Wednesday, September 29, 2010

People Can't Be Happy

One thing that has been frustrating me with stories is the public's desire for unhappiness. Nobody wants something simple, straightforward, and nice.

If you make a story where everything works out in the end, there will be a general disappointment.  People will say that it's unrealistic and boring.  You need to make things that are dark and depressing.

But if every story you see is dark and depressing, you will start thinking that every story has to be dark and depressing and that reality is dark and depressing and that there is no good or happiness outside of children's fiction.

So it seems that people can't be happy, or maybe that they don't want to be.  As a writer, I feel this struggle because I simultaneously want to write dark stories and I want to write happy stories.  But when I write the dark stories, I feel like I am adding to the problem, and when I write happy stories, I feel like I am writing something that nobody wants or cares about.

Ultimately, though, some people would rather complain more than do anything else.  There are people who like happy stories and there are people who understand that a dark story does not mean that real life is as bleak as fiction.  Haters are going to hate and writers are going to write.  Let's all just do our own thing.

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