 Drama: May 22, 2024 Issue [#12545] |
This week: Moral Choices Within the Conflict Edited by: Joy  
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“What distinguishes modern sensibility from classical sensibility is that the latter thrives on moral problems and the former on metaphysical problems. ”
Albert Camus, Myth of Sisyphus
“We are both of us torn by the weight of knowing all these people cannot possibly be witches. If we speak in their defense, we become accused. If we say nothing, we condemn them falsely with our silence. What would God have us do?”
Susan Meissner, The Shape of Mercy
“On the day of my judgment, when I stand before God, and He asks me why did I kill one of his true miracles, what am I gonna say? That it was my job? My job?”
Stephen King, The Green Mile
“Sometimes you make the right decision, sometimes you make the decision right.”
Phil McGraw
“May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.”
Nelson Mandela
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Hello, I am Joy , this week's drama editor. This issue is about making difficult moral choices within the conflict.
Thank you for reading our newsletters and for supplying the editors with feedback and encouragement.
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Welcome to the Drama newsletter
While reading fiction, does your attention suddenly sharpen when an important character teeters on the edge because they have to decide between two or more wrong or right choices? When I come across such a scene or dilemma while reading fiction, I find myself suddenly more alert. Will this character choose the lesser of two evils or will they invent a better way out, and what if there is no better way out?
Decision-making is never easy when it comes to hard choices. When the characters we read about have to make difficult choices, they provoke our thinking and create complexities, possibly because they challenge us to confront our own biases, preconceptions, and morality. Take J.K. Rowling's Severus Snape, for example. Is he a villain or a hero? After all, his questionable actions, which seesaw between good and evil, may spring from loyalty, complexity, and internal remorse.
Yet, how can you create such scenes with your own fictional characters? I think, as a writer, if you believe in one side of an argument 100%, writing about hard choices in similar predicaments will not be easy. This is because, you won't be able to show the implications of each choice, since within your own thinking you have already taken sides, black or white, and you may end up with plot holes. It is, therefore, better to pick difficult situations and plot questions that are, if not perfectly but roughly, equal.
On the plus side, difficult and even unsolvable moral problems offer insight on situations that make choices very difficult. So, how do you create such problems for your characters? A few suggestions off the top of my head could be:
 From the character's own personality: "What kind of a moral choice would be very difficult for this character?" is the question to ask, here.
From the Flaws: Flaws may be anywhere in your story: the setting, a historical time, other characters, family and upbringing, etc.
From Real Life Situations: Just look around the real world; look at the wars that are going on in the world or maybe two national companies, one for making the economy stronger and the other saving the earth's resources. Look at these conflicts from the eyes of both sides. If each side didn't think it had the right of way, would there be a war or a fight?
From any two equally difficult options: The main character with a strong moral compass has to choose between two sides or people that are equally capable to do the job, be it in an office setting, a marriage, a career, etc.
Yet, whatever choice your character makes, you'll probably have to show him struggling with his choice, especially if the character has sacrificed something or someone important. Still, you also have the option to let your character invent a way out, but in that case, you have to make sure you don't look as if you came up with a cheap trick.
Then, if your story has a bitter or tragic ending, your character can make the wrong choice and suffer. Also, even if you shouldn't openly say it, you will end up showing your readers what the right or wrong choice could be, during the process of writing your fiction.
Wishing your pen a bolder and stronger ink and your characters difficult options to choose from...
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