 Drama: March 27, 2013 Issue [#5586] |
  Drama
This week: Laughter in the Drama Genre Edited by: zwisis
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Welcome to this week's Drama newsletter. Your editors are Joy  , kittiara, NickiD89  and myself. I hope you enjoy the newsletter, and remember - we'd love to hear from you, so feel free to let us know your thoughts about the Drama genre. If you have any items you'd like to submit for inclusion in our newsletters please send them to us. |
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Good comedy doesn't have to be a comedy idea.
Writing dramatic comedy can be a rewarding and fulfilling task. The combination of these two genres can become a piece of work that demonstrates there is an element of humour in many of life’s trials and tribulations. The first rule of writing dramatic comedy is to ensure your story is told by your characters. Whether revealing a painfully sad truth or telling a joke... don’t be afraid to experiment and let the characters be heard in an honest and direct manner.
Written humour is very different to real life humour. In reality many of us – me included - cannot tell a funny joke. It’s easy to lose focus, forget the punch line or omit an important detail. Think about the host greeting his guests with an electric hand buzzer; there is a shelf life to this kind of humour. In fact, our host might even wind up alone at his own party if one of his guests can make the others smile with clever words and subtle wit!
The example I’ve just given is perfect for emphasising one of the most important “guidelines” for writing comedy: a strong story with a few laughs is preferable to a weak story with several jokes on every page. If a plot is vague and flimsy no amount of comedy will make it readable. The story must be interesting, absorbing and filled with detail. Because dramatic comedy is character-driven your readers need to care about the players. Comedy evolves from what the characters do and what they say, no matter how funny, irrational, silly or peculiar.
Researching this newsletter I came across several simple ideas to encourage comedic writing:
 Put two average characters into an everyday scenario. They could be stuck in an elevator, or sitting in a doctor’s room waiting for an appointment. Give each character a set of mannerisms, speech patterns, personal style, a job description and likes/dislikes.
Next, decide what comedic or serious conflicts could arise between the two in the given situation. Your characters should be three-dimensional, with internal and external conflicts.. Consider how each one will react to the other one, and what dramatic and comedic responses could arise between them.
Outline the plot for the story, deciding which elements bring the drama and which brings the comedy to the different parts of the plot. This will help you work out which parts of the plot encourage the use of comedy and which call for dramatic detail and tension.
Start writing the draft for your story, using the outline and detail developed in the previous points. This exercise will develop the interaction between the two characters. The story may just take on a life of its own, and move in a direction you never originally imagined. Go with the flow! This may be a chance to add or improvise your comedic input to the story.
When reviewing your story it might be worth asking a trusted friend to read your draft. Ask your friend to let you know what was funny, and if any of the comedy does not work or if it overshadows the plot or the characters.
Finally, for your reading pleasure I give you three books titles written in the dramatic comedy genre. All books take average characters and puts them into interesting, perhaps challenging situations. The use of comedy in all three books is, in my opinion, very well applied.
Helen Fielding – Bridget Jones’ Diary
Over one year our heroine keeps a diary, chronicling her New Year’s Resolutions (lose weight, stop smoking, develop inner poise) and quest for self improvement, with hilarious results.
123 lbs. (how is it possible to put on 4 pounds in the middle of the night? Could flesh have somehow solidified becoming denser and heavier? Repulsive, horrifying notion), alcohol units 4 (excellent), cigarettes 21 (poor but will give up totally tomorrow), number of correct lottery numbers 2 (better, but nevertheless useless)..."
Douglas Rogers – The Last Resort
When the Rogers’ farm is threatened with seizure by the Zimbabwean government, the couple work with the local community to retain their land. The farm becomes an interesting and exotic place, far removed from its original activities.
I had been out of Zimbabwe for seven years, travelling, writing, drinking away my late twenties and early thirties in the rootlessness of London, but I knew that Macheke was only an hour’s drive from my parents game farm and backpacker lodge in the Eastern mountains of the country, and that they were in terrible danger.
Dead Famous – Ben Elton
Reality TV’s biggest show, Big Brother, puts ten contestants in one house filled with cameras to record their every move. All seems to be going to plan, until one of the housemates is murdered... and it happened off camera!
Coleridge struggled to care. Already his mind was drifting. How much rubbish could these people talk? Everyone talked rubbish, of course, but with most people it just disappeared into the ether; with this lot it was here forever. What was more, it was evidence. He had to listen to it
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She aimed the pillow at his head and let it fly. A tuft of white hair stood proud as a peacock where it whizzed past him. He woke with a snort and a start. "Hey! What did you do that for?"
"For the sake of the wildlife. Your snoring is scaring off my birds."
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His gang of bank robbers was getting on his nerves. He had half a mind to just wait there for Jake and turn the whole lot of them in. He looked over his shoulder again at the shadow moving across the desert’s floor.
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"I'm a new business owner in the area," said the bunny wielding the instruments of her trade with a flourish. "I heard you were in need of grooming."
They have a definite accent, say things like “Well Claire, whatcha fixin to do when you get off work?” and most of them have bad teeth. Yep, looks like I’m in redneck country. I’m wearing my usual jeans, t-shirt, and a baseball hat. At first glance people would probably think I was a local too, that is unless I started talking.
Finally, Miss Chunky thought she would weigh in with a wicked whack of the wicker broom and--Wham! She hit my back with a nasty force that would have squished the creature had it not abandoned its clutch a mere second before the broom hit. “Ouch”, I screamed.
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Yeah, no thanks to you, Dakota thought silently. Zane was a typical 13 year-old boy. He never lifted a finger to help anyone else, unless it was some fictitious character on his Gameboy.
The crime rate around these parts is pretty non-existent. The last major arrest we made was a few weeks ago when two drunk guys at the only pub in the town got into a fistfight. Since then, I’ve rescued a cat from a tree, helped several old ladies cross the street and collected funds from the neighbors in the annual Logan’s Helm fundraising event for –
She was no longer helping years seven and eight to tread water, while their bodies reorganised themselves. There was nothing more boring than teaching mathematics to pubescent children. They could not absorb anything more complex than measuring angles and they smelt so bad
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Devil's Delight-Cherry 
Thanks for featuring my short story in your Newsletter. It was based on a true story and happened to a school friend of mine. So your highlighting this, is appreciated.
Thank you for the feedback!
Quick-Quill 
In high school I chose Tragedy as an elective. What I learned as a definition was "When traveling life's road and you come to a fork, the one you choose is the one with the most trials." As in choosing the shortest line at the store to find you are have a trainee as the check out, you are in a hurry. Tragedy, could be a comedy also.
Wise words indeed, and very true! Thanks for sharing!
Grace♥Leo health issues
Oh my! I love this newsletter. This is packed full with information that the mind can swallow up and turn into energy for writing. Write,write,write.
Glad you found it interesting!
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