Teachers Notes
on Imaginative Writing: The Elements of Craft, by Janet Burroway
by
Geraldine Cannon Becker

Chapter 10: Drama

Kevin Spacey starts this chapter, telling us:

"Nothing comes close to it--this living experience between the actor and the audience, sharing the same space at the same time" ( 337).

This is how I feel about reading my poetry to an audience. There is drama in the delivery, in the presentation of creative works to a live audience.

The main difference between drama and fiction is that drama is written to be visually presented to a live audience--usually on stage, whereas fiction is written to be textually presented to an audience--on the page. However, online publications can often include combinations where text is present in many ways--the words blending into a picture that may then depict what is described in the text.

See page 338 for a detailed comparison of present drama and presented fiction.

Audience awareness is very important. How long should the presentation be? Two hours might be pushing limits for most audiences (339).

We may see into the realm of things presented to us "through the space where the fourth wall ... has been removed" (339).

This is one of the most common ways to present material in drama, but there are many others. Sometimes actors step out of the box and include the audience.

The appeals to the senses of sight and sound through the use of tools and techniques that differ in many ways from those we are more familiar with from our studies of fiction and poetry are part of the fascination of drama. By all means, read the selected readings, but there is nothing like seeing a performance after reading the written version. If possible, read a play and then go see it. How much better it is if the play is something you have never seen or read before. Try it! Find out what is playing in your area, and read it first.

JB gives a list of books for those interested in exploring the writing of drama (348-49).

With this chapter that barely opens the curtain on another important and complex genre, the book Imaginative Writing concludes.

Our course is also drawing to an end. I encourage you to continue to explore ideas in imaginative writing. Read through each appendis at the end of the book. Review the try-its and see if there are some you passed over that appeal to you now. Try to stay in touch with at least one person from our class. Encourage one another to keep writing.

Read as much as you can of everything you can get your hands on. Analyze it. Write about it. What is its value? Would you read it again? Why or why not?

Write to me sometime. Send me some new work or a work in progress. Remember the old saying: "Art inspires art." I learn from you, and your progress gives me pleasure. Also, the knowledge that I have helped others gives me confidence and enriches my own work. So, do not hesitate to share your work with me. You might also get me thinking along new lines or give me an idea I wouldn’t have had otherwise. Share your work with others and ask to see work in progress by other writers for similar reasons. Consider joining or forming a writer’s circle or group.