October 04, 2004
If Life Were a Romantic Comedy...
Dark Moment - The point where the romantic leads are as far from ending up together as possible.
Joyous Defeat - The moment when the leads overcome (defeat) their character flaws and (generally) end up together.
I've found that the romantic comedy I'm writing parallels the current state of my life pretty closely, and hence the direction of the story changes with the romantic beats in my own life. Several days ago I thought I knew the ending. Now, I'm left confused & disillusioned--in fact it's been suggested to me that maybe the dark moment should be the ending. It's an intriguing proposition from a writer's perspective...but it's pretty sad from the perspective of yours truly, who's always held out hope for a happy ending. I'd rather think that I just haven't found my ending yet, but that she's out there somewhere...
So, if life was like a RomCom, that would mean that I'm only one act away from getting the girl. You know, I don't know if I've ever had such a joyous defeat in my life. If life is like a RomCom, does that mean that I just haven't learned how to recover from such a moment? Or am I just dating girls who haven't read the rules?
Yeah, I know life isn't like a RomCom, so you needn't remind me. But why not? Why are things so complicated? Why don't people just naturally want to get together? Why are there so many pitfalls? Maybe you like their personality, but you're not physically attracted to them. Maybe you think they're hot, but you can't stand talking to them. Maybe you like everything about them except the one quality you won't compromise on (for me, their faith). Or maybe you like everything about them, and think you did everything right--more right than you ever have...only to be told that what you did was all wrong. (Of course there wouldn't be specific examples to go with each of these...no, of course not!--End Sarcasm--)
So two dilemmas remain:
1) How does my RomCom end? Do I write what I know, depressing as that is, or do I envision the future.
2) Do I pursue the girl and try for a real-life Joyous Defeat? Do I even still want her? Even if I did, would my efforts make any difference in this real world we live in? Only problem here is that with a Joyous Defeat, the main character overcomes the flaw that triggered the dark moment. No immediate flaw presents itself on my end...but then that causes me to start to second-guess myself. Is there some real-life character flaw that's still not evident to me? I've wondered whether I'm open enough with my own emotions--perhaps an effort to conquer that prompted this entry in the first place. Or maybe I have a tendency to dig too deep to fast with people. Or did an insistence on doing everything "right" ultimately cause me to stray from being totally myself & trusting my instincts (because right now I feel an stronger urge than ever to assert MYSELF, and once and for all stop worrying what everyone thinks...wow, I can't believe I'm posting this...please comment!)
Comments
I think you should both become marionettes, join a squad called team america and spend the left of your lives fighting international terrorism. Hrm, that sounds like a great movie -- somebody should make it -- steffen I'm looking at you.
Posted by: will at October 4, 2004 08:51 AM
Hold out for your happy ending Mike. The Dark Moment may be the right ending for this particular romance, but that really only puts you one step closer to finding the right girl for your Joyous Defeat.
Posted by: Marianne at October 4, 2004 09:24 AM
the only times I've really seen the sad ending done well where one of the main protagonists just walks away and its over in rom. comedies is when the person realizes a character flaw (eg. selfishness, thinking the relationship should be all take and no give, or realizes he or she keeps chasing after things that will never really make them happy--such as the cliche shallow but attractive characters) and has that revelation that they need to make a change in their lifestyle or attitude. And then the movie ends just as they're going about their ordinary life (of course now satisfied whether or not they have someone in their life) and they just happen to meet someone who has the possiblity of being mr. (or ms.) wonderful and they instantly seem to hit it off... and whether they end up together in the end is left to your imagination... basically the ending where you end it by saying this door is shut, but its not over, there's new doors waiting just around the corner out of sight
Posted by: jessica at October 4, 2004 01:40 PM
PS. stop worrying about what everyone else thinks! The kind of people who want to be around you, just as you are, are definitely the most satisfying anyhow.
Posted by: jessica at October 4, 2004 01:44 PM
I know you like happy ending's mike, but have you thought about an ending like "Sleepless in Seattle?" That was a fairly upbeat ending with a lot of high tension at the end, yet remains extremely ambiguous as to what the outcome will be. Anyone's idea goes.
Posted by: Mike Brinker at October 6, 2004 04:00 PM
Thanks all for the comments. And yeah, ambiguous ending might work very well indeed--there's still a lot of story development that needs to take place. I think I need to spend some good time figuring out the female lead...because that will determine a lot!
Posted by: Michael Steffen at October 6, 2004 04:28 PM
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