Here's a small one.

I'm hauling this topic over from Boxed Set, since I think it'll generate more discussion over here. We were talking about Consuela's SG1 fic, "Tuscany," and she said that "happy is harder in a lot of ways."

I've noticed that this is the case. Also, it seems that most of the fics I'm seeing recced (speaking about reccers I trust, BTW) tend towards the dark'n'angsty. Sometimes I wonder why this is: is it because most of the people whose literary tastes intersect with mine prefer the dark to the light, or is it because there are fewer well-written light'n'happy fics out there? I have a hard time buying the notion that angst is somehow "better" than happiness in fic.

Thoughts?

Oh, it's the great dark!fic debate!

Heee.

Part of the problem for me is that story requires action, requires a driver. And, well, there aren't a lot of happy drivers that result in sufficient tension to give a story any kind of forward momentum.

So "Tuscany" works because it's so short, because it doesn't need a plot. Hell, it's not really a story in the classic sense, just a vignette. Keeping that tone in place during something longer, with an actual plot? Would be hard.

That's not to say that some people can't do funny stories, where the driver is some sort of silly thing that makes the story and the characters' responses funny (Yahtzee's "In Harm's Way" or BetanSurvey's "Shoulda Brought a Bag" come to mind). But I'm not that good at humor, myself. Sly wit, fine. But not comedy.

Is "happy" defined as happy from beginning to end or as bad things happen but it works out OK in the end?

There are a lot of happy fics (or at least happy-ending fics) in Due South -- perhaps because the series ended on a happy note.

Here's a link to "Tuscany", by the way.

Gah. Good question, Connie. I'd tend to include both kinds of fic in the definition unless the "bad things happen" fic has so many irrevocably bad things happen that the happy ending could only be seen as bittersweet.

One kind of fic I loathe are ones where a shitload of bad stuff happens and a happy ending is tacked on with no acknowledgement of the fact that the characters have been through hell.

the happy ending could only be seen as bittersweet.

Heh. Where the "happiness" is that our hero/heroine still has defiance on their lips as they lay dying or something.

I'm a sucker for the happy ending, myself, even if happy means that the world has gone to hell but the couple de jour knows they've still got each other to depend on.

Fluff pieces are nice. Not every life is unending angst and pain. Granted, it's hard to maintain fluff without it becoming simple goop. Conflict is generally necessary for there to be a purpose to the story. Wrestling with a stubborn jar of peanut butter might be the extent of it, but there needs to be some sort of conflict. Otherwise we're all living in Teletubbies Land and talking babytalk to each other.

Oooohh, fandom meltdown. Very fun.

Oooohh, fandom meltdown. Very fun.

AGAIN?

Which one?