drama for drama's sake

Writing Thursdays

Meet Jen, she's a normal girl but her mother abuses her, her father left, she sister died and her grandmother was a key member of the nazi party and it was her idea for the holocaust... Jen by the way is Jewish.  Jen's twin brother is dating her best friend, which is weird because Jen always got a lesbo vibe from her best friend.

One night while she's looking out the window at the star she's convinced is her dead sister's soul she sees a spaceship.  A race of evil aliens enslaves all humans with the letter  U in their last name.  Jen was captured by one of the aliens and was raped by one of the tentacles limbs when a handsome blue alien that glitters saved her, although a little after the fact.  The blue sparkly alien tells her the only way to stop the race of evil beings is with a Crystal Amulet that's the only one of it kind and forged from the fires of a thousand dying suns.  Fortunately Jen knows exactly where it is because it's in her basement.  On her way down to the basement to she's stopped by her grandmother who can't understand why the media over reacts to that nice Mel Gibson fella.  Jen finds the crystal and gets addicted to crystal meth while saving the humans with a U in their last name.  She must say goodbye to the only alien she's ever loved, the shiny blue one and she sob and considers killing herself.   But the glowing star of her sisters soul makes her remember why life is worth living.  She cleans up her act and because the first female president.

But she's just like you, because she hates math too.

Ok so that story might not have ever existed or but who knows what's lying out there on someone's hard drive.

So there's drama and conflict, then there's drama for drama's sake.  Writing shouldn't be about how much sh*t you can through at your characters just to see what they'll do. 

Conflict makes the reader feel what the character is going through.  Drama make the reader roll their eyes and think, "who cares you were raped by a alien creature like bad anime porn. Get over it."

That was today's lesson on drama verses conflict.

For a solid, well written example of conflict with going nuts with the drama, go check out Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen