I ran into a writing contest, with the theme summer and should be a feel good story. And I have difficult coming up with a conflict for a feel good movie.
I mean, most of the time it’s a “real” conflict, or a dark conflict.
How do you generated such a conflict?
And are feel good story in particulair quadrants?
The only example I can up with is Notting Hill and Breakfast at Tiffany, but I’m sure there must be more.
Rgds,
Jeri
I always think of a feel good movie as one that leaves me feeling good at the end. I thought of Notting as only OK.
More to my happy ending taste:
You’ve Got Mail, ET, Working Girl, Back to the Future, Legally Blonde, Groundhog Day, Sister Act, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Planes, Trains & Automobiles
I would start with looking at lists of happy ending movies and pick out the ones you like and look at the conflicts for what is in your taste range. You have to want to write the story, and that’s the first thing. Look for the fun that will keep you writing.
I don’t know that there are any strict rules that you must stick to in order to create a “feel good” story other than that its intent is to leave the audience feeling good. I Googled a list of feel good movies and The Shawshank Redemption was on the list and that movie has an inmate brutally beaten to death along with multiple other beatings, murders, suicides, and implied rape. So…pretty dark.
Beyond leaving the audience feeling good, i’d also say that a feel good movie is one that generally takes an optimistic approach and leaves all of the characters (or at the very least, the “good guys”) feeling good about the way things worked out. So the first thing I’d do is try to work that into the beginnings of a premise. “Engage in X with optimism and you can feel good about the way things turned out when you succeed at Y”. Something along those lines.
The conflict could be inner conflict - consider Rocky.