 Drama: February 09, 2011 Issue [#4161] |
  Drama
This week: Writing the Kidnapping Drama Edited by: Joy  
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"Fiction is the truth inside the lie."
Stephen King
"Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia."
Kurt Vonnegut
"Writing is making sense of life. You work your whole life and perhaps you've made sense of one small area."
Nadine Gordimer
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Hello, I am Joy , this week's drama editor. Our discussion in this issue is on writing stories involving the topic of kidnapping. |
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Welcome to the Drama newsletter
Kidnapping is a horrible crime, but a writer with finesse could make this subject exciting and not too nasty, especially if the story ends on a happy note. In addition, the topic can take a story in numerous directions with several twists and turns.
A famous novel on this subject is Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped, written in 1886. It tells the story of a Scotsman, David Balfour, in Scotland under the occupation of the English. When his parents die, seventeen-year old David is sold to a ship's captain by his uncle so the uncle can get his hands freely on David's inheritance. At the end, David's problem is solved with a successful, happy ending that satisfies the reader.
Several crime-story writers, such as Agatha Christie, have touched the subject of kidnapping or have made it the main plot in their stories. Some kidnapping fiction is taken from real life as in Gabriel García Márquez's News of a Kidnapping, telling the kidnapping of Maruja, a fifty year-old journalist living in Bogota, and of her sister-in-law, Beatriz, by Pablo Escobar of the Medellin drug cartel.
To kidnap means to carry off a person by force or by using trickery. Sometimes, the victim may be a willing partner; for example, in the romance genre when the hero kidnaps the heroine to save her. With Valentine's Day closing in, romance writers among us might consider using this topic in their stories.
A motive why the kidnapping takes place could simply be that the victim was in the wrong place at the wrong time or in the kidnapper's way while he was in the process of committing another crime. Another motive could be the expectation of a ransom. Then, the kidnapper could be obsessed with the victim or he could be trying to get revenge for some injustice done to him.
The victim usually has a person, a guardian, who is entrusted with his welfare. The guardian can be a parent, a policeman, a friend, or just someone who at the last moment feels responsibility for the victim. The guardian may, at the end, facilitate the victim's reunion with people dear to him. In a rare case, the guardian and the kidnapper can be the same person.
The kidnapper could be written as the most cruel character. This character usually does not change during the story. He is selfish and cares only about himself and his cause. In some stories the kidnapper can feel regret and change. In a few others, he is just a pawn who has committed the crime for someone else.
As to the character of the victim, he can be anybody at any age with any type of personality. Mostly, he is innocent of events surrounding him. Even if he may have the ability to fight for himself, he may not be aware of this, due to the shock and suddenness of the situation. Or the victim is absorbed with another matter, and while he is going after a goal, he is tricked into being captured. Or the victim wants to escape from his present situation and he cooperates with his kidnapper.
The story starts with the kidnapper's selecting his victim and the action of kidnapping. During the middle of the story, the guardian attempts to rescue the victim while he and the victim encounter obstacles and surprises. At the end of the story, the guardian faces the victim and the kidnapper.
A caveat in writing a kidnapping story: Do not rely on simple coincidences. Since the action can be fast and exciting, inventing trite coincidences can come easily to a tired writer. The story will be stronger and will have a deeper meaning if everything happening in it can take place with a good reason and is connected to other events in the plot.
I want to share something with you before I go. I came across a short story writing book copyrighted in 1898, titled A Practical Treatise on the Art of the Short Story by Charles Raymond Barrett, Ph. D.
I was stunned to find the writer's advice to be applicable to our understanding of the short story today, and that he criticized rather severely the writers of his day for butting into the flow of the story with "Dear Reader" sort of interruptions. The stories he critiques are also available free online. What made me raise my eyebrows, however, was the authors mention of the writers of the "gentler sex"s fallibility of marrying off their main characters in the chapter on climax. On the other hand, women got the vote a few decades after this work was published.
If you wish to take a look at this book, I suggest you download it in HTML for easier reading.
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20526
Dark or light, write happy, write well!
Until next time.  |
 Enjoy!
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| | The Game (ASR)
Two best friends in 1978 Alaska discover the world can be a very scary place
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| |  | The Whistle (13+)
A teenage girl is abducted by fierce creatures and forced into a sacrificial ceremony.
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Here's an exciting NaNo novel in raw form that tells a story of kidnappings.
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Have an opinion on what you've read here today? Then send the Editor feedback! Find an item that you think would be perfect for showcasing here? Submit it for consideration in the newsletter!
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Your Drama Newsletter Editors: esprit Adriana Noir Fyn  Joy
Thank you for reading our newsletters and for supplying the editors with feedback and encouragement.
An item submitted to this newsletter
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 This Issue's Tip:
To make an out-of-the-ordinary incident in the story believable, let a reliable character tell it, rather than narrating it yourself.
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 Reading Recommendation: A book with drama
If you have a recommendation, a few words on a book or a product review, send it to me or to this newsletter. I'll highlight it here. 
by spidey 
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Feedback for "Heroes and Thrillers"
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Acme
Hi Joy
Thanks heaps for highlighting my experiences on the MG Road in Bangalore. This newsletter really interested me because the misinterpretation of character's intent is a great way to add drama to any script or story. While drama and comedy are often on opposite ends of the writing scale, this is one area where both can reap the rewards--just look at the eye-watering genius of Basil Fawlty, or Mr Bean bumbling their way through misconceived misadventures... or pretty much any Ayckbourn play. Ace. Loved reading. Thanks for sharing. Write on!
Thank you, too, Acme for sharing your experiences with us.
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BIG BAD WOLF is Howling 
There is always drama everywhere you look.
Yes, sometimes it is too much drama.  
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BScholl 
Which begs the question: Shouldn't the drama newsletter be longer than all the other newsletters?
Thank you for the comment.
I have to answer your question with a question: Why do you think that?
True, drama is all encompassing, but so are the comedy, poetry, fiction, and anything that involves being a writer.
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