Writing Excuses 5.7: Avoiding Melodrama

Melodrama. What is it? What do people mean when they say something is too melodramatic?

Usually they do NOT mean "it's too much like a classical melodrama," but it helps if we start with that definition: a melodrama is a story in which each character only expresses one emotion, and/or only has one trait. When we refer to melodrama, we're usually complaining about over-acting.

So... how do we avoid it? How do we create characters in conflict without overdoing the conflict or the characterization. In many ways it comes back to something we say over and over (and over and over) again: make your characters into real people.

But we're not going to leave it at that. We're not just going to repeat what we've been telling you for three years now. No, we've got good tools you can use for writing powerful, emotional moments without your readers whining about melodrama.

Audiobook Pick-of-the-Week: The Tomb: Repairman Jack #1, by F. Paul Wilson

Writing Prompt: Write a story in which you take a cliched, angsty hero in a completely new direction, so that it doesn't feel cliched.

Dramatic Reading: Stick around after the 'cast for Howard's reading of Mike O's response to our "magical ink" writing prompt.

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