I distinctly remember one summer afternoon when I was about 15, wandering around a video rental store (remember those?) with my mother. We couldn’t agree on a movie. She wanted a musical, or a romantic comedy. I wanted an edgy coming of age story, and I may have said something along the lines of “But Mooommm….there’s no drama in a musical. You know how it’s going to end – the hero gets the girl and they live happily ever after!”
That was a lifetime ago. Now I’m the Mom. And every time I pick up a novel – usually a sweet romance or a fantasy where the hero gets the girl in the end – I remember that afternoon. I think the difference is that now I have plenty of real-life drama. I don’t need it in my entertainment. When I find an hour to read, I want to know that while the hero and heroine may go through a lot, eventually they’ll come together for happily ever after.
Those are the stories I write too. I know the ending long before I’ve worked out how the two characters will get there.
What about you? Do you skip the drama and go straight to the happy endings too?
I like light drama or thriller/horror sort of reading. I like the heavy challenges but I prefer it to come from an outside source. I hate reading pages and pages of heavy drama because you can’t guarantee that the ending won’t suck. The guy won’t get the girl or no one lives happily ever after. In thrillers – the bad guy is always caught and in horror – the monster is always stopped (well sometimes they have endings that make that not 100% true). But you feel good at the end. You feel like you went throuah all that and your life is okay.
Exactly – I can handle some drama as long as I know it’s all going to be ok in the end 🙂