Oh my gosh, you won't believe it!

[Rich.]

This is a thread about melodrama.

It's also another one of my lets-talk-about-craft threads. Brace yourselves.

I came to this writing malarkey not so long ago, and the first stories I wrote were melodramatic tours de force, broad-brushed, sensationalist, derivative and trite.

I've tried to do better.

What it seems I have in fact done is to develop a pathological fear of melodrama, which means I'm now often criticized for being too dry, flat or matter of fact. It'd be nice to find the sweet spot.

So my question is this. What do you do, lovely writer reading this, when you're faced with transmitting strong emotions but you don't want to take a stroll down melodrama lane?

 

[Richard Turner]

Interesting question. I suppose a conventional response would be "show don't tell". Sometimes leaving . . . between spoken words can convey fear or grief. A strong character might show uncharacteristic weakness - shoulders drooping perhaps.

 

[Marc Joan]

Difficult one. I used to go for the matter-of-fact approach as I thought I would make a horrible [for example] episode more horrible by treating it thus. Not everybody agreed! I think the answer is probably context-dependent. Maybe audience-dependent. As you intimate, we need to find a balance between the under-stated and the overblown. It's all a bit Yin and Yang. This isn't helping at all, is it? Basically, I don't have a sensible answer...Maybe the answer lies in drawing on the things that have previously provoked strong emotions in oneself and then trying to capture the triggers on paper; if it works for you, when you re-read it, the chances are high it will work for somebody else?

 

[Leonora]

Rich, I'm no good to you really, as I have the same problem, but I think Richard's answer is a good one. In your story, for example, we all liked your protagonist's competence and calmness, but maybe her underlying anxiety could be hinted at through metaphors, through the way she sees the world, and the way you present it, so that it tells us something about how she's feeling? Then her calmness would seem studied, as if she knows it's all going to hell but isn't going to give in. Have you read The Road by Cormac McCarthy? The horror is exacerbated by the mundane way they persevere.
I've got to come up with a new climax to my spy novel that isn't hackneyed or ridiculous. Now, come to think of it, I George Smiley might be another example of studied mundanity. Hm!

 

[Susan]

There’s nothing like feedback. I’d suggest throwing caution to the wind and transmiting those strong emotions, going with your gut. Then post the piece for critique and invite people to point out any purple bits. Trial and error.

 

[Nikky Lee]

Hmm, a very good question! I have not really thought about this much before, but I think @Richard Turner is on the right track. Body language can reveal a lot, especially when it contradicts what the character is saying. I also use internal dialogue a lot (perhaps too much), but again it helps to reveal a character's inner workings. The best example of this I have ever seen is in a scene from Joe Abercombie's The Blade Itself, where readers meet the character Glokta for the first time.

You can read it here (scroll down to the heading titled 'Questions'): Joe Abercrombie | An Extract From The Blade Itself

I also just watched a video from Sanderson on character—I don't remember how I found it (possibly on Litopia, so apologies if it's a repost)—but I thought his triangle of abstraction it was a brilliant and fresh take on how to make concepts feel "concrete". Might help?

 

[Barbara]

I'm going to approach this from a different angle, just for the sake of it. From an actoooor darling angle.

I wonder if during those moments when you write too melodramatically, you're actually trying too hard to convey emotion, drama, whatever? Maybe you need to do less and trust your reader?

You could try to use the method actor approach. Sit, sorry, stand at your desk and don't try to write, but feel what the charcter says to you. What are they feeling? If you end up walking around the house like a Shakespearean performer from the last century, acting out your lines, you're probably melodramatic. But if you're quitely crying or laughing to youself you probably on the right track.

I remember when I started drama school. My English wasn't that good, and I struggled to express myself in a sense that I felt I couldn't get the character and their emotions out. A genious of a directior told me: Do less. Trust the words. I did less. I trusted the words. Then he said: do even less. He kept telling me to do less until we got to the basic, raw emotion, just pure moments of true feeling. Anything else was filler.

I do that now in my writing. I go minimalist. I sketch out the action, the road map of where the charcter lives and experiences the story, what they do etc, then find the emotion within it. Sometimes it means my work ends up the other way, too bare, devoid of feeling. Then I go back over it, using my units and objectives and the one base emotion for each, then work out how I can portray that one emotion within that unit together with the motivation / objetive. Whether or not I succeed, I leave for others to judge. Thank you, my dear feedback people.

There's a great definition of acting by Sandford Meisner: Living truthfully under imaginary circumstances.

I apply that to writing. Find the character's truth in the moment, then simply write it down.

 

[Carol Rose]

I've always let my characters speak through me. What they say, what they feel, how they react. And I'm convinced it's because I do such in-depth character profiles before I write one word of the story. I mean, how on earth can you get inside someone's head and write authentically in that head if you don't know the person? If you have no clue how they will react in any given circumstance? What they will say, what they will think, and what decisions they will make? That's always been my approach. It's also why I don't like writing in an omniscient voice. It's too distant for the way I like to write.

I'm also a people watcher. I pay attention to the different ways they speak, the differences in their body language, and the ways they process information differently. Nurses are trained to do this in a global way. We approach education and health care needs with a patient from their current level of understanding, and in accordance with their own customs and beliefs. But even before nursing school I was people watching, paying attention to particulars as outlined above.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

@Kirsten said The more you avoid conscious explaining, the more you avoid melodrama

I think that's a very useful observation.

We are the best interpreters of our own dreams. You are the best interpreter of the eagle, Kirsten.

My first thought on reading this was, tethered majesty. The eagle very naturally, needs and wants to soar. The window is the light and represents the space it needs. The unconscious doesn't own you. It is you, and the eagle is not an unworthy thing to be resisted, entirely the opposite. It will continue to demand expression until it knows it will be answered.

I used to have this horrific dream about a haunted room in a grand, dilapidated house. The house was mine but there was a no go area by this staircase. This thing was there, malevolent beyond imagination. And I would decide this was my house, my home and I must never be afraid to go anywhere in it. I'd brace myself and go into this dark, windowless room where the thing was, and we'd begin to fight, but it was silent and invisible. I'd try to say the Lord's prayer...not a Christian but so what...but my best defence against terror was anger. I was immensely aggressive. Ready to kill it with my bare hands, whatever it was. And I never won, but I never lost either, I'd wake up thinking, oh that one again, and of course the house was me, myself, and the freedom of my own body, stolen by this illness that was this terrible thing. Unknown aetiology, not responsive to any doctors, treatment but very visible in effect, pulling me out of shape, but still, causation and mode of perpetuation not as yet clearly understood by science, and therefore 'invisible'.

And I'm not better, but something changed all the same, because I used to get that one a lot but I don't anymore. What changed? I think the liberating of the unconscious mind, choosing to direct it as a choice of conscious will.

Which writing can do, of course.

 

[Barbara]

I have been thinking about this thread, and I'm wondering:

when melodrama shows up in a story, is that because the voice has slipped away for whatever reason?

Any thoughts, anyone?

 

[Rich.]

I have been thinking about this thread, and I'm wondering:

when melodrama shows up in a story, is that because the voice has slipped away for whatever reason?

Any thoughts, anyone?

I was melodramatic when I started out because I didn't understand pace, or light and shade. I write fantasy, so there's a lot of epic in what I'm trying to achieve. But what I was doing back then was trying to cram into every sentence the grandest feelings of my favourite books. A fast track to melodrama, I'm sure you'll agree. The voice was sensational and monotonous. Not slipped, just wrong.

More generally, I think @Marc Joan made a good point earlier about these things being context and/or audience dependent.

 

[Barbara]

Yes, that is a very good point, re context and audience. If you were to write a melodrama ... just kidding. It is very true though. It could strategically be used to create an effect, especially in an epic story aimed at an YA audience. Like you say, light and shade. But I don't know. YA is not something I know much about.

Actually I've just thought of a place where I could use some melodrama in my ... psychological thriller. It might just help a particular moment when my protagonist lies through his teeth ...

 

[Ancora Imparo]

We were given a writing exercise to do, where we had to write an emotional scene without using any emotional words at all – no feeling, shouting, crying etc. No melodrama. We had to describe only what the character/s did. I liked that as an exercise because it reduced everything to body language, and most of us are better at deciphering that than we realise.

I agree with show, don't tell. But I must admit I get exasperated when a book is all show show show and reads like the writer has consumed the creative writing manual from cover to cover but doesn't quite understand the place for 'tel'. We tell stories, we don't show them (unless it's dance or mime or something like that). That said, I completely agree that telling is more passive. It should be used sensibly. But if someone shows too much and too often, I find it as wearing as them telling me everything. The balance has to be right for me.

I think the key to writing emotions is character led. If my character is calm and not prone to outbursts, then it's easier when I come to an emotional scene. I stick to describing what she/he does and I keep it contained. Powerful emotions can be conveyed through small actions. The more we describe them, the weaker the effect seems to be. I try to avoid 'felt'. If my character is the type to throw tantrums, I give myself more rein. I let him or her shout and bluster. But only if that is in their characters. I'd rather something was understated than overstated. I hate soaps, but have a friend who used to write for some of the biggies. She said it taught her a lot about drama and escalating conflict, so maybe it's worth watching a few and making notes.

 

[Rich.]

If you were to write a melodrama ... just kidding. It is very true though. It could strategically be used to create an effect...

As soon as I read this I thought of Russell T Davies and his writing on the first few series of the rebooted Doctor Who. The guy's a melodrama genius (he also wrote the late 90s UK TV series Queer as Folk, which I guess makes him a genius without qualifiers). And...

I hate soaps, but have a friend who used to write for some of the biggies. She said it taught her a lot about drama and escalating conflict, so maybe it's worth watching a few and making notes.

...Davies also wrote for EastEnders (the biggest soap in the UK), so I guess the whole issue of melodrama is indeed a question of degree, context and audience. At what point does emotional effect become sensational? I'm sure there isn't an absolute answer.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

I have a tendency to write sparse, leaving too much of the drama out. Something @Carol Rose said recently has changed my editing process, and I think it's helping me put some of that emotion back into my writing. She mentioned 'layering' in the emotions--focusing on the emotions as as an editing pass, thinking about what each character is feeling throughout the story and whether that is showing. (Carol naturally expressed the idea better) So I've been doing that with my current WIPs, and I love it, because by focusing only on emotions during an editing pass, I can gauge the balance better, whereas if I'm trying to get that right as I play around with plot, action, and other stuff (or, heaven forbid, in the first draft), I don't get as good a feel for it. Of course, it means one more editing pass ... or two, as I'm realising (one to put in those emotions, and then one to read it through once more to make sure I've got it right).

 

[Carol Rose]

I have a tendency to write sparse, leaving too much of the drama out. Something @Carol Rose said recently has changed my editing process, and I think it's helping me put some of that emotion back into my writing. She mentioned 'layering' in the emotions--focusing on the emotions as as an editing pass, thinking about what each character is feeling throughout the story and whether that is showing. (Carol naturally expressed the idea better) So I've been doing that with my current WIPs, and I love it, because by focusing only on emotions during an editing pass, I can gauge the balance better, whereas if I'm trying to get that right as I play around with plot, action, and other stuff (or, heaven forbid, in the first draft), I don't get as good a feel for it. Of course, it means one more editing pass ... or two, as I'm realising (one to put in those emotions, and then one to read it through once more to make sure I've got it right).

I'm so glad you found that useful! I always needed an extra pass for the emotion.