Drama: November 12, 2014 Issue [#6635] |
Drama
This week: Conspiracy Means High Drama Edited by: Joy More Newsletters By This Editor
1. About this Newsletter 2. A Word from our Sponsor 3. Letter from the Editor 4. Editor's Picks 5. A Word from Writing.Com 6. Ask & Answer 7. Removal instructions
“I don't think you should be an Auror, Harry," said Luna unexpectedly. Everybody looked at her. "The Aurors are part of the Rotfang Conspiracy, I thought everyone knew that. They're working to bring down the Ministry of Magic from within using a mixture of dark magic and gum disease.”
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
“There were moments when it honestly seemed as if the world were conspiring against her.”
Nicholas Sparks, The Choice
“Every time I go out to eat I see small groups of people gathered around circular tables, and I wonder what conspiracies exist all around in the roundest of tables that surround me.”
Jarod Kintz, Whenever You're Gone, I'm Here For You
“Conspiracies existed, to be sure; many of them, and many were dark indeed. But fiendish? Fiendishness required brains. Nine times out of ten, conspirators behaved like buffoons and wound up exposing themselves out of sheer, bumbling incompetence.”
Eric Flint, 1636: The Saxon Uprising
Hello, I am Joy , this week's drama editor. This issue is about using conspiracies for creating drama.
Thank you for reading our newsletters and for supplying the editors with feedback and encouragement.
Note: In the editorial, I refer to third person singular as he, to also mean the female gender, because I don't like to use they or he/she. |
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Welcome to the Drama newsletter
Don’t you think most dramatic scenes contain an element of conspiracy in them? Since a conspiracy is a secret plan to do harm or is an action of treacherous plotting, it can apply to any genre.
The core of any conspiracy is me against you, us against them, or a rebellious or sinister idea and action against a group. Almost all conspiracies start as a one-sided solution to a problem, but eventually they turn evil. Case in point, after the First World War, to find solutions to Germany’s fiscal problems, several plans were hatched. One of them turned extremely evil, as it is depicted in the TV Movie, Conspiracy 2001, which re-creates the Wannsee Conference where the Nazi Final Solution phase of the Holocaust was devised. And you well know what kind of atrocities followed that conference.
Yet, a story of conspiracy doesn’t need to be a thriller or historical fiction. In the romance genre, in love triangles, it starts in daydreaming and sweet imaginings for the love of one person by two people, who then turn against each other. Then, the story becomes a warfare of “may the best man or woman win.”
There are several kinds of conspiracies, especially if you are writing a thriller.
1. Government Conspiracy, which means a government, through lies, plans to push a nation into action it wouldn’t approve otherwise
2. Ethnic Conspiracy, which may end in genocide or subversion of an ethnic group
3. Economic Conspiracy, which may involve big business and bankers spying on each other or plotting against the general public
4. Intellectual conspiracy, which is the arena of mad scientists, absent-minded professors, and groups with agendas of global tyrannies.
5. Aliens from Space Conspiracies, through which UFOs and aliens plan to rule the earthlings.
6. Secret Society Conspiracy, in which two secret societies battle against each other, such as those of angels and demons
7. A Person against Another Person Conspiracy, which we may come across in romance, family, and women’s literature.
8. Survival Conspiracy, which is the struggle against impending doom: This may not be truly evil, but it is still a plan, which would make the characters do near-evil acts that people in a civilized society would abhor.
Before writing a conspiracy story, in addition to strong characterization, it is important to think ahead of a clearly defined goal and a scheme (usually evil), the most important motive (power, control, or profit), and a plan to put the conspiracy in action. If as writers, we can do this effectively, our characters will take over the plot and we will come up with a winning story.
The ideas for conspiracy stories can come from the news, interesting articles, history, mythology, science, religion, and people-watching. The idea of secrecy is usually in the core of a conspiracy plot. In most stories’ stunning reveals that turn up at climax points and the endings point to conspiracies that remained totally hidden or partially known by the characters or the reader.
To create twists, we may opt to make our certain conspiracy theory to be a myth, instead of it arising from a true situation, or we may decide to make the conspiracy itself as the antagonist or, to engage the reader's imagination, we may use recurring motifs where the results of each are very different until the climax. The choices are numerous. In short, the bigger and stronger the conspiracy, the more dramatic will be the story.
For those of us participating in NaNo, best of luck with your novels and may your stories carry excitement and high drama…
Until next time, keep writing.
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Enjoy!
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This Issue's Tip:
It is fine to go back and forth in time while telling a story, but we need to be careful if we plan to do that; if the writer fails to orient the reader to the time of each scene or narrative, this can cause confusion in the mind of the reader and failure in storytelling for the writer.
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Feedback for "Pet Peeves in Fiction"
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ChrisDaltro-Chasing Moonbeams
Thank you for featuring my short story: A Ghost Story, in your awesome Newsletter - Drama: Pet Peeves in Fiction. Much appreciated!
Christina Daltro
Thank you, and thank you also for writing that wonderful story.
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BIG BAD WOLF is Merry
Submitted item: "Miscellaneous Interactives"
It all depends on the situation.
Situation is everything, isn't it!
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SkyHawk - Into The Music
Hmmm... pet peeves in writing...
* As you already mentioned, sex purely for titillation. If it's not important to the plot (and even sometimes if it is), dial it back
* Grammar problems on the part of the writer -- know your "its/it's" and "you/your/you're" and other areas when writing. If you can't make the effort to write properly, why should I make the effort to read?
* Cardboard cutout characters -- every character need some background to flesh them out; otherwise, they shouldn't be there.
* Every character speaking with perfect grammar -- Sorry, this doesn't happen in real life. Whether due to education, accent or dialect, people speak in their own ways. This needs to be present in writing as well.
Good points. Thanks for the input.
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Quick-Quill
I dislike an overused plot. There are no NEW plots. However, craft a storyline that isn't so blatantly picked out of a popular book, movie or TV series. Don't rewrite the story. I want to read your version of this plot. That is the problem with some series writers. They run out of plot (i.e. Stephen King) I quit reading his books after the first 5 or so. They are all the same with the situations and characters changed. I like his later works that have been made for TV.
Thanks for the comment.
I like Stephen King, but unfortunately, most authors fall into the pit of writing in the same genre and with re-fried old plots. One way could be to change genre, but once the hen with golden eggs is found, it may feel difficult to think of a change.
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