Newsletter from Jay Wilcox, February 2019: On Happy Stories

BREAKING NEWS: I have finished the latest draft of my novel Music for Parasites. I plan to reread, make adjustments, and continue my search for a literary agent. 

If you know anyone in the publishing industry and/or have relevant insight, your input is invaluable. Write back.

If you're reading this, I sincerely consider you a friend and trusted source.

Now for a newsletter...

In the spirit of Valentine's Day, I'd like to request more movies that don't shoehorn in a romantic subplot--stories where women and men follow their "meet-cutes" with healthy platonic relationships. Actually, maybe we can do away with the meet-cute entirely.

Someone once asked if I had ever written a "happy" story, but I'd wager that there are no purely "happy" stories. Even Disney movies have some sort of serious conflict--something dark or sad or scary that makes us sit up and pay attention. Think about Bambi's mom.

A novel that is 100% "happy" would be the most boring crap in the world.

In Finding Nemo, the protagonist's son goes missing. But what makes this movie so good is not just its very real emotional stakes--again, his son is missing--but the impossibility Marlin faces in finding the kid. The whole story could have taken place in the sea and been decent. I mean, the sea is huge! Marlin would have still had a daunting task. Yet the movie would likely have resembled other kids' movies with anthropomorphic sea creatures, forgettable. The fact that Marlin and his friends must traverse LAND stands out. How the hell is a fish supposed to rescue his son from a dentist's office?

Stories demand stakes, impossible problems. Heard once: "If your protagonist can walk away from their problem, so can your reader."

There are no purely happy stories. Some might end happy, but that's only the ending. Consider the success stories of everyone you know, and picture what they might have gone through backstage. This is why social media can be so damaging: you compare your rough drafts to everyone else's polished conclusions. Social media shows you happy stories, and look how those stories make you feel.

I go forth positively, ready to share this novel with all of you.

Infinite Regards,

Jay