Genrewonk

August 18, 2010

TV Tropes is a massive time sink, but there are some gems in the general pop-culture amusement that I think could use some wider currency with those of us who workshop or otherwise talk about the nuts and bolts of story construction on a regular basis.  Some of these are just too useful not to use.

1. Moral Event Horizon – You have a character who’s the bad guy.  But we all like to believe in redemption, and he’s got a tragic back-story that makes him a little sympathetic, and he’s got enough charisma that the reader would like to see him join the side of the angels.  The Moral Event Horizon it the event where he does something so heinous, so evil, that any chance at redemption is lost.  It’s the point of no return where all ambiguity about the character’s status as in irredeemable evil bastard is removed: he’s raped the heroine, killed her child and/or eaten their puppy. Note, this can go unpunished, in which case you have a
2. Karma Houdini – The complete bastard has eaten the puppy, burnt down the orphanage and kicked granny downstairs.  He’s walked off with a million bucks stolen from the Salvation Army.  If there was any justice, the hero would serve him a gruesome and appropriate death. . . but no, the guy walks off into the sunset, happy as a clam.  That’s it, he lives happily ever after.  This character may be a sign you’re reading about a
3. Crapsack World – The world is fucked up not just on a social level, but on a spiritual and philosophical level.  Evil is rewarded, good is punished, and if God exists, he doesn’t care for you.  A staple of satire as well as horror.  Of course, when done badly, can result in a
4. Broken Aesop – You had a moral in there, right?  About the sacredness of human life in against the boots of a faceless bureaucracy, and how your hero saved the world from the evil overlords. . . by stomping that human life out of thousands of the evil overlord’s faceless servants?  However, all might be forgiven with resort to
5. The Rule of Cool – If something is just wicked awesome enough, the audience doesn’t care how believable it is.

Category: internet, writing