 Drama: August 22, 2018 Issue [#9049] |
  Drama
This week: Finding That One and Only Story Edited by: Joy  
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“Narrative imagining — story — is the fundamental instrument of thought. Rational capacities depend upon it. It is our chief means of looking into the future, or predicting, of planning, and of explaining.”
Mark Turner, The Literary Mind
“Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one.”
Terry Pratchett
"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."
Maya Angelou
“Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can't remember who we are or why we're here.”
Sue Monk Kidd
“Perhaps some day I'll crawl back home, beaten, defeated. But not as long as I can make stories out of my heartbreak, beauty out of sorrow.”
Sylvia Plath
Hello, I am Joy , this week's drama editor. This issue is about zooming in on our subjects for our stories.
 Thank you for reading our newsletters and for supplying the editors with feedback and encouragement. |
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Welcome to the Drama newsletter
First of all Happy 18th, Writing.com. I bet as WdC writers, you are just as excited as I am, and you are thinking of all those birthday contests you are going to take part in, but now, in the meantime, let's take a look at today's subject.
With Nano Prep in October and NaNo in November, it may not be too early for us writers to come up with an idea for a novel. Even if some of us may bypass NaNo, we still write stories of considerable drama, don’t we? Even for our regular everyday writing, we may still need to be inspired enough to use our imaginations for a subject.
I believe in writing what is comfortable as well as searching and researching for a new horizon. As writers, inside our minds, we can all conjure up images, characters, storylines, and colorful settings out of thin air. On the other hand, the hesitancy to trust one’s own imagination is understandable because valuing the imagination is a later event since, only during the Renaissance, imagination became linked to intellect, even though fantasy was always at work in humankind’s lore.
While the imagination may still be distrusted, those who follow what they can imagine usually can come up with something original by letting their muses take wings, and there’s no such thing as too much imagination. Nothing you imagine is stupid or strange.
Yet, imagination works best when we are fully experiencing what’s around us at the moment. Even some fantasy writers are influenced by what goes on in their surroundings. Added to the imagination, passion for what we write, the idea and the craft of writing, and being receptive and curious about anything and everything can feed the fire burning our cauldrons. So, it is a good idea to give oneself permission and jot down whatever strikes our fancy, with the application of that famous what-if question.
Our creative imagination works very well for the preliminary and first-draft writing. Later on, your craft and technique can always find the pattern and impose structure on the first draft.
Some ideas on what to write as a warm-up that I can think of at the moment are:
 Specific and significantly detailed descriptions of anything: a flower growing, how a faucet works, astronauts in the Spacelab, etc.
Families, yours or others; their situations, anecdotes, histories
Your friends and anything about them. You can always conceal in your writing what belongs with whom.
Autobiographical elements
Your dreams. Do you have a dream journal by your bed? If not, you’re missing on a treasury of subjects; however, beware that the dream logic is very different from a story’s logic.
What goes through your mind while doing some menial jobs such as washing the car or the dishes
Your obsessions: This one is by Natalie Goldberg. She says, her writing groups make lists of their obsessions because a writer’s main obsession has great power. Sometimes obsessions change or are forgotten, but there is always more coming.
Overheard conversations: Eavesdropping is an approved practice for writers as long as you don’t use what you hear against people in real life.
Your work, travel, hobbies.
Nature, environment, all life and living things
Science and history pieces. Some kind of a fiction always hides in every detailed science or history article we may read.
Unsolved mysteries
Prompts, images, other people’s writings, all printed matter
If all else fails, you can always begin by writing what interests you and what is deep-down personal. These two, when united, usually turn out a character-based, literary novel.
Then, think of your story as a life form. Let it live and experience life through its five senses. Let it hunt for food, fight its enemies, and take calming moments in between its dramatic actions.
Best wishes to us all writers who are searching to compose our fiction pieces and best of luck in getting ready for NaNo.
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The chaos of World War I transforms a sensitive young recruit into a ruthless soldier.
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This Issue's Tip: If you are looking for a theme for your story, search the proverbs such as "all that glitters is not gold" or "two wrongs don't make a right" or "beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
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Feedback for "When Endings Fall Short"
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StephBee 
Joy, nailed it! Sometimes I get so excited to read a story and the ending is a BIG letdown. I read something recently and when I finished reading I felt "meh." The ending totally deflated me. I was like, why did I read that? I can't even remember the name of the book now. lol!
Thanks, Steph.
And yes, many a novel has turned me off, too, because of the abrupt ending. They usually don't even sound like the punch line of a joke.
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Kimbug 
As I read your article, I thought of Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl. I wonder why such a brilliant wickedly evil suspense novel has such an awful ending. But, had the ending been different, i.e. happier, would the story still be a best seller? Maybe not.
Yes, we all have our likes and dislikes. The ending of Gone Girl is not to my taste either. It is an uneasy one, but probably the author wanted to end it in a way that felt real to her with the characters signaling they'll work things out, but not actually doing it. She also probably thought that she gave her message and that was that.
As long as the ending can agree with the theme and the promise of the writer in the beginning and the ending is not too sudden or unfinished, we may be okay with it, but still, I like an ending to feel like an ending.
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