A couple of weeks ago I was playing this book called The Animators on my Kindle Touch. I thought the book was about two women who are the eponymous animators and some rivalry develops and stuff. But then one of the women collapses with a stroke and I groan. Ugh, not a medical drama!
Of course half her body is paralyzed and she has to go through rehab. And her partner who had been mad at her is suddenly at her side helping her to recover. Ugh.
The problem with books that rely on medical drama is it's just the laziest way to introduce drama or to solve conflicts. Cancer is probably the one authors use most often. Then you have strokes or some other paralysis. The idea is if you have characters who are angry at each other or estranged or whatever they'll be brought together by this crisis and learn valuable lessons and shit. Ugh.
OK, I've had a sister die of cancer and a father with several medical issues and quite a few uncles also die of cancer and you know what: it didn't really bring anyone together. It didn't teach us valuable lessons about life or some fucking bullshit like that. You know what happens in the real world: you go to the fucking hospital and you sit around watching TV, playing on your phone, doing Sudoku or crosswords or whatever, and other shit like that. You basically just try to pass the time and hope like hell that your family member recovers.
At a hospice it's not even that. My mom and I basically sat by my sister's bed for two days watching TV and waiting for the end. We weren't sitting there hugging and crying and working out any long-standing issues. We weren't arguing and then hugging and crying. Maybe it's because we're Midwesterners; maybe in California or New York they do that other stuff.
I'm not saying this to make you feel sorry for me or anything. I'm just saying that using medical drama to introduce and/or solve drama in your story is lazy fucking writing. It's a cheap way to introduce drama or to bring characters together without having to do any actual plotting. The only lazier way would be to have "God" or whatever deity hurl a thunderbolt down. It's basically a deus ex machina. And by now it's cliche. I guess it's not surprising this was the author's first novel. And it's not surprising hacks like Nicholas Sparks go to that well so often.
So from now on save the medical drama for TV.
3 comments:
Have to agree with all that. In general, the idea that suffering makes anyone better is also a myth. But it's easy and writers like easy.
Going for easy doesn't make a good story.
I never thought about it like this, but you are right.
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