So I was thinking about balance. Balance of the universe, balance of nature, balance of life. Most importantly, the balance of comedy and drama. It is incredibly hard to find good balance. Most stories are either one or the other, and when people are unsuccessful in mixing the two, the story comes out looking fake or too much of one or the other.
So how do you find a good balance? I know you can't have a blow for blow account of funny and dramatic scenes just to make sure you have an even amount, because it depends on the story. Some stories need more of one or the other, but how can you tell? Too much drama can make a book drag and too much comedy can ruin mood. I suppose it just depends, but I've noticed something about myself. A while ago I was reading over some old chapters trying to be unbiased (yeah. right) and I noticed that because of all the silly jokes in my story, I couldn't take myself seriously during my dramatic parts. It could be the type of humor I chose, (sarcasm and dry humor work a lot better with drama, I've noticed) but at the same time, it could be just an imbalance.
Don't get me wrong, I would rather have my story be way unbalanced in the comedic direction, than to take out my jokes just to compliment the few dramatic scenes, but I'm afraid my other stories (you know, the ones I'll probably never write) might be suffering in this way. tell me what you think and what you would do to fix it.
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2 comments:
My novel (which I finished the first draft of last week---woo-hoo!) has that same problem in that the dramatic scenes seemed out of place because of the tone of the rest of it. Chersti recommended that I look at Patricia Wrede's work in the Enchanted Forest books, since she's able to deal with serious situations and she does it by making them humorous at the same time (melting the wizards, etc.) So maybe see if there is a way to make those dramatic scenes humorous as well as dramatic to keep with the tone.
Good luck with finding balance. Let me know how you do it when you find that balance.
Congratulations on the first draft, Jenilyn! Hooray! Take yourself out for pizza!
I think that a good way to handle both humor and drama in a book is to decide what to take seriously and what to be silly about. For example, Sanderson Sensei's "Alcatraz" books are packed full of silly ideas (magical talents like tripping, breaking things, waking up looking ugly, not to mention the evil demons made of crumpled pages of old romance novels. . . ) but he takes the implications very seriously! These silly-sounding things are scary! They can kill you! That juxtaposition drives the humor AND the drama.
I think Wreade manages in the same way. Her world sparkles with silly ideas, but her characters take themselves seriously.
Having a clownish character is a good way to focus the humor in one spot. I read "The Long Walk" recently, a book about a man who escapes from a Siberian prison camp on foot. The author talked about how important the funny people were, those who would make jokes even when it was freezing and the food was bad and men were falling down and dying from exhaustion. They kept everyone's spirits up.
The film "Life is Beautiful" worked extremely well, having very funny elements and very tragic elements that worked together. That story has a clownish character, but he's clowning in order to save his son from despair and death in a Nazi concentration camp.
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