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melodrama

Harlequin

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Melodrama is probably my worst sin (I have many) in writing. I am forever grating yet more proverbial cheese off of stories and MSS. In most cases I can't spot it till readers point it out.

What do you do to keep your melodrama under control? Not necessarily looking for specific advice, more just curious re experiences.
 

Elle.

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I don't know if it's considered melodrama but I used to have the tendency to write something quite emotional like for example a paragraph, or a scene and instead of just leaving it at the right time I would take it a few sentences too far and end up overwriting it. I basically learned to keep it under control thanks to the help of my course tutor. She was really good at pointing those out to me, especially the tipping point and then I learned how to pull it back. It took some time but I think it's under control now, but I still need to watch myself. I just let it all out in the first draft and then take out the shears and do some serious pruning where I've slipped.
 
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Sonsofthepharaohs

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Who says melodrama is a bad thing? Depends on your genre. Some take very well to a bit of melodramatic flair.
 

Toto Too

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Yeah I was going to say, what makes you convinced it's actually a sin? Maybe it's just your style? Maybe you just need to hone it rather than cut it out?
 

Kjbartolotta

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I dunno, I like melodrama. Very rarely is too much emotion enough. As a beta reader, I think what tend to stick out for me is too much repetition, like if a character falls on their knees and screams WHY GOD!? too many times. Or alternately, if the scene is playing out in a way that feels pat or mechanical, like "Jory the Elf sheds a single tear as the butterfly flies away, thinking of the death of his mother. We now know he has entered the 'acceptance' phase, and is ready to slay the Dark Lord". Emotions are messy and chaotic, what keeps me interested is the unexpectedness of emotional drama. Plus, I'm a big believer in humor. Spot of bathos fixes everything. (Just my .02)
 

Quinn_Inuit

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I try to puncture the pathos with bathos. :) That's not going to work for everyone, though, just because it might not fit your tone.
 

Toto Too

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Ugh... it might be fun to say bathos, but ohhhh do I loathe it. :rant: Or I guess, I don't like when it's so overdone that it robs all chance at dramatic tension. There's just nothing wrong with dramatic tension, and it doesn't need be to excused or apologized for. But - oh the irony - I caught myself using bathos in my own WIP. But here's the thing - I realized why I subconsciously fell into it, and I left it in. I used it in a necessary escape sequence that comes directly after the big dramatic climax. Rather than risking exhaustion with a double climax, I wanted to lighten up the escape. So I guess bathos, like anything else, has its proper context. As does melodrama, I am sure. :)
 

Kjbartolotta

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So I guess bathos, like anything else, has its proper context. As does melodrama, I am sure. :)

Well put, I think one wants to avoid nonsensical clowning as much as they do chest-thumping solemnity. Unless either of them improves the story.
 

blacbird

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Some of the greatest writers in literary history have richly mined the vein of melodrama: William Shakespeare, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, to name just a few.

caw
 

Elle.

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Reading other people's answers I think I've got a different definition/understanding of melodrama. For me melodrama is taking the drama too far when it falls into the sensationalised and the stereotyped/caricatured. I love drama and I enjoy reading dramatic and highly emotional stories but for me there is a different between reading something highly dramatic, that's going to have me on the edge of my seat, and something so over-the-top dramatic that it has me rolling my eyes at the words.
 

Harlequin

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Yes, if you're in danger of morphing your ms into the script for a cheesy anime, it's gone too far.

Also the great classics did lots of things that most of us can't get away with cause we're not good enough >.>

I'm no Shakespeare or Dickens.
 

BethS

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Melodrama is probably my worst sin (I have many) in writing. I am forever grating yet more proverbial cheese off of stories and MSS. In most cases I can't spot it till readers point it out.

What do you do to keep your melodrama under control? Not necessarily looking for specific advice, more just curious re experiences.

How are you defining melodrama?

Traditionally, it refers to over-the-top plots and emotions, to the point where they become caricatures of themselves. It's sensational and theatrical. And generally not in a good way.
 

Bufty

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I'd say that's fair, yes. Anything that triggers a good old fashioned "really? come on"

I'd say it's worse than that. It's way over the top in over-dramatic expression, reactions, actions- everything.
 

DanielSTJ

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I am a romanticist, but I find that trying to keep it as realistic as possible makes it shine.

Just my two cents!
 

Harlequin

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I don't think it need be everything; a scene can be okay but with melodramatic reactions that ruin the whole thing.

I'm just totally incapable of spotting that till others read and point it out >.> I'd never sell anything if I wrote in isolation.


realism doesn't intersect well with surrealist settings, though, and my understanding of realistic interactions is very poor.
 

Elle.

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I don't think it need be everything; a scene can be okay but with melodramatic reactions that ruin the whole thing.

I'm just totally incapable of spotting that till others read and point it out >.> I'd never sell anything if I wrote in isolation.


realism doesn't intersect well with surrealist settings, though, and my understanding of realistic interactions is very poor.


Have they spotted or mention something that is recurring when they point out melodrama in different stories? For example, do they usually it's going on for too long, or pointing out over the top reaction, or does it tend to be the choice of words, or does it tend to vary?
 

Ji'ire

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I'd say that's fair, yes. Anything that triggers a good old fashioned "really? come on"

If this is what we're talking about, cheesy over the top drama then I think it's often hard to spot the exact line where a piece of writing falls into this. Often I'll have a section that when I come back to edit seems crap and too unrealistic with characters saying things they wouldn't, too much dialogue or reacting too stand-offish but usually after just chopping the problem lines the rest of the piece starts to come through and I realize it wasn't all bad as I originally thought.

A big pitfall is also repeating the same idea, so maybe drawing out a death by just continuing to describe the characters grief for multiple paragraphs. When I read stuff like this it really loses my attention because it's just more of the same. The biggest emotional moments to me are when they are so brief but given their power with all the context surrounding them and when I read a good piece of drama it prompts me to think of the things that were unsaid or not communicated. It leaves me something to fill in, where as melodrama usually spells it all out.

Having said that you can drag it out if this is your intention. Some deaths can take really long. There are arguments that go on and on. Making someone die to a slow disease for over 100 pages is a struggle for the reader to get through but this captures the feeling of what it would really feel like in real life. It will make them feel tired out and the whole time they just want it to be over. The difference between this and melodrama is that melodrama blows up every little thing out of proportion, things people wouldn't care about or react that way to which gets repetitive and makes it feel forced and sometimes grating, when for example in a soap opera there is a new problem every five minutes.
 

BethS

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I don't think it need be everything; a scene can be okay but with melodramatic reactions that ruin the whole thing.

I'm just totally incapable of spotting that till others read and point it out

One thing you might try is deliberately underplaying emotional reactions, and then see what your readers say.
 

LucidCrux

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For me, melodrama = fake, and "melodramatic" is not necessarily the same as highly dramatized. If something emotional or actiony seems fake, out of character, or off-tone, then it will get that dreaded "melodramatic" tag. But there isn't any sort of red line, it's all contextual. If you have a teen character, for example, they are probably going to over dramatize things occasionally, but if it reads as a genuine act then it still won't be "melodramatic" it will be melodramatic in the way teens actually are.

"Romeo, Romeo, where for art thou Romeo" all by itself sounds pretty "melodramatic", but if you read the whole play or watch it performed it works in context. It doesn't feel fake or like a mockery or an overreaction. I just read a Pratchett book (yeah still reading them) and a guy starts slaughtering a mob of dwarfs all by himself while screaming lines from the toddler book "Where's my cow?" (or something) and yet it wasn't "melodramatic" because it's a work of satire and comedy. It was goofy and over the top, but as part of the climax for an already light-hearted book, it was fine. It fit the moment, and there were previous elements that fully supported that reaction.

I went and looked up the actual definition of melodrama, and I think it backs up my interpretation.

Melodrama: "...exaggerates emotion and emphasizes plot or action at the expense of characterization."

I think the word melodramatic actually has a couple meanings with small but significant differences, and that makes it a word that can cause a lot of confusion depending on how people interpret it. Overly dramatic or sensationalized is not quite the same as "like a melodrama." What some people call melodramatic might just be someone acting out of character, or an indication that something wasn't indicated well enough earlier for readers (but you as the author understood the relevant minutiae of the backstory better).

So I'd say as long as you aren't abusing your characters and making them do things for the sake of plot or trying to generate a reader reaction regardless of how the character would actually act, then it's fine. Some people or events are more dramatic than others, but make sure they are justifiably so for the reader. Someone cowering under the kitchen table and biting their nails during a thunderstorm might seem "melodramatic" at first glance, but what if it was previously established that they had an intense fear of lightning due to a past experience, or were mentally disabled and afraid of loud noises? Then they're simply being scared.

Edit: After looking around a bit, I think it is pretty clear that the current common conception of a melodrama does not match the historic one. It's basically been dumbed down to just "very dramatic." Tons of character-centric stuff gets labeled as melodrama now.
 
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Harlequin

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Hrm. I've been thinking about it all week and I'm kind of leaning towards Ji'ire's response a lot.

I think melodrama might be a matter of structural weakness (for me). The reactions aren't wrong per se, but the build up to them often hasn't been done right in my drafts, and things fluctuate too quickly.


Yes melodrama does seem to be synonymous with just very dramatic or emotional :p atm anyway.
 

Lady Ice

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I quite like a melodramatic style but it has to be deliberate.

Accidental melodrama tends to come from characters having a disproportionate reaction to something (and not because it was because that character was eccentric or had a mental illness), stating their emotions very literally ("I've had enough of you! You've really done it this time") or in a clumsy metaphor. Basically, emotional writing but without actually portraying the emotion. If you read back your sad scene and it just makes you laugh or shrug, it's probably melodramatic.
 

Lisa Driscoll

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I've struggled with this too. I've got some really emotional scenes in my memoir and while I want to tug those heart strings, I don't want to gut my readers. I'm always afraid of it being "too much" and actually putting a reader off instead of getting them to cry with me. I think the best thing you can do is get feedback on the points you're afraid of being over the top. If you're betas can handle it, then you're probably ok.