 Drama: August 14, 2024 Issue [#12678] |
This week: Crafting Alone and Lonely Characters Edited by: Joy  
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“Nobody likes being alone that much. I don't go out of my way to make friends, that's all. It just leads to disappointment.”
Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood
“The loneliest moment in someone’s life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald
“Let me tell you this: if you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you, it's not because they enjoy solitude. It's because they have tried to blend into the world before, and people continue to disappoint them.”
Jodi Picoult, My Sister’s Keeper
“Remember: the time you feel lonely is the time you most need to be by yourself. Life's cruelest irony.”
Douglas Coupland, Shampoo Planet
Hello, I am Joy , this week's drama editor. This issue is about creating isolated and lonely characters.
Thank you for reading our newsletters and for supplying the editors with feedback and encouragement.
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Welcome to the Drama newsletter
Have you ever thought, while being totally alone, the way you felt at that moment would make a very good fictional character? Well, some good authors must have hit on the same idea, and thanks to them, we are entertained and enriched by reading superb fiction such as Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, Emma Donoghue's Room, The Martian by Andy Weir, and many others. Such characters are forced into isolation or are in a situation where they feel alone.
There are many ways of being isolated. People may be incarcerated, separated from loved ones, or alone and trapped in some restricted place. When characters are only physically isolated, they concentrate on survival. When you come up with characters who are both physically and emotionally isolated, however, you can reveal a character's resilience, resourcefulness, and vulnerability.
On the other hand, you can also come up with characters who may be surrounded by others but feel emotionally disconnected. Such emotional disconnection can be because of a personal trauma, depression, societal alienation, or a lack of meaningful relationships. Emotional isolation often explores themes of loneliness, identity, and the search for connection. This type of an isolation is beautifully shown in The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami.
Also, characters can be excluded from society by force, often due to their cultural, ideological, or physical differences. This type of isolation can look deeply into the themes of prejudice, discrimination, and the struggle for acceptance. I bet you did think of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee, here.
Then, how do we go about creating such a character? Let's examine a few thoughts together.
 Your character's background:
Mostly past experiences, personality traits, and existing relations, for these influence how your characters cope and which aspects of their personality can surface.
Internal Conflicts:
How your characters cope with fears, regrets, desires, or ethical dilemmas. In other words, you are leading them to some serious introspection.
Setting and Atmosphere:
What is the role of the setting on the character's emotional state? A well-developed setting can enhance the mood and reflect the character's emotional state. Here, Charles Dickens' fiction comes to mind, by the way.
Your Character's Imagination:
In extreme isolation, imaginary friends and hallucinations may be experienced by the character, blurring reality into fantasy. Although this may add a bit of complexity to your story, if done well, its success can be huge, too. Do you feel a challenge here? 
Time Perception:
The altered sense of time, due to loneliness or aloneness, can increase tension and anxiety, adding to the drama in your story.
Monologue or Dialogue:
Did you think of your character's journal? How about flashbacks, thoughts, and imaginary conversations?
Your Story's Themes:
Usually, themes for such stories are on survival, identity, sanity, freedom, and the nature of reality. Motifs like light and darkness, confinement and openness, or sound and silence can be used symbolically to enhance these themes.
The good news is, crafting stories with isolated, alone and lonely characters lets us think deeply into and, just maybe, makes us explore the human psyche a bit more thoughtfully. I wish you best of luck with your such explorations and creations!
Until next time! 
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 Enjoy!
| |  | Sink or Swim (13+)
Drug addicts & castaways know drowning & true isolation, so I wrote this with that in mind
#2236471 by Dr Gonzo  |
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This Issue's Tip: If you wish to avoid the stock type of a lonely character, you can show that the character still has flaws that don’t relate back to the solitude at the end of the story. Just don't end your fiction with a perfect character.
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