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Sun Oct 22, 2006 3:58 am
Snoink says...



Back in my younger days, I read some pretty depressing books, such as 1984 and Poe's work and other stuff. Well... they're not that depressing actually, but when I was younger, I was entranced by them and I knew that I just HAD to write depressing books, just like that.

My plan of attack?

I decided that there could be no glimmer of happiness in my story (which, incidentally, was FREAK at the time). So if it didn't involve DEATH DEATH DEATH DESPAIR DEATH, then I wasn't happy.

So what did I do? I wrote lots of despair... and death... and despair... it got kind of repetitive actually. The results? A horrible angsty piece of paper wad.

You see, in my attempts to be "serious" and deep on life, I forgot that life consisted of more emotins than doom and despair. There are many emotions, such as happiness and joy and love that are just as much fun (and serious) to go into as complete and utter despair. To focus completely on only one emotion made the story seem lifeless and angsty, instead of the deep and meaningful story it intended to be.

That version was scraped, and thankfully so.

If we go through our story using tunnel-vision and only seeing despair, then we lose anything really deep and inspiring. Be a good writer. Despair and doom is only a small percentage of emotions. Touch all of the emotions that we, as humans, feel and you will have created a very serious work indeed.
Ubi caritas est vera, Deus ibi est.

"The mark of your ignorance is the depth of your belief in injustice and tragedy. What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls the butterfly." ~ Richard Bach

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Sun Oct 22, 2006 6:37 am
Ohio Impromptu says...



Very true. Even Winston and Julia found a wierd kind of love.

I think the problem most people have with understanding this is that they're afraid of including happiness into their stories because it isn't a catalyst. Happy characters have nothing more to achieve (emotionally at least), while depressed characters make for a story in which there is a clear goal: the pursuit of happiness. For example, if people were happy without love, romance would never have evolved as a genre.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that since the pursuit of happiness is basically what life is all about, writers (especially young ones) will not want their characters to have reached the ultimate goal before the story even begins. Of course, there are many excepetions to this, but that's just how I see it.
Gone, gone from New York City,
where you gonna go with a head that empty?
Gone, gone from New York City,
where you gonna go with a heart that gone?
  





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Sun Oct 22, 2006 12:54 pm
Cassandra says...



Good point. This could probably be applied to my work in progress *pokes*. Mind you, the only way I move that piece forward is to think to myself, "Now, what terrible thing can I make my MC go through next?" XD
"All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring."
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Mon Oct 23, 2006 1:57 am
Emerson says...



writing should have a spectrum of emotions, like a color chart. Make it a rainbow! lol.

Bravo snoink.
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Wed Oct 25, 2006 1:01 am
Sam says...



But then you run into the opposite of angst...

*flails, remembering the sarcastic execution scene of yesteryear* Yeah, not pretty. :P
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Wed Oct 25, 2006 1:51 am
Areida says...



I think we all have our things we're prone to, especially in the early phases of writing. Mine was so-sappy-you'll-choke sentimentality. For some reason I thought every short story had to move people or I'd be a failure. :P
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Wed Oct 25, 2006 1:58 am
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Cassandra says...



^ Oy. That's better than mine. I'd get this big, long, drawn out idea for a "novel" in my head when I was ten or eleven, then I'd try to write it in a week, and when it was going too slow, I'd just wrap up all the loose ends in two pages and call it a book. O.o

But yeah. I should really be heeding this advice, Snoink. My other novel--the non-NaNo one--is chalk-full of depressing stuff. My MC needs some breaks.
"All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring."
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Wed Oct 25, 2006 4:13 am
Snoink says...



OMG... my main problem was conflict. When I first wrote FREAK, I decided to put absolutely no conflict in it. And it sucked. So, to compensate, I decided to put angst in it. It still sucked. Gahhhhhh...

Yeah, when you first try out, you're bound to come up with some horrible things. It's good we're learning now, no? :)
Ubi caritas est vera, Deus ibi est.

"The mark of your ignorance is the depth of your belief in injustice and tragedy. What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls the butterfly." ~ Richard Bach

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Wed Oct 25, 2006 4:17 am
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Kel says...



Good one, Snoink.

It's like Harry Potter #5, I think it was. With Umbridge and everything. Bad things were constantly happening to Harry. That book was the hardest one to get through because of that. I just wanted Harry to get something going for him, but it seemed all the rugs were wanting to be pulled out from under!

Nothing ruins a good book like too much sadness or too much happiness. The hard part is finding the happy medium.

Maybe that was a poor choice of words?
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Wed Oct 25, 2006 12:42 pm
Wiggy says...



I agree Kel. I hated the #5 book!

Emotions are such an important part of the story-in fact, prolly the most important part. I would say that it's important to incorporate a wide variety of emotions into your story, but as someone else stated before, we're all prone to one emotion. (I think that was Ari.)

Excellent point Snoinkus, as always!

Wiggy ;)
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Wed Oct 25, 2006 7:15 pm
Cassandra says...



Wow. I loved book five. Definitely one of my favorites out of the series. O.o

Then again, maybe I only liked it so much because it was wicked long. XD

But...yeah. I figure I'll have a lot of editing to do once/if I finish the first draft... :shock:
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Wed Oct 25, 2006 10:33 pm
Fishr says...



Good point, Aboink! (And yes, that was on purpose. :twisted: )

It can be hard to find the right spectrum of emotions without turning the story into a wad of tissue, a field of pansies or the dungeon of doom.

It could be just me, but I think some writers (not on here that I've seen - yet) have a harder time in making their characters cry, and realistically too. I guess they think it's a weakness and that trait will directly affect them?

I've read a couple where their chars are either giddy, prancing around happily or their character is a major downer, always pissed and angry at the world. So yes, it's a challenge finding the right balence, especially when you have a character that's depressed anyway. *coughs* Welcome *coughs* :D
The sadness drains through me rather than skating over my skin. It travels through every cell to reach the ground. I filter it yet strangely enough, I keep what was pure and it is the dirt that leaves.
  





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Wed Oct 25, 2006 10:47 pm
Emerson says...



I think they could pull of constant conflict, maybe? And constant depression. It just has to be reasonable, and realistic. No ones going to believe that the day your main character's mother died, her dog ALSO went missing! hee hee :-p I don't think I have this problem....hope not.

And we were talking about harry potter? O.o I've read 4, 1, and 2 XD in that order! I'm beyond YA books now though hee hee so ah well.
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Wed Oct 25, 2006 10:51 pm
Fishr says...



Hehe... I still read YA books on the odd occasion. If they're written well, who cares what age group the story is targeted?

You're reading, and that's the important thing. :)
The sadness drains through me rather than skating over my skin. It travels through every cell to reach the ground. I filter it yet strangely enough, I keep what was pure and it is the dirt that leaves.
  





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Fri Nov 03, 2006 8:26 pm
chuff88 says...



I think the problem with characters whose thoughts are always
DEATH DEATH DEATH DESPAIR DEATH

is that real people don't think like that. Whatever bad things happen, there'll always be your inner cynic laughing at what's happened.
There's a german word schadenfreude that means "Happiness at the misfortune of others" and to a certain extent I think people can laugh about their own misfortune - hence the saying 'it's always darkest before the dawn'
Actually, that saying doesn't really mean that, but I hope you see my point.
  








History repeats itself. First as tragedy, second as farce.
— Karl Marx