  Drama
This week: The Big Want is a State of Mind Edited by: THANKFUL SONALI 17 WDC YEARS!  
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The protagonist wants 'something' and has to overcome obstacles to get it.
Where does the 'something' exist, and are those obstacles in the same place? |
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Incident #1:
I had quit a good corporate job to chase a dream - doing workshops in reading-for-pleasure for kids.
Initially, work was slow ... people didn't know who I was or what I could do.
One day, the frustration got the better of the dreams and I said to my Mom - "I don't have work, I'm so poor."
Without missing a beat, Mom replied, "No, dear. You are rich in time."
I grinned.
*********
Incident #2:
For some reason, my aunt thinks I love to receive fancy watches as gifts. The fact is, I don't.
I need a watch that can stand rough handling, fit in at school during the day, and in the evenings look normal at poetry-readings where everyone dresses 'casual' to the point of being 'grungy'.
Fancy watches have no place in my scheme of things. I've tried telling her this, but the message hasn't gone through.
She has sent me two watches before, and yesterday, she sent me a third watch that has a pretty dial that doesn't mark minutes and seconds, something I need when I am counting down to the school bell or conducting games with my students.
Initially, I got annoyed with her lack of empathy. Is she trying to change who I am, the type of socialising I do, to match her?
Then I decided that I needed to find something to feel grateful for.
So - I'm grateful that I have an aunt that thinks of me and buys me stuff. She really is trying to reach out to me.
I'm grateful that I know what fits my needs and what goes over the top.
I'm grateful that I am comfortable enough with myself so that I don't want to change to fit someone else's image of who I should be.
I'm grateful that I can think of options - the watch can be re-gifted, donated, exchanged for something else ... lots of possibilities!
One should be grateful for a gift, and I'm grateful for this one!
*********
These two incidents in my own life, one with my (late) Mom years ago and one with my aunt just yesterday, got me thinking about what drama pundits call the 'big want'.
Drama, they say, is all about the protagonist 'wanting' something and facing obstacles (conflict) when s/he goes after it.
When I told my Mom I'm 'poor', what exactly did I want? What did I feel I lacked? Money? On the surface, yes. Deeper down, apparently not, because her response made me feel a sense of satisfaction. Yes, I had time. Time to plan workshops that were so good that word of mouth would spread after each one, and I would get more offers. (This would, hopefully, lead to more money in the future.) Time to read up and hone my skills. Time to spend with family and friends - I hadn't had that in the corporate job.
Yes, money is important. Being dependent on my parents for money as an adult didn't feel very good. What my Mom helped me do was to put this in perspective. To show me how, ultimately, I had gained.
So my 'big want' at that point in time was not actually money, but perspective. The obstacles were not physical, but psychological.
The second instance is a bigger example of the obstacles being in my mind.
My aunt has done a perfectly nice thing - sent me a gift. Resenting it and wallowing in my resentment are problems I've created purely in my own head. She hasn't mentioned her motives - those seem to be in my own head as well. Overcoming them, therefore, is in my own head, too. There are, really several possibilities, things I can do with the watch, each one with the potential for giving me joy. Finding them is up to me, just like finding those things to be grateful for is up to me.
So the big want(s) - joy, gratitude - are in my head. The obstacle(s) - resentment, excuses - are in my head as well.
Take the movie 'Queen Sized' starring Nikki Blonksy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Sized
An overweight seventeen year old struggles to become Homecoming Queen - but when she does win, she's still unsure, bitter, full of angst - and alienates her best friends. So what was it she was after? The title of Homecoming Queen? She had that. Acceptance? She had that - people petitioned and voted for her. Maybe she wanted the whole world to change suddenly. Maybe she wanted a bit more courage and a little more time to find it in herself. Whatever it was, the answer was not in the title she won or the dress her Mom bought her or the make-up and hairstyle the experts put on her (though those helped, certainly!) The answer was within herself.
I've mentioned the reality show "The Amazing Race" (http://www.writing.com/main/portfolio/item_id/961402-The-Amazing-Race-Club) in a newsletter before, and I bring it up here again. The contestants, in teams of two, are performing tasks on a treasure-hunt around the world, to win a million dollars. So the 'big want' is a million dollars (goodness knows, that's big!) But if you listen closely to the between-task and after-episode interviews, you hear things like, "I should yell at my brother less" or "I didn't trust her instincts, I should've" or "I need to be calmer" more than you hear the phrase "million dollars". What they are seeking is within themselves, and in their relationship. A million dollars might just be the icing on the cake!
Does this reduce the drama in a novel or script, or enhance it?
Maybe the type of drama I'm talking about doesn't involve car-chases or helicopter-drops or treasure chests in pirate ships.
Perhaps, just perhaps, it is more than that.
Scientists are still trying to explain what it is in the brain that helps us think, feel and remember. Maybe we - as writers - are lucky that they haven't worked it out into a formula, because the human brain is a writer's gold mine, a writer's playground, a writer's laboratory, a writer's canvas, a writer's symphony - a writer's everything.
The goal and the obstacles are all there, in those 100 billion neurons, in those impulses that travel through the synapses, sparking off joy, sorrow, anger, excitment, grudges ... creating bottlenecks or smoothing the way for a particular course of thought, speech and action. And if they exist, they can change, due to internal or external forces. The possiblilities are endless - 100 billion multiplied by infinity.
To create drama, it is there that we must look. The human brain.
What already existed in the protagonist's brain before this story started? What fuel was added to that brain, during the story? What happened in that brain, and how did it affect the others it came into contact with, as the story progressed? What was the 'big want', deep down inside that brain, and how was it overcome, in the same location?
Everything we do involves the human brain.
Therefore, everything has the potential for drama.
Which means I have just two words left for you ...
Dramatise On! 
- Sonali
PS - I donated the watch. It's going to be sold or raffled to benefit a school in the slum area. I feel two things - relief that I don't possess it any more, and happiness that it's going to do some good. I must admit, relief is the greater feeling at the moment! |
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Drama: October 27, 2010 Issue [#4025]
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