Do you think that tragic stories, or at least stories of failure to overcome adversity, have more resonant potential than positive ones? That’s an interesting idea. I’m not sure what I think of it. This, too, might vary with the individual, but in quickly reviewing some of the books that have struck me most deeply, I think there is more nuance in them. The characters do overcome adversity and reach a hopeful note, but not without cost.
Stein’s book, which is what started me thinking about this concept, holds itself out as a sort of manual for producing writing of publishable quality. That’s part of why the resonance chapter stumped me. For most of the concepts he talks about in the book, there are exercises you can do, specific questions to ask yourself, things to think about. Not to overstate the mechanical aspects of writing with this metaphor, but there are levers one can pull and knobs to turn to improve characterization or tension or the tightness of one’s writing.
But you can’t just inject resonance into your work by writing a story involving love, or money, or health. The world is full of flabby, uninteresting stories that involve these things. There’s more to it than that. It’s like I said above, even the resonance-inducing techniques Stein does mention seem to me capable of going disastrously wrong as often as not.
So is making your story resonant something you can even do intentionally as a writer?
