Bein' Thinky

[kriadydragon]

Don't ask me why but yesterday I was racking my brain for what I considered to be the most emotionally powerful, kick-in-the-gut Sheppard centric story out there. I won't tell you what I came up with since I don't want anyone feeling cruddy that their story didn't make the list. But it got me thinking about what, for me, helps to create a kick-in-the-gut story that really sticks with you (mind you, I was thinking more along the lines of novel-length stories, not one-shots).

1. The handling of emotional fall-out is always the big make it or break it element for me. Really, honest to goodness emotional fall-out is a story unto itself. Emotions are messy business, trauma is messy business, and, for me, a story that cleans it all up with only a few words of wisdom or a verbal slap to the back of the head - or the dreaded complete and utter lack of acknowledgment toward anything emotional related - doesn't have the same impact as the long and arduous journey of kind-of coming to terms (or, in some instances, not coming to terms at all, but merely finding the will to keep moving). It's what I've always meant by quick fixes, and why I don't like them. They're too quick, too neat and tidy. We've all had something happen in our lives that kicked our butts emotionally, so we know that, nine times out of ten, there are no words of wisdom or verbal slaps upside the head that make it all better. If anything, those attempts at quick fixes can have a way of making it worse. And I love stories that acknowledge the messiness of emotional fall-out, whether it's the heart of the story or a large chunk of the ending. Those are the stories that haunt me in a good way.

2. We learn about the character/s, and I don't mean how they stole their dad's car when they were ten or that they lost their virginity at sixteen. I mean really learn something: about their heart, their soul, their breaking points and what they do to keep going. We learn deep dark secrets and things never fully realized before. We're shown the character/s beyond the surface. And, yes, that is not easy to do. In fact, it's kind of scary, and can even be draining.

3. Good emotional balance. This should probably be number two but, truth is, I'm not going in any particular order. By emotional balance I mean stories that don't swamp you with its emo-ness, but are not so lacking in emotional fall-out that everyone is coming off as cold-hearted jerks who don't really care that much.

4. The Plot from hell. I don't want to say the plots are complicated, because the gist of them usually aren't. For example, evil society kidnaps team or man seeking revenge kidnaps character A. It's what happens within the plots that make them complicated. The simple what-if (what if a madman kidnapped one of the team?what if character A got shot?) is dissected, studied under a microscope, molded and reshaped into something that takes it beyond the mere "kidnapped/shot/what-have-you" scenario, making it seem like the plot from hell even though the gist of the idea is pretty simple.

5. The author has respect - respect for the writing process, the characters, and the world the story is taking place in. Maybe they're satisfying a kink, maybe they had a story to tell, but either way, they worked hard and it shows.

Comments

[black-raven135.livejournal.com]

My big areas are #1 and #2
Those grab me the most.............and mean more to me than anything else
if it is a serious piece of ff.
I think you covered those areas very well...e.g. a tidy boxe with a fancy bow at the end.....Life is not like that
It is equally important to me to see a part of what makes the character tick, not his outward manifestations, ie the mask he wears so well
That also is NOT reality.
I know some want total entertainment, but I want something thought provoking and it spills over into entertainment also. I think a lot of network is deeply into a lick and a promise mode and that is why I believe cable is a better selection for me...........
I am not saying I do not like humor, but I don't do sitcoms or outrageous schtick for entertainment.....

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Emotional fall-out is such a major button of mine that I think it's become one of those trivial things that I take a lot more seriously than I should (like characterization). But, oh, man, when that button is hit just right it's a thing of beauty, and I think I've been spoiled because of it. I don't expect or even want every story I read to have the kind of powerful emotional punch that you find in stories like "Your Cowboy Days are Over" or "The Known World " (definitely not like Cowboy Days. That story doesn't just rip your heart out it puts it in a blender and hits frappes). But stories that put the characters through so much emotional trauma only to put everything back to normal as quickly and easily as possible, or ignore the emotional fall-out all together, really rub me the wrong way.

[black-raven135.livejournal.com]

YES, that is what I deeply feel also.........
As I stated earlier I don't want a box with a tidy bow on top.....I find that insulting and demeaning to the character.
In that instance the writer obviously wants it all to end 'and they lived happily ever after' but things are just NEVER like that....
I am not familiar with 'Your Cowboy Days Are Over' and I just tried to do a search and could not find it on ff.net.
Could you provide a link to it either here or PM? I would like to read it.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Rather than give you the link to the story I'm giving you the link to it's rec on Stargate Gen rec to read it's description and decide for yourself if it's something you want to read. This will probably be the deepest, darkest story you will ever read and there are a few things you need to be aware of before proceeding. When I say this story is painful, I mean it. It's sooo good but, oh my word, so heart shredding. It actually left me kind of depressed after I read it. And watch out for the sex scenes, which you can see coming and can skip , but I accidentally ran into a single sentence and that sentence alone was pretty graphic.

http://stargategenrec.livejournal.com/tag/m

[imbecamiel.livejournal.com]

Mmm. Yes. I think this is a very good distillation of it. This is the sort of analysis that, while in some ways obvious, can be not just interesting but really useful to stop and look at sometimes. Because it can be hard, really, to figure out how to capture in your own writing the emotional impact you've felt from others'.

And these points are so good for that. Particularly what you have to say about the emotional aspects of it all, especially in the aftermath. I know that's one aspect where I so often fall flat on my face as a writer... because it's hard for me to write scenes where the main motivating force is dealing with character interaction, as opposed to having essential plot to advance. My approach to writing tends to be far too technical/analytical, and it's difficult for me to get out of that headspace. (Now my sister? She revels in it. Aftermath, whole scenes of character interaction just for the fun or emotional impact of it... She's awesome at that stuff.)

Now, when it comes to my personal inclinations in reading, though, I will say that I can be rather picky at times about where things go emotionally. Depending on my mood at the time/how likely I think I am to be depressed by certain things.

I can love, love intense stories that really play out the full potential consequences of things… but most of the time, I do like the characters to be “returned in the condition in which they were borrowed” so to speak, both physically and emotionally/mentally – or at least to have the general impression that they’re gonna get there eventually.

That is not to say that major events have no lasting impact on them – which is only realistic – but just that it doesn’t make me feel it’s changed who they are, the reasons I love them. And, actually, it's not even just things that have a negative impact, or leave characters too traumatized. I can be really bothered by stories, sometimes, that do too much "solving" of issues that - while, yes, are genuine problems or weaknesses - I feel are nonetheless really important to the dynamics.

Now, that’s certainly not to say that I don’t enjoy good universe/character re-shaping stories (whether external or internal changes). I’ve loved many of them. I just… tend to be more wary, unless I know just what kinds of changes I’m in for. Because I hate getting into what looks like a great roller coaster of a story… only to reach the end feeling, I don’t know, betrayed I guess, because I feel like they’ve destroyed essential aspects of things that I loved, and I wasn’t expecting it. Sometimes it just means the author’s done their job effectively. Sometimes it leaves me feeling depressed and wrung out and upset far longer than I should over a fanfic. Heh.

I guess I’m just the kind of person who likes spoilers, because I don’t like to be blindsided by stuff. :P

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

I guess I’m just the kind of person who likes spoilers, because I don’t like to be blindsided by stuff. :P

I'm the same. I hate being unpleasantly surprised so much that it makes being even pleasantly surprised not worth it. Plus how a story ends is also make it or break it for me. I hate getting invested in stories that are awesome up until the end. There was one story I read that I was really enjoying up until it degenerated from excitement and angst to a lot of pointless humor with a seriously injured Sheppard trying constantly to escape the infirmary.

because it's hard for me to write scenes where the main motivating force is dealing with character interaction, as opposed to having essential plot to advance.

I feel your pain, because it is very hard, and at times kind of scary. It's why I haven't finished my SGA amnesia story, because I'm coming up on the heaviest emotional moments and it's intimidating me like crazy. Past experience with emotionally heavy situations made me realize that it can be really draining. After writing Castles in the Sky, I temporarily lost the will to write because writing Castles wore me out.

I can love, love intense stories that really play out the full potential consequences of things… but most of the time, I do like the characters to be “returned in the condition in which they were borrowed” so to speak, both physically and emotionally/mentally – or at least to have the general impression that they’re gonna get there eventually.

The latter is what I usually lean for - things aren't back to normal but you know they're getting there. For me, it's a happy medium, keeping it real without leaving the characters permanently shattered. For the characters to be returned to absolute normal... well, for me, it all depends on how it's handled. But I've read so many stories where authors went for quick fixes to tidy things up as quickly as possible that it's soured me, in a way, toward stories that try to put everything back the way it was. I don't have a problem with putting things back the way that they were, it's how things are put back that I've become uber wary about.