Hi.
I’m writing a story and after a lot of thought I chose to have an outcome of Success with a Judgment of Bad. I want a similar feeling to The Social Network, A History of Violence, The Silence of the Lambs, The Godfather. A goal achieved but the MC doesn’t leave happy.
I was reading the “Building a Better Dinosaur” article and I was wondering how do you handle a couple of things when you have a Personal Tragedy (Success/Bad) or a Tragedy (Failure/Bad). For this discussion I’ll just say Tragedy, but I’m referring to both.
A Story is an argument that there is only one right way to solve a problem.
For tragedies would the story be an argument that this is one wrong way to solve a problem?
To gain an audience’s acceptance, an argument (Story) must appeal to both logic and feeling. To make the logical part of this argument, all the inappropriate ways a problem might be approached need to be addressed and shown to fail. Each one must be given its due and shown not to work except the one touted by the author.
Would this change for a tragedy? Should I show the appropriate ways to a problem but show them to be rejected by my MC/protagonist?
Is there any difference between the way you handle a Crucial Element in a Tragedy? Would my MC intersect with the Problem element instead of the Solution? Especially with a Steadfast character.
Thanks!