Do there need to be happy moments in a dramatic story?

[SilenceDances]

I am currently writing a story where the characters are in the middle of a dramatic conflict. I am worried that readers won't enjoy a story that is all conflict and sex.

So two questions:

A) Does there need to be happy moments during stressful chapters?

B) What are some ways that one could add in those happy moments?

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I'm wondering...isn't sex a happy thing?

 

[SilenceDances]

I'm wondering...isn't sex a happy thing?

It can be. In fact, in my story it often is. However, sex is a reflection of life, and isn't always happy.

Aside from that, I also have characters who aren't having sex, who deserve some happy moments. I don't want them to have sex, but I do want them to have a chance to (at least momentarilly) forget their troubles.

 

[Kantarii]

My sex scenes in "A Slut's Triangle" are wrote from my real world experiences. There is no such thing as a picture perfect sex scene in the real world. Things are gonna go south at some point; things are gonna get said, someone is gonna be left emotionally hurt. Conflict of interests plays an important role in drama to me and makes a great story to tell.... That's me. I don't speak for anyone else's tastes in what they like to read, but in real life, all relationships have their ups and downs- remember that.

 

[SilenceDances]

My sex scenes in "A Slut's Triangle" are wrote from my real world experiences. There is no such thing as a picture perfect sex scene in the real world. Things are gonna go south at some point; things are gonna get said, someone is gonna be left emotionally hurt. Conflict of interests plays an important role in drama to me and makes a great story to tell.... That's me. I don't speak for anyone else's tastes in what they like to read, but in real life, all relationships have their ups and downs- remember that.

That is where I am conflicted. I like to have conflict in my story, and I don't like things to always be happy, but I also like to balance it. I like to straddle realism and idealization. So that way people are left feeling like "Ah, this story has enough conflict to be interesting, but enough happiness to not be depressing."

Some people will stop reading a story if it's too sad. My ideal would be enough conflict to keep the realists happy, and enough happiness to keep the idealists reading.

 

[lovecraft68]

Like mostly everything, its subjective. Some readers can't take non stop pressure or tough scenes, they need a ray of light to keep going.

Others really like train wrecks.

For me personally I break up some tight dark scenes with a little humor. my characters have been known to deliver some one liners during tough scenes. Gives the reader a quick smile and enough of a lift to keep going.

I'm like that in real life, when shit gets bad I'll say something off the wall to get myself to calm down, but people look at me,. like WTF?

 

[SilenceDances]

Like mostly everything, its subjective. Some readers can't take non stop pressure or tough scenes, they need a ray of light to keep going.

Others really like train wrecks.

For me personally I break up some tight dark scenes with a little humor. my characters have been known to deliver some one liners during tough scenes. Gives the reader a quick smile and enough of a lift to keep going.

I'm like that in real life, when shit gets bad I'll say something off the wall to get myself to calm down, but people look at me,. like WTF?

YES! Thank you. I sometimes have a hard time writing humor during tough scenes, but all my favorite authors do it. I just need to learn how to write jokes...

 

[Kantarii]

That is where I am conflicted. I like to have conflict in my story, and I don't like things to always be happy, but I also like to balance it. I like to straddle realism and idealization. So that way people are left feeling like "Ah, this story has enough conflict to be interesting, but enough happiness to not be depressing."

Some people will stop reading a story if it's too sad. My ideal would be enough conflict to keep the realists happy, and enough happiness to keep the idealists reading.

Take a peek and read Chapter 1 or Chapter 4 of "A Slut's Triangle" I wrote. That's the level of mixture on real world drama and conflict I like to hang around in my stories...... Nothing to fantastical and mostly believable. I do stray off and put the "happy moments" in the off chapters that don't contain sex. I can't explain why I do that?

 

[lovecraft68]

YES! Thank you. I sometimes have a hard time writing humor during tough scenes, but all my favorite authors do it. I just need to learn how to write jokes...

Yeah me too....

I wrote this one line where the son thinks his mother is looking at him,

"Was she really staring at my crotch, nah, that's nuts."

Made me laugh, but I doubt anyone else even caught it.

 

[Kantarii]

Like mostly everything, its subjective. Some readers can't take non stop pressure or tough scenes, they need a ray of light to keep going.

Others really like train wrecks.

For me personally I break up some tight dark scenes with a little humor. my characters have been known to deliver some one liners during tough scenes. Gives the reader a quick smile and enough of a lift to keep going.

I'm like that in real life, when shit gets bad I'll say something off the wall to get myself to calm down, but people look at me,. like WTF?

<--- looking at LC like WTF.... Hahaha. Kant

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Add some cop killings and readers will love you.

 

[lovecraft68]

Add some cop killings and readers will love you.

Only GB libs

 

[SilenceDances]

Take a peek and read Chapter 1 or Chapter 4 of "A Slut's Triangle" I wrote. That's the level of mixture on real world drama and conflict I like to hang around in my stories...... Nothing to fantastical and mostly believable. I do stray off and put the "happy moments" in the off chapters that don't contain sex. I can't explain why I do that?

Went and read it. Just seems like hot, dirty, kinky sex ("degrading" descriptions). Wanting sex things that aren't butterflies and sweet-nothings doesn't seem unhappy to me. You're good at writing a steamy scene.

My grappling is with the unhappiness outside of my sex scenes. My characters are (spoiler) at war with a god that brings death to many. I need to find ways for the characters to experience happiness outside of lust.

 

[SilenceDances]

Yeah me too....

I wrote this one line where the son thinks his mother is looking at him,

"Was she really staring at my crotch, nah, that's nuts."

Made me laugh, but I doubt anyone else even caught it.

Oh well if you bolded it, I am sure they did.

 

[Kantarii]

Went and read it. Just seems like hot, dirty, kinky sex ("degrading" descriptions). Wanting sex things that aren't butterflies and sweet-nothings doesn't seem unhappy to me. You're good at writing a steamy scene.

My grappling is with the unhappiness outside of my sex scenes. My characters are (spoiler) at war with a god that brings death to many. I need to find ways for the characters to experience happiness outside of lust.

I used flirtatious moments and casual conversations in chapters 2 & 3 to shine a ray of hope on my main character Ashleigh as she toils and struggles with finding sexual/ emotional happiness. In the casual conversations I let non prominent supporting characters joke and tease my main character to lighten the mood. Just my way of keeping some happy moments in my story.

Thank you for the compliment on writing a steamy scene that made me feel good about my writing and storytelling!

 

[Weird Harold]

My grappling is with the unhappiness outside of my sex scenes. My characters are (spoiler) at war with a god that brings death to many. I need to find ways for the characters to experience happiness outside of lust.

What you need is "Gallows Humor": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallows_humor

That may require a shift in your characters' personalities to be effective.

 

[SilenceDances]

What you need is "Gallows Humor": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallows_humor

That may require a shift in your characters' personalities to be effective.

Hmm... That is a humor I use when I'm in bad situations IRL, and people seem to see me as the "nice girl next door" usually. So maybe I can pull off my characters still being the way they are, but having a dark sense of humor. Not sure. I think the only character I have that could stereotypically get away with dark humor is the villain in my story. I'll have to think on this. Thank you.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Unrelenting doom and gloom gets very hard to read. Even if you're aiming for tragedy it can lessen the impact by driving your readers to distance themselves from the characters, if not stop reading altogether.

A little bit of humour, or some lighter moments, can help a lot there.

 

[AMoveableBeast]

I write more than my fair share of dark, conflicted stories. I like my fiction to be as messy as life. It comforts me in some way, I suppose. Rings true in my own ears.

But while I enjoy wandering down dark alleys, I also do my best to whistle away the darkness when I can. That's true to life, also.

Even with doom and gloom there's room for a happy tune.

 

[SamScribble]

Even with doom and gloom there's room for a happy tune.

Shouldn't that be set out as a rhyming couplet, Beast?

 

[sr71plt]

I'm afraid this is just one more of those questions that can only be answered by pointing out that there isn't just one universal successful story line, technique, or approach or one universal reader to satisfy.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

Shouldn't that be set out as an internal rhyming couplet, Beast?

A bit too much assonance for me, and a bit of the potential sense is lost. How about...

Even with doom and gloom,
There's room for a happy tomb.


By the way, way back in high school, a friend wrote a poem for the school literary magazine that was absolutely devoid of substance, but full of depressing images and allusions. It was well-received by all but our Christian Brother principal who would have "preferred something brighter, maybe about butterflies."

Add humour? Depends on who you want for an audience.

 

[AMoveableBeast]

Add humour? Depends on who you want for an audience.

Well I, for one, won't be a part of any fandom that will have me as a member.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

Well I, for one, won't be a part of any fandom that will have me as a member.

Well, talk about masturbatory prose!

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Chester Himes was a master at adding humor to his tales, as was Mark Twain. Huck Finn is a parody of Uncle Tom's Cabin. I contend people who hate Huck Finn never read it.