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"Who knows what true loneliness is -- not the conventional word but the naked terror? To the lonely themselves it wears a mask. The most miserable outcast hugs some memory or some illusion."
Joseph Conrad
"If you are lonely when you are alone, you are in bad company."
Jean-Paul Sartre
"Man's loneliness is but his fear of life."
Eugene O'Neill
Hello, this is Joy . This week, we are going to take a look at drama and the theme of loneliness.
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Welcome to the Drama newsletter
“In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone,”
Remember the song, The Sound of Silence? By focusing on images of alienation, Paul Simon greets darkness as his friend and points to indifferent people who make him feel lonely.
For many writers and artists who compose and create, loneliness is not only an idea or a theme, but also it is their motivation. Before we go deeper into loneliness, let’s see what loneliness is not. Loneliness is not being alone. A person who is alone and enjoying his own company may not feel lonely. On the other hand, those who suffer from loneliness may be alone. Loneliness is not solitude either, because solitude is a positive, constructive state that can lead to self-awareness. Solitude is something a person chooses; loneliness is imposed on a person by various circumstances. Solitude replenishes body and mind, while loneliness drains and depletes.
Feelings of inadequacy and reluctance to change are symptoms of loneliness. A lonely person feels something is missing and he doesn’t fit in with others in some way. The most disheartening aspect of loneliness is the feeling of emptiness.
Loneliness can be the result of a situation or a circumstance like the loss of a relationship or a move to a new, unknown place; loneliness can arise from feelings of inferiority and vulnerability; or loneliness can start from an unfulfilled need for intimacy and truthful relationships as well as from a frustrated or repressed need for feeling one’s individuality. While most people may feel lonely from time to time, chronic loneliness is serious enough to threaten life, as the song says: “Silence like a cancer grows.”
The theme of loneliness emerges when the writers describe the dwindling of human relationships, especially when losing significant relationships and then fixating on them, as the loss of Lenore in Raven by Poe. The loss or change of values in society or the people around the character may lead to loneliness, too, as for Holden Caulfield in Catcher in the Rye, and for Blanche Dubois in A Streetcar Named Desire. Then, for various reasons, almost all the characters in Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men are lonely, also.
In your writing, loneliness as a condition in a character may need to show some cause and effect. Maybe a character was put down so much in his formative years that, as an adult, he still believes those put-downs and feels inadequate. Maybe a character’s ego is so big that it tells him, in his being so different, no one on earth can understand him.
Also, make sure loneliness gets dramatized in your story. This can be done by motivating the character’s behavior, providing conflict with what comes his way, and by leading him to some gains and possible risks. This character may sabotage new relationships with reasons that may sound logical on the outside but may show his fear in the inside. He might evade some unpleasant events due to his staying away from people or he may get into trouble because he can’t prove his whereabouts during an incident. On the other hand, he might be forced into a situation where he has to interact with others in a truthful, no-excuses basis, and he may come to enjoy it.
Be it for better or for worse, some kind of transformation in the character is essential for effective drama. Furthermore, keep in mind that loneliness can be experienced at many levels and at just about everywhere. Then, a definite conclusion at the end is needed, with the character overcoming his loneliness or succumbing to it. For example, Elie Wiesel points to the loneliness that Moses felt as the feeling that turned him from a passive person to an active one in a leading role.
A caveat here: Just to show the loneliness in a character for loneliness's sake by isolating him in an unusual place and time, if that time or place does not fit in with the storyline. True, he may feel lonely where you put him, but it won’t help the story if he strays from the plot and confuses the reader.
Whether the theme of loneliness is perpetual or transient in your story, I hope it serves your pen well.
Until next time…
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"She couldn't determine exactly how her state of aloneness had happened. It had been a rather insidious process,"
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"No plan came to mind as she sat in the motel. She had left behind all her hopes and dreams."
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"Maybe all these years I just wasn’t looking hard enough for her because this time..."
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“Yeah, that’s right, run away.” They shouted after her, “Run away, you dumb freak. You don’t belong here… "
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After all these years, loneliness was still her only friend. Nothing had changed...
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"suddenly she thought about the emptiness of the house, the cavernous feel of not only her home, but of her life..."
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" She began to run again. If you move fast enough, nothing can follow.
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"Friends come and go, leaving me in their wake,
with nary a thought or a care for my sake."
"And I understood the old woman’s words at last. Loneliness has nothing to do with people."
"As he nestled his head into the crook of his bent arm, he hard a soft tentative yip,"
"Kitty peered into the dim cell. All she could see was a dark form reclined on a cot..."
"Because I could not stand for fires burning..."
"For some, the stars bring the sweetest, heavenly delight,
But for me, such lights forecast yet another lonely night."
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"She lit a candle, the darkness did scare,
The loneliness closed in, no hope but despair."
"Lone and lonesome sitting on the edge,
I feel the lapping flow beneath me;"
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Thank you for reading our newsletters and for supplying the editors with feedback. Now, let's take a look at a tip.
This Issue’s Tip:
 Avoid flashbacks at the end of a story, unless they are absolutely necessary. Endings work better when they show emotion and the climax of action.
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SantaBee
A great look at how to take New Year's and spin it into Drama, Joy! A very inspirational newsletter.
Thank you very much, Steph. 
Baby New Year is an event the whole world celebrates, so the idea has universal appeal, but then one can spin almost anything into drama.  
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maryelle
Good advice, I keep trying in my own writing.
Thank you, Maryelle.
We all try.
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flex
Dear Joy, thank you for an energized look at New Year and drama  The tip section is a great addition and thoughtful way to end the newsletter -- keep them coming!
Thank you, Felix.
I am glad you liked the tip section. Sometimes, I come across a tip that may not have enough juice in it to be developed into longer writing. I thought I could share those with our writers.
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Drama: January 14, 2009 Issue [#2812]
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