Drama Newsletter November 15, 2006

About:

Writers will happen in the best of families.
~Rita Mae Brown

Write what matters. If you don't care about what you're writing, neither will your readers.
~Judy Reeves

My most important piece of advice to all you would-be writers; when you write, try to leave out all the parts readers skip.
~Elmore Leonard






From the Editor:

How many of you watch ER or Grey's Anatomy? Medical drama is a hot commodity these days and why shouldn't it be? The medical field, especially a hospital or emergency room situation is perfect fodder for this kind of drama.

Doctors and nurses work under intense pressure and never know what challenge the next patient will pose. Any situation could become life and death in a literal heartbeat.

Patients arrive with fears of the unknown and worries about the outcome. Anyone who has ever had surgery, no matter how minor, knows anything can go wrong. It's a given. Even after a patient is released from the hospital, there are chances of complications, small and lethal.

All of this is great fodder for drama. In a hospital environment, the best and very worst of the human element is seen.

Toss in an extra element and your work gains even more dimensions to work with. Add in the criminal element and you have forensics such as Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series. Add a fun whodunit and you'll have something along the lines of Dick Van Dyke's character in a wonderful show which name escapes me right now. Add some supernatural and you have Stephen King's hospital drama of last season.

This is such a high energy, high drama field that it's well will never be exhausted.

Til next month!
~Nikola




Ask and Answer:
From Vivian ╰☆╮ : Any novel I write first starts in my imagination. The idea, the concept is triggered by something consciously or subconsciously. Then I mull it over in my head, do some "day dreaming" of the story idea, characters, plot. The next step is to start writing. I immerse myself into the story until it becomes "real" to me. ~~ Viv