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The Tragedy Section; To Be Revised.
Topic Started: Apr 9 2010, 11:54 AM (26 Views)
Capt
Administrator
We have two submissions: one by Sokreshel and the other by English. Pick one. I think we might get someone to rewrite.

Sokreshel's Tragedy
 
Tragedy, the genre that I specialize in. If you want to know about tragedy, you've come to the right place.

Now, some people also call tragedy "Drama," although I think of them as entirely different due to Tragedies being generally unhappy and Dramas usually being about some sappy romance plot and some cheesy moral. Remember, a Tragedy is Unhappy, and a Drama is Moody. Moving on, if you want to write tragedies, I can help. However, the first thing you have to ask yourself before writing a tragedy is, "Is this genre right for me?"

You can experiment with other genres, but you have to write the one that you like to write. If you feel comfortable with comedy, the exact opposite of tragedy, then write comedy. Remember, a tragedy is more than just killing, unhappiness, and all that stuff. Tragedy is an extremely complicated, difficult genre. You must have a lot of experience in character development, plots, and you must be in tune with emotions in order to write tragedies. Just like how horror is not all about gore and boos, tragedies are not all about being sad. In order to have a successful tragedy, practice your character development.

Character development and tragedy are like architect and building. There is no way in hell you'll ever write a good tragedy if you don' know character development. Character development is essentially how your characters change throughout a story. You can have them start out as being nice and happy, and by the middle of the story, they should NOT be the exact same. Maybe they've become cold and harsh, or maybe they're now evil. This is especially true for protagonists and major characters remaining in the story throughout.

In my stories, my well-known character Sokreshel used to be a dreamy, happy young kid. Eventually, he learned to discipline himself and became more reserved. In my stories, you witness Sokreshel transform himself into the very man that destroys his mind. He develops friendships reluctantly with a group of people who have no contact with the outside world, and they've helped him open up. He was experimented on to keep alive only to find out that now he's dying. He loses his arm, and he becomes very sick. His nightmares become more real. By the middle of the story, he kills all of his friends in insanity, including the one person he cared about the most. Upon finding them dead, he becomes a mute and refuses to even talk to people. He goes on the rest of the story tired, alone, and almost defenseless.

This is character development. As you can see, Sokreshel changes due to events that happen. However, his story was more than that. He was on a quest to kill a confused man named Orson who wanted to summon an ancient race back from another dimension. I added some Sci-Fi and Adventure elements, as you can see. By the end of the story, Sokreshel killed Orson in a cave by pushing him onto a stalagmite in a deep pit. Sokreshel then learned about the invention of the gun and returned to the resting place of the one person he ever cared for. He rested next to her body and shot himself.

In a tragedy, you must use a lot of imagery. Character development, imagery, and emotions are the foundations of them. They're stereotypically known as being all unhappy, but they're actually supposed to be very emotional. My story, although seemingly unhappy in the summary, is actually more heartwarming than plain evil. Do not attempt tragedy if you haven't tried other genres, as just having it be a series of unfortunate events would make it a terrible tragedy. Really, it's depressing how people do it these days, it's so tragic.


English's Tragedy
 
A tragedy is not necessarily sad. If you take Macbeth into consideration I wouldn't find that story sad at all, great tragedy though. A tragedy wouldn't be a tragedy if it is not inevitable. That is right, a tragedy is based around a tragic hero leading towards his ultimate doom by both internal and external forces. The internal forces being his main flaw (For a start the tragic hero must be admirable usually with a high status, otherwise he/she cannot be sympathized), and while the external forces including twists or supernatural/natural forces that leads to the eventual downfall/loss of status of the tragic hero.

Tragedies are often predictable in plot, too, not always. Tragedies are written as far back as Ancient Greece as plays so that the audience can watch the story, and experience its emotional contents and undergo 'Catharsis', a cleansing of sadness and emotion afterwards. In reading, Tragedies are often also 'going down hill', as in the tragic hero started with everything he could possibly have, and the fortune of wheels indicates that from this point onwards his luck will run out. A tragedy is also sympathetic, and it works because the readers can sympathize with the characters, if they despise them then the reader won't even care less if your characters died.

Coming back to my point about flaws, sometimes it could also be a virtue. In John Milton's Paradise Lost Adam's fall is due to his flaw, also virtue, his love for Eve. A flaw could be almost anything. One last thing, I would like to say as well, is that the tragedy must make an impact at the end, often carrying a moral message.


FAQ. ;) Oh, and I need to reorganize the remake.
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