 Drama: December 20, 2017 Issue [#8664] |
  Drama
This week: On Competition Edited by: Kitti the Red-Nosed Feline  
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Do you have a competitive streak? You and your characters can join the club!
This week's Drama Newsletter is all about winning... and losing.
Kitti the Red-Nosed Feline |
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Are you a competitive person? I admit that I can be. Not all the time... when I play a board game against someone and they’re losing, I tend to feel bad and can end up sneakily trying to help them out. Yeps, rather than “stealing” Monopoly money from the bank, I might add some to their pile whilst they’re making a cup of coffee.  I can even end up feeling bad for the computer if I’m winning against it. There are times, though, when I really want to win something. When that happens, it’s not a nice feeling when I lose.
Sometimes I wonder where that slight competitiveness comes from. Because when I lose, the feeling I get is not a jealousy of whoever ended up winning, but a sense of failure. A concern that I’m flawed. That I’m not good enough. Which is not exactly great for my self-esteem. Nor is it logical. We can’t win everything. It’s natural that we’ll encounter people who are better than us at whatever we’re trying to do, and we can either accept that, or allow it to inspire us to do better next time. That’s easier said than done, though, isn’t it?
When you work very hard and whoever you’re attempting to impress prefers the work of someone else, it can be difficult to smile and be gracious in defeat. It can happen in various aspects of life, from taking part in a writing contest to being passed over for a promotion. If that’s the case for us (or maybe not for you, personally, but I know I am not the only one here), it can be the same for our characters.
A desire to win can be a good motivation for your character. They may do their best to win in an honourable manner, or be tempted to resort to less honourable methods. Hopefully, they won’t give in. But maybe they don’t believe in themselves enough, and the temptation to cheat grows too strong.
You can explore why winning matters so much. Have they worked towards this moment all their life? Are they trying to prove something to themselves? To others? Do they long for approval because they’ve always been denied it? What will happen to them if they fail?
What will happen if they win, for that matter? Will everything be roses and sunshine for evermore? Or will their success fail to feel like they expected? If there is joy, is it only fleeting? What will they do next?
When you achieve your goal, you can feel aimless afterwards. It’s an unusual sensation of being lost, because that one thing occupied your days and your thoughts for a long time, and now that it’s done, you no longer have that purpose to drive you.
Turning this around... have you ever noticed someone competing against you whilst you never felt that you were competing against them? I have had that happen and it’s rather unsettling. I don’t know how to deal with it. The characters surrounding your competitive character might have their own thoughts and feelings about what’s going on.
Competition can be driven by envy. Even when the envied person feels that they, and their life, are far from ideal and have a whole pile of insecurities they’re dealing with on a daily basis. It can be difficult to see that nobody’s perfect, not even the person who we admire the most.
It can be an interesting component, then, of a drama piece. Let's start winning!
Kitti the Red-Nosed Feline
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Some contests that might inspire you:
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The Drama Newsletter Team welcomes any and all questions, suggestions, thoughts and feedback, so please don't hesitate to write in! 
Wishing you a week filled with inspiration,
The Drama Newsletter Team
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