 Drama: March 06, 2013 Issue [#5531] |
  Drama
This week: Does Your Fiction Include a Secret? Edited by: Joy  
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“That, my dear, is what makes a character interesting, their secrets.”
Kate Morton, The Forgotten Garden
“He'd kept this silence because his own secrets were darker, more hidden, and because he believed that his secrets had created hers.”
Kim Edwards, The Memory Keeper's Daughter
“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.”
Roald Dahl
Hello, I am Joy , this week's drama editor. This issue is about the use of secrets in the plot or the characters
Your Drama Newsletter Editors: zwisis NickiD89  kittiara Joy
Thank you for reading our newsletters and for supplying the editors with feedback and encouragement.
Note: In the editorial, I refer to third person singular as he, to also mean the female gender, because I don't like to use they or he/she. |
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Welcome to the Drama newsletter
Have you ever watched a person or drawn a character for one of your stories, while thinking to yourself: What’s his secret? What’s he hiding?
In the titles of numerous books of fiction and other scripts, the word secret is used repeatedly. At least ten movies with the title Secrets have been made from 1927 to our day. Why? Because secrets enhance the drama by arousing curiosity, and curiosity is what we writers want from our readers, so they keep on reading. For the same reason, most any ad agency will advertise a place or product with phrases like, The Untold Secrets of Capsicum, The Secret Component in a Beauty Product, The Secret Corners of the World for Vacationing, etc.
Secrets can be tangible or intangible. A letter in an envelope, an ingredient in a potion, an underground room in a house, or a hidden drawer in an old desk are tangible secrets. A conspiracy, a marriage, a longing, or a suicide or murder kept hidden from someone or from the world are intangible secrets.
Secrets can also belong to the characters alone or to the plot of the story. Character secrets are a great way to add mystery and fascination especially when they are too dangerous, hurtful, or painful if revealed. A character’s secret may belong to his past, to his present, or even to his future. These secrets, if told or better yet hinted at in the beginning, may create curiosity for the origin of a character’s behavior. It will also make the readers wonder how this character will act in certain situations in the future. Surely, you remember Darth Vader being Luke’s father or the secret Clark Kent kept that he was the Superman himself.
A story in which the main character goes through a serious change is usually a successful one. If we switch the word change with torment and add secrets to the equation, this character will be tormented internally because of the secret he's keeping. This torment will give depth to the story.
A caveat here is that the secret has to be connected to the conflict in some way. For example: If a character is tormented by an abuse or a situation of betrayal that is kept secret and the story is about him winning the lottery and starting a successful business then running for the US Congress, these two concepts alone will not relate to each other; however, if the writer includes a nosy journalist who wants to dig into the character’s past, then the character will have to work hard to keep his secret under wraps. Luckily for the writer, however, the main character cannot keep secrets forever.
Secrets can belong to the plot, too, rather than to a character, when they pertain to important story situations, because they can lead to successful plot twists The word plot, in its definition as “a secret plan,” already implies just what a writer can do with it. Mysteries, spy stories, and the fantasy genre abound with this type of secrets; e.g. Harry Potter and the Chambers of Secrets or in Oedipus Rex , Oedipus marrying his mother without knowing about it. Another plot-induced secret is the accidental bigamy in Lady Audley’s Secret, a sensational novel in 1862 by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. Fast forwarding to our time, the 2011 novel Sanctus by Simon Toyne centers around a secret predating to the birth of Christianity. It is a story in which the unbelievable is made credible, and the book is translated into 40 languages with huge hype and sales in seven figures.
For a successful story, especially if the writer is a novice, he can start with secrets hidden in the plot by attaching them to a tangible object; for example, a key to a secret meeting place hidden under a stone. In addition, be it in realistic fiction or in the fantasy genre, the writer needs to make sure that the secret is a plausible one and that it leaves a powerful impact, even while he is using the creative license.
Secrets sell. This is an important concept to remember, and it is necessary for writers to spend time and a good amount of thought while working with secrets.
Until next time... |
 Enjoy!
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 This Issue's Tip:
If you want the readers like your characters, turn them into victimized people that the readers will feel sorry for or draw them with desirable qualities and humanistic virtues.
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 Reading Recommendation: A book with drama
If you have a recommendation, a few words on a book or a product review, send it to me or to this newsletter. I'll highlight it here.
Ẃeβ࿚ẂỉԎḈĥ 
Wonderful Newsletter, Joy! It was filled with solid, dead-on advice for writing a page-turning drama story. 
"Note: In the editorial, I refer to third person singular as he, to also mean the female gender, because I don't like to use they or he/she."
I feel the same way! I guess we came from an older school of grammar teaching.  It saves all that awkwardness in sentence writing and the constant flip-flopping of genders or improper use of the word "they." (No matter how much they try to modernize its use.)
~WW
Thank you very much, WW. 
Older is right  , but we do make sense. At least that's what I think.
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zwisis
Thank you for a great newsletter, and the welcome to the editorial team! This is a great reminder of the diversity of the drama genre - we always think of "Romeo and Juliet" as a romance, but it really is a dramatic romance. I'm learning so much about this genre from these newsletters!
Welcome again, Sarah.
You're right. Drama is diverse and it is everywhere, if we learn how to look for it.
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Quick-Quill 
Great Newsletter. I think I wrote a DRAMA!
What my character finds is that we are all molded by our environment. We can find our past and see why we became the person we are. My character sees it at the beginning then finds the reason when he finds his roots. Not the plot but a side item.
Sounds like a great story, The Kindred. Most of the drama usually starts at the roots of the character. Thanks for the input.
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BIG BAD WOLF Feeling Thankful 
Submitted item: "Anthros Versus Zombies" [18+]
Sometimes we wonder what is out there.
Yes, wondering is a beginning.
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