Drama

an Element of Fiction

“A piece of fiction must be very much a self-contained dramatic unit. This means that it must carry its meaning inside it. It means that any abstractly expressed compassion or piety or morality in a piece of fiction is only a statement added to it. It means that you can’t make an inadequate dramatic action complete by putting a statement of meaning on the end or in the middle of it or at the beginning of it. It means that when you write fiction you are speaking with character and action, not about character an action.” Flannery O’Connor

“Again, this is a general principle. You can’t write about abstractions. You need to incarnate those abstractions in interesting people, dramatic events, tangible experience. By participating in the experiences of living characters shaping events that matter, the reader also participates in the ideas that underpin the telling — the subtext of scenes, the themes of the larger story.” Philip Gerard

“Good drama always carries an emotional charge, and the charge comes from the struggle of an individual squaring off against antagonists out in the world and within himself.” Philip Gerard

“Fiction is presented in such a way that the reader has the sense that it is unfolding around him. This doesn’t mean he has to identify himself with the character or feel compassion for the character or anything like that…