Dear Writer – All You Must Know

Dear Writer Book consists of four parts:

1- Basics of Writing Drama.

2- The Dramatic Hero’s Journey.

3- Dramatic Character.

4- Writing Texts.

Part one is FREE!

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Part one:

Stories, films, novels, and TV shows are all considered forms of drama – so what is the definition of drama? and what is the history of drama that the writer must know?

    Now, let us focus on a specific type of art: drama. Drama is everything that falls within the framework of a performed or imagined story, whether performed through an audiovisual medium like cinema or through a written literary text like a novel.

    Accordingly, dramatic or fictional films differ from documentaries. Fictional films rely on performing the story in front of the camera as if it does not exist, whereas documentaries rely on speaking directly to the camera. Sometimes, an actor in fictional films looks directly into the camera in what is known as breaking the fourth wall. The viewer sees the actor between three walls, and the fourth wall is the camera that films what is happening as reality, creating the illusion of reality. When the actor looks directly at the camera, this is called breaking the illusion of reality or breaking the fourth wall.

    Finally, drama is a group of closely interconnected events created by the writer that lead toward a central idea, and these events are the result of character interaction, primarily due to the actions of the story’s hero or protagonist. Drama includes movies, novels, series, and more.

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Six Stages for Writing a Dramatic Text:

1- The Idea or the Logline: The whole story in approximately three lines.

2- The Synopsis: The whole story in approximately three pages.

3- Designing Characters: The characters’ profiles.

4- The Dramatic Treatment: The story in approximately thirty pages.

5- The Sequences: Breaking down the treatment into sequences and scenes.

6- The Text.

1- How to Write an Idea or a Logline for a Dramatic Story?

    We agreed that drama is based on characters. Therefore, the first thing needed to write a dramatic story is a main character, a hero or protagonist around whom the events center. The second thing is a main event that this protagonist experiences. This main character must have a dramatic description that is either connected to or colliding with the main event.

- Léon: The Professional: A professional hitman becomes responsible for a young girl whose family was murdered; she works with him and asks for his help in avenging her family against the officer who killed them. Here, the fact that the protagonist is a professional hitman collides with his responsibility toward a young girl and their working relationship, not to mention the development of their bond into an emotional relationship.

(Read: The Professionalism As a Framework - Reading Léon: The Professional)

- Inception: A skilled extractor of secrets who uses a dream-sharing device to extract ideas from people's subconscious minds is asked to perform an inception by planting an idea. Here, a conflict arises for the protagonist, who usually extracts ideas, when he is asked to plant one instead, which is the exact opposite of what he normally does.

- Black Swan: A ballet dancer obsessed with perfection is asked to play the role of an evil Black Swan. Here, a conflict arises between the character’s main flaw, her obsession with perfection, and what is required of her: the inciting incident that plunges her into conflict.

- The Importance of Having One Main Incident in How to Be a Writer

    The inciting incident, or the main event, is the core subject of the film or novel that the protagonist navigates, and as soon as this event ends, the film or novel ends. Your imagination might be crowded with many events and conflicts that you want to write about, which might make you resist the idea of having a single main incident. However, you must understand that having one main incident helps you write the remaining events and create the deeper layers you wish to craft. The movie or novel must first center around one main plot through which the remaining subplots are addressed.

Part one ends here.