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tragedy porn: what is it called.

Eddie Davidson 🚫
Updated:

I have adopted several terms for wish fulfillment stories and Mary Sue characters over the years.

they are some of my least favorite stories because the characters act completely the opposite of the way that I would expect with very unlikely outcomes and it gets me out of the story.

is there a genre called "tragedy porn" or "oh woe is me" stories?

that's what I call it.

typically the main characters parents are dead/left them and they have some sort of cancer or malady

a good example is a recent story where a guy has to live with his grandma who doesn't want him and somehow he finds love after a lot of melodrama, like a soap opera.

no real plot development or arc, just lots of dialogue

Replies: Pixy CB ystokes Bondi Beach samuelmichaels Eddie Davidson

Pixy 🚫

@Eddie Davidson

What in the squirrel sausage did I just read? Was this a drunk post? 😂

There is so much to un-pack in that post, that I don't think I succeeded.

Was the Youtuber 'Call me Chato'?

What exactly is the question? Are you asking what genre stories are called, where the story has no character building, no introduction to time and place and no ending or resolution? Something like a literary diorama where it's just one particular scene (ie the conversation between two strangers stuck in a broken down lift where the story ends when the door opens.)?

Replies: Eddie Davidson awnlee jawking

Eddie Davidson 🚫

@Pixy

what genre is that type of story called.

Replies: REP

REP 🚫

@Eddie Davidson

Coming of Age or perhaps Drama

Personally, I would label it Life, but that isn't an SOL Genre.

awnlee jawking 🚫

@Pixy

There is so much to un-pack in that post, that I don't think I succeeded.

It seemed to be a rant more than anything, so any question had to be rhetorical.

AJ

Replies: Eddie Davidson

Eddie Davidson 🚫

@awnlee jawking

seemed to be a rant more than anything, so any question had to be rhetorical.

you don't have to make every response to me a character atrack. you can just be quiet some times.

Replies: awnlee jawking Crumbly Writer

awnlee jawking 🚫

@Eddie Davidson

Like Pixy, I didn't understand the question, and I see nobody else has deigned to answer. If you had asked the question in plain, simple English, perhaps you would have had a better response.

AJ

Replies: Eddie Davidson

Eddie Davidson 🚫
Updated:

@awnlee jawking

That's true. nobody else answered but it was only posted like a day ago. doesn't mean you should really make the thread about your hatred of me.

you are the epitome of the reason why the threads here are often very toxic.

bandwagon fallacy doesn't mean that it's an invalid question. I'm just curious if there's a word for it. That's it. I have a friend who writes these stories and I thought he was the only one.

Replies: awnlee jawking

awnlee jawking 🚫

@Eddie Davidson

Even though you've curbed your rant, I'm still unclear about the question. Do you mean 'porn' in the sexual sense or 'porn' in the sense of an excess, as in 'gun porn'?

I can think of several SOL stories in which the author gives the protagonist a hard time at the beginning, but the protagonist somehow turns their life around. Rottweiler's 'Deja Vue' series, Thornefoote's 'Linda' series, Reluctant_Sir's 'Dark Days' series, but I don't know whether that's the sort of story you're talking about. There certainly doesn't seem a strong commonality about the SOL genres the authors chose for them.

AJ

Crumbly Writer 🚫

@Eddie Davidson

:)

CB 🚫

@Eddie Davidson

OP edited out the meat of the post but the tube channel is Pitch Meeting, "Barely an inconvenience!" is great and I do find that often in stories here where the main character has a serious issue but still ends up a Mary Sue despite the issue.

ystokes 🚫

@Eddie Davidson

What the hell is a "Mary Sue"?

Replies: Dominions Son

Dominions Son 🚫

@ystokes

What the hell is a "Mary Sue"?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Sue

A Mary Sue is a type of fictional character, usually a young woman, who is portrayed as free of weaknesses or character flaws.[1] The character type has acquired a pejorative reputation in fan communities,[2][3][4] with the label "Mary Sue" often applied to any heroine who is considered to be unrealistically capable.[3]

Bondi Beach 🚫

@Eddie Davidson

no real plot development or arc, just lots of dialogue

That's pretty much the definition of porn, I.E, bad writing with or without lots of dialogue. "Tearjerker porn" perhaps? There is a tear jerker tag.

Replies: awnlee jawking

awnlee jawking 🚫

@Bondi Beach

There is a tear jerker tag.

Allegedly 'tear jerker' is not a tag that attracts readers, see. However I believe Eddie Davidson is concerned about categorising the work of others, not necessarily making his own contribution to the field.

AJ

Replies: Dominions Son

Dominions Son 🚫
Updated:

@awnlee jawking

Allegedly 'tear jerker' is not a tag that attracts readers, see.

I'm the one who raised that issue on the other thread. My point was not that it doesn't attract readers, it was that it will attract some readers and repel others.

And this is true of every tag that is generally considered a squick. They all have an audience. It may be a small audience, but it exists.

And that's fine. I believe that stories targeted at niche audiences ought to have a place here.

For a story to succeed, it needs to attract the right audience that means both attracting people interested in the type of content the story represents and warning away those who would be upset about it. Both sides of that are, in my opinion, equally important.

samuelmichaels 🚫

@Eddie Davidson

There are some genres where a "convenient tragedy" is used to give a motivation to the MC. It can be used to start a revenge plot; or maybe motivation for the MC to become strong. Not sure if there is a name for this type of trope.

Then there are authors who like to torture their MCs. As soon as they get ahead and make progress, a tragedy strikes. It can be used to show how a character evolves through such events. Such plots often exhaust me.

Then there is the classic tragedy, where the MC's own actions or character contain the seeds of their destruction, which usually occurs at the end.

Replies: Eddie Davidson

Eddie Davidson 🚫
Updated:

@samuelmichaels

There are some genres where a "convenient tragedy" is used to give a motivation to the MC.

That to me, would be fantastic. A classic example is the Count of Monte Cristo.

In my friend's case (And the other examples I've seen), they are missing that arc where the motivation spawns the plot and the evolution of the character - shaping them into something else along the way. I can dig a Horatio Alger rags to riches story.

His porn is sort of like Oliver Twist but he never leaves the workhouse. The tragedy porn/tearjerker porn seems tow wallow in it.

Eddie Davidson 🚫
Updated:

@Eddie Davidson

Tearjerker porn

Yeah, I call it "tragedy porn", but that's like Mary Sue. it means something very specific to me. In my case, the term originated when I was very interested in Star Trek roleplaying. It was creating not just an OP character - but a certain type of annoyingly perfect character.

She can't just be good at sports, she has to be Olympic level. She can't just speak another language, she has to speak seven languages very well. It's almost like being good at everything is there in place of a personality.

In the case of tear jerker porn/tragedy porn, what I've discovered is the malady (I've got cancer/my parents are also dead and nobody wants me) is there in place of something that makes the character interesting/a substitute for a personality.

I wrote a story about a guy in a wheelchair who discovers his mom's onlyfans. I wanted representation, but I also intentionally didn't make the story about his wheelchair. It was an attribute of the character and sometimes it was a pain in the ass to deal with (like real life). He wanted to go paintballing, or there was a ramp, or someone saw he was in a wheelchair and brought up the TV show Ironsides, etc.

But the story didn't become "about" the wheelchair or because of the wheelchair, I guess is my distinction. He was down on himself and doubted himself, but the guy I wrote would have done that with or without the chair.

I don't see that one as a tearjerker porn at all.

I sometimes go to ChatGPT and ask what something is called. I just learned for instance "Adverbial tags" are when you use one in place of "said". I didn't know that was a technique.

What I consider just a convention of writing - has a term. In this case, I am just seeking if there is a term out there for this and to be understand it.

I don't particularly like these kinds of stories.

I am trying to ask about this genre, mostly to better understand it. I tried giving some writing advice to my friend, but it was like we were speaking two different languages. The goals of his story aren't to overcome a challenge or to take a journey with the character.

If he were writing Indiana Jones, he'd probably never leave the University.

awnlee jawking 🚫

Those would either be 'tragedy' or 'regret' tags

Neither exists on SOL.

AJ

Replies: Crumbly Writer

Crumbly Writer 🚫

@awnlee jawking

Once again, I've overstayed my welcome. You'd think I'd learn, and do as I keep promising and abandon the SOL forum entirely. Thanks for reminding me.