  Drama
This week: Edited by: Joy  
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"Drama is life with the dull bits cut out."
Alfred Hitchcock
Drama exists everywhere, and it often offers solid reasons for its existence by filling us with tension and excitement. Let us look into some ways that may enhance the drama in our writing.
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Welcome to the drama newsletter
First, I'd like to thank StephBee  for welcoming me to the newsletter so warmly and to all my WC friends who made me feel wanted.
In this issue, we will look at free-flow writing on the suggestion of one of our drama newsletter readers bazilbob, and we will explore how we can gain freshness and freedom in our writing voice.
Writing means having a close relationship with oneself and then the world. To enhance this relationship, as writers, we need to learn to trust our experiences and ourselves. We need to feel our connections strongly, so we can find our own style and something original to say.
We carry many voices within ourselves, but these voices may play peek-a-boo with us, and they may not surface when we call upon them. To loosen up and cultivate these voices, we need to lift the bars around them. This is when the free-flow writing comes to our aid.
The free-flow writing happens, in the raw, when we take a pen with a fluid tip and write longhand in a notebook, regardless of what we write. We write whatever pops up into our minds without lifting the pen, the action similar to that of the automatic writing of the psychics. Our phrases, sentences, feelings, and ideas may be shifting, disconnected, full of mistakes, and even illogical, but these things do not matter while we are freeing the voices within ourselves.
During the first few days, there is no need to write free-flow for long periods of time; three to five minutes will do. Later on, we may extend the time if it fits into our schedules. When we continue doing this exercise every day, we discover that ideas can come to us freely and frequently and our stories and poetry can take shape with more ease.
Some of us may look back upon these free-flow exercises later and construct meaningful manuscripts from them, because the ideas inside those exercises have become clearer and more inspirational to us, like a gourmet dish that takes its time to cook on the stove. Besides, by free-flowing regularly without focusing on the outcome, we gain freedom from the worry or the limitation of the scrutiny of readers.
A second exercise of free-flow writing is to write non-stop, limiting ourselves to a subject but with a loose knot. This exercise needs to follow the first exercise, after we have worked with the first exercise for some time.
Since this second type of exercise entails mulling over one single idea, how do we generate or find an idea? Simply, from where we are. We can look out the window, inside the room we are in, or at the road we walk or drive on every day.
In addition, when we have the time, we may make a list of ideas. We can then choose from those ideas for everyday exercises.
Sometimes, while making such a list, we can become so motivated by an idea that we cannot wait another day to free-flow on that idea. It does not matter if an idea can produce only a paragraph or several pages, as long as we go with the flow and find the confidence inside us to keep on writing.
When looking around and finding simple ideas do not appeal to us anymore, we can always search into our own lives or the lives of the people we know. Because we are writers, we have the right to our lives and to our experiences, and we have the right to write about them as we please.
If we feel the life experiences are used up or they have lost their appeal, then the ideas some books and online sites recommend may come to the rescue as prompts. Besides aiding us when we run out of ideas, prompts may come in handy to open up uncharted territories inside our minds. Free-flow writing from prompts may also help the work to pour itself into more focused writing, without constricting its spontaneity.
Most importantly, as the greatest liberator, free-flow writing will silence the critic we harbor inside us. When we judge ourselves while creating, we obstruct our stream of thought and become more apt to suffer from writer’s block. I am not putting down self-criticism at all, but I believe judging our own writing has to come much later during the more serious stages of reconstructing and revising the text.
Writing should not become a fearful feat for anyone, because the solution to the trepidation of writing is to find the right key to looseness. That key may well be hidden inside the free-flow writing exercises.
Having said all that, I cannot close without recommending a wonderful new book, Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir by Natalie Goldberg. I found this book in our local library, in the new books section, and I am quite sure many libraries may carry it. Don't get fooled by the word memoir in the title. Goldberg encourages and gives numerous ideas and prompts for free-flow writers whether they are writing memoirs or not.
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Amazon's Price: $ 27.88
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These are a few WC member items that took form through free flow writing.
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An attempt at free flow. Tell me what you think please?
#1293659 by ~Sue~  |
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#1138010 by Not Available. |
Here is a short story with high drama by one of our new members; it reads as if it is free-flow for it is loose and fresh  , but probably it is not free-flow, because the story is organized quite well.
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In addition, the best examples of free-flow writing can be found inside the diaries, blogs, and journals.
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Have an opinion on what you've read here today? Then send the Editor feedback! Find an item that you think would be perfect for showcasing here? Submit it for consideration in the newsletter!
https://www.Writing.Com/go/nl_form
Don't forget to support our sponsor!
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A reminder: We still have a couple of days for the entries for the idea contest in the "Drama Forum" .
Coolhand 
"This was the best instructional article I've read in a long time. The concept of "original but familiar" was fresh and insightful. Keeping the focus on the "original" to create the conflict gave me a new prospective. Hats off to you!"
Thank you, Coolhand. 
I cannot take credit for the idea. I heard it from a teacher in a drama class, quite a few years ago. I'm glad you found it helpful.
twyls
What a great newsletter! I love it when you editors put so much thought into these newsletters. You've made me think about originality and familiarity. Thank you for waking my brain up this rainy morning.
Thank you, Twyls. Original and familiar at the same time may sound conflicting, but they really are not when we think about the most imaginative works, even in the fantasy genre.
Mavis Moog
Wow, 2 mentions; Thank you very much. I was particularly thrilled to have my story, "Snow Whale", featured on Editor's Picks because it is one of my favourites and although I wrote it a long time ago, I feel close to it.
I love your Tiny Contest and I will be entering.
Thank you, Mavis. I'm looking forward to your entry and everyone else's.
larryp
Good Newsletter Joy.
I believe in my writing, my ideas come from both places.
I once heard a poet say that when he writes a poem, he often doesn't know where it will go. I find I am the same way, I will start with an idea and am often surprised where the 'idea' leads.
I also like your thoughts on originality and familiarity working hand in hand.
I am glad you enjoyed that issue, Larry, thank you. True, sometimes ideas do surprise us while we work with them.
Starr* Rathburn
Hi, Joy! Excellent newsltr. I enjoyed it very much.
I really agreed with: [I]deas may also come as derivatives of other ideas... Once an idea enters the mind, it triggers other concepts that are connected and similar.
I liked the Hitchcock quote so much that I've added it to my sig block. Thanks!
Thank you, Starr.
Yes, the ideas have a way of multiplying inside us. That's why I carry a notepad with me at all times, and I'm glad you liked that issue and the quote. Hitchcock has quite a few good quotes, I think.
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Drama: April 09, 2008 Issue [#2307]
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