, over and over again.
Even if you are a very organized person and have not lost or misplaced anything ever, imagine using this feverish and chaotic search in your writing. Wouldn't it be dramatic?
While the search can be dramatic, a few questions may be raised before writing a story using this idea, but until we get to those questions, let's look at a few examples of the lost-object idea in fiction.
In Othello by Shakespeare, Desdemona's handkerchief is a lost object because Iago stole it and put it in Cassio's place for the purpose of making Othello jealous.
In Dashiel Hammett's The Maltese Falcon, the cynical detective Sam Spade is offered a large sum of money to find the statue of a bird.
In The Lost Room, a sci-fi TV mini series, the protagonist searches, in a motel on route 66, for everyday items that possess unusual powers inside a room beyond normal time and space. He is doing this to rescue his daughter who has disappeared inside that unusual room.
While writing a lost-object story, we need to keep these questions in mind.
About The Lost Object:
 Is it a live object like a pet or a person or is it inanimate?
Why is it not where it is supposed to be?
Where was the object last used?
Could the lost object be at a holding depot or a special lost-and-found department?
Is it the object that is lost or is it the person behind it?
Is the object lost an encrypted symbol like a wedding ring?
Is the object camouflaged, like a famous painting painted over to hide it or covered with something else by mistake?
What if the lost object is an elephant or a planet or a star system?
Does the lost object lead to something akin to bad karma or bad luck for their owners?
Can the lost object be a catalyst for dramatic action?
About the Protagonist, the Searching Party or the Search itself:
What are the impediments of the search for the lost object?
Who is looking for it?
Are all the characters in the story aware that the object is lost?
Does the character looking for it have some idea where to look for it?
Is the searching character in the proper frame of mind? What about the other characters?
Does the searching character stop and think about his own trail? This summary inside the story can improve the reader's grasp of the action.
Are the characters or the readers looking right at it and not seeing it?
If calmness, confidence, and swift action are needed, does the character or the group of searchers have those assets?
Do they start from where the object's original place supposed to be?
Do they check where and when the loss occurred?
The most important point in a lost-object story is not the object itself but what it signifies or what it symbolizes. In good fiction, there is always a symbolic meaning behind an object. Searching for a lost object, too, may symbolize a person's search to find himself, to find love, to get revenge, etc.
Lost objects can be found, at times, with the help of psychic powers, expensive equipment, or special skills. Sometimes, they may not be found at all, but something more important than them may be discovered, and the search is left alone; however, if the writer is writing a story along this line of thinking, he has to be careful how he starts the story, since he is promising the reader to find that specific lost object. Otherwise, the reader will feel he is shortchanged and led inside an unending chase.
In certain cases, the loss of an object is hidden until it is found. In that case, the lost object can be of emotional value like a diary of a loved one or a postcard or something that clears a murder. This type of a story will need a more powerful conflict than the object being lost, since the object will not be the center of attention but a catalyst for solving a problem.
If you'd like to write fiction using the lost object theme, consider making a list of ideas by answering the questions listed above. Then try to get rid of your critical mind during the first draft. I bet your story will take shape very quickly.
Until next time....
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   Enjoy!
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Your Drama Newsletter Editors: esprit  Adriana Noir Joy
Thank you for reading our newsletters and for supplying the editors with feedback and encouragement.
This Issue's Tip:
During the discovery of an object, make sure to include sensory clues like smells, sounds, texture, etc.
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Before we go to feedbacks, I'd like to share a thought with you:
If you get a put-down on an item you're sure the item didn't deserve, just think of these put-downs as "one man's Shakespeare is another man's trash fiction."  :
"With the single exception of Homer, there is no eminent writer, not even Sir Walter Scott, whom I can despise so entirely as I despise Shakespeare...." - George Bernard Shaw
"we saw 'Midsummer Night's Dream,' which I had never seen before, nor shall ever again, for it is the most insipid ridiculous play that ever I saw in my life." Samuel Pepys
"Dostoevky's lack of taste, his monotonous dealings with persons suffering with pre-Freudian complexes, the way he has of wallowing in the tragic misadventures of human dignity -- all this is difficult to admire." Vladimir Nabolov
"I can't read ten pages of Steinbeck without throwing up." - James Gould Cozzens.
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For more on the subject of author thrashing another author check:
http://www.examiner.com/x-562-Book-Examiner~y2010m4d16-The-50-best-author-vs-aut...
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Adriana Noir
Great run-down and very informative edition!
Thanks, Adriana.
Your support means a lot to me.
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suser:sgcardin}
Joy, thanks so much for explaning the terms in a script/play. I learned a lot!  Smiles, Steph
Thanks, Steph.
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