I tend to foster drama via bleakness. If I want the reader to feel sympathy for a character, I cleave the character in half, on his birthday. And then it starts raining. And he's made of sugar.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I think that ultimately any effective drama or tragedy tries to put you as much as it can into the protagonist's shoes.
When the reader and one narrator know something the other narrator does not, the opportunities for suspense and plot development and the shifting of reader sympathies get really interesting.
I have always been attracted to the bleaker aspects of life. I love drama.
It's important to find characters that share sympathy with a young audience, not just in the story but their role in the world.
The tragic element of a character is always intriguing I think.
As a reader, I tend not to get too much from tales of unrelenting grimness.
I don't think that there's necessarily a side to drama that has to be completely bleak. You have to have a flicker of humor 'cause everyone has a flicker of humor, something they find funny in life.
I'm hopefully making the reader feel a lot about the characters and then about their own life.
I try to make the readers feel they've lived the events of the book. Just as you grieve if a friend is killed, you should grieve if a fictional character is killed. You should care. If somebody dies and you just go get more popcorn, it's a superficial experience isn't it?
The easiest way for readers to connect with characters and feel sympathy is to make the character entertaining, sympathetic and likeable.