Greetings fellow writers!
The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines DRAMA this way : "a composition in verse or prose intended to portray life or character or to tell a story usually involving conflicts and emotions through action and dialogue and typically designed for theatrical performance."
Another webpage explains it this way: "an exciting, emotional, or unexpected series of events or set of circumstances."
You get the picture, right?
Our challenging assignment for March is to write a dramatic fictional piece. You have a few options on how to construct your story. Here are some:
1. Write one scene that could be part of a screenplay or stage play. This would include stage directions and dialogue. For example:
A man walks into a bar, looks around, and then sits down next to a woman.
Man: Hello, Jillian.
Woman: Well, hello stranger. (etc)
2. Write a detailed description of an action taking place. For example:
Three teenaged boys, dressed in leather jackets and torn jeans, enter a fast food mart. One of them goes up to the clerk and points something at him that could be a gun, while the other 2 start filling their pockets with packs of cigarettes....(etc.)
3. Write a story that contains dialogue, emotion and conflict ...there has to be something "dramatic" about it or it won't pass the drama test. For example:
Thelma and Louise fled the parking lot outside the bar, where Louise, in a fit of rage, had just killed a cowboy who was forcing himself on her. (etc.)
Feel free to mix things up. Part of your story can be narrative (description) and part dialogue attributed to different characters (as in #1 above).
Best advice: don't try to do too much in this exercise, and keep things as simple as possible.
As usual, we will try to limit ourselves to 400 words, but it's okay to exceed the word limit this time.
I found a great website that explains in great detail the art of dramatic writing. Here's the link:
http://www.wheresthedrama.com/genre.htm
Keep writing.....and have fun!
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