I know I’ve talked about this before, but I’m really sick of seeing writers who should know better say things like, “Tragedy is more compelling than stories where characters have a nice day and nothing bad happens!” without understanding why.
Tragedy is an effective story element when it’s a deviation from the norm. A character’s peaceful existence is disrupted by a catastrophic event that throws everything into chaos. The character now has to either develop so they can cope with the new status quo, or find a way to put things back the way they were. There’s a good story in that.
But when a character’s life is an unrelenting cavalcade of misery, another heaping dose of shit isn’t all that interesting. At that point, a compelling deviation from the norm would be said character having a nice day where nothing bad happens. And modern fiction is chock-full of misery porn, so by this logic, it’s no wonder the coffee shop AU is such a popular fanfiction trope.
Derek Hale getting a dog and putting his life back together is way more interesting than Derek Hale’s life getting worse for the 26th consecutive episode.
Creators like to hold up “everything is fine and nobody dies” as a sign that fanfic is bland and badly written, but if anything, it’s an indicator that mainstream fiction is bland and badly written.
I don’t usually reblog this sort of thing but as a writer this resonates with me.
A story needs conflict. It’s not a story unless there is conflict. However, I watch TV and I sometimes think the writers don’t get it – conflict doesn’t have to be major world ending misery.
Barely anyone on TV is happily married or in a stable committed relationship. TV writers think happy = boring and then they kill one of the partners off, or they make them have an affair etc. However, conflict can be compelling and make for a good story and the couple can still be together and happy.
I mean what is conflict at it’s most basic form? Character wants something. There is something in the way of them getting it. Whatever obstacle or obstacles in their way form the plot – conflict.
“Everything is fine and nobody dies” AND “the story is still compelling enough to read” makes for better writing in a way, because you are potentially doing more with less.
What the conflict is within a story, depends on the genre. People watch/read things with certain expectations. Tragedy is necessary if that is what the genre conventions call for, but there is certainly a place for “nice day and nothing world ending happens” as well.
Just my two cents.
#genre conventions#happiness isn’t boring#nature of conflict