Hurt/Comfort Plot Structure
May. 7th, 2013 01:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithAs part of the ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
three_weeks_for_dw project (running April 25-May 15), I'm posting some content just to Dreamwidth. This is a good opportunity to seek new readers for your blog and new blogs to read, and to recommend stuff you enjoy on other people's blogs to help them make new connections too. Here is a set of posts about hurt/comfort literature. Start with "Hurt/Comfort as a Genre." Skip ahead to "Hurt/Comfort and Literary Merit."
Hurt/Comfort Plot Structure
Hurt/comfort functions based on a plot dynamic of tension and release. Within a short story, this may comprise a single cycle of one harm and one comfort. In longer fiction, it frequently begins with small complaints and works up to something much larger. This takes advantage of a process hardwired into the human brain: compare it to the buildup and trigger of humor in a joke, or pleasure in an orgasm. Particularly with long fiction, it also relates to physics, such as rocking a car back and forth to break it loose from a snowbank.
The rhythmic motion makes it possible to work up to a much more momentous effect than could be achieved by consistent pressure. This is especially noticeable in horror, where a common error is to overstimulate the audience. I remember watching Poltergeist -- first I got bored because the fright level was too static, and then it just started to seem ridiculous and I wound up laughing over it. Hurt/comfort moves through a story with higher and lower levels of pressure. It gives the characters a chance to recharge, so they can face the next challenge. This reduces the chance of emotional burnout and raises the change of a more gratifying climax for the readers.
Hurt/comfort combines two opposite aspects, the initial harm and the subsequent relief. These may occur in any proportion within a story. Indeed, we may consider the hurt/comfort genre a wide middle zone between the two poles of pure hurt fiction at one end (such as darkfic and some kinds of horror) and pure comfort fiction at the other (such as fluff and gentle fiction). There may be a lot of hurt and a little comfort (H/c), an equal amount (H/C), or a little hurt and a lot of comfort (h/C). This applies both to the depth of the damage and the coddling, and to the length of coverage given to them in the story.
The proportion of hurt to comfort may be dictated by plot but more often by the author's taste. People tend to spend more time describing what interests them the most. Consider a lever balanced over a fulcrum: the two sides may be equal to balance similar weights on the tips, or there may be a short and a long side in either direction for the purpose of lifting something heavier. It is easiest to maintain plausibility and plot dynamic near the middle of the spectrum, where the hurt and comfort match each other. The best hurt/comfort fiction tends to fall within this range.
Sometimes, however, quite a lot of tension may be broken simply by the relief of being rescued without need for much detailed description -- especially if the victim spent a great deal of time counting on that rescue. Other times, the hurt may come from the past, such as child abuse, while the comfort becomes available only much later and serves as the focus of the story. Good examples of these also exist. This leveraged use of hurt/comfort relates to other literary techniques such as foreshadowing and flashbacks, stepping outside the regular flow of time for dramatic effect.
What are some plot patterns that you like or dislike? What proportion of hurt to comfort do you favor, and why?
three_weeks_for_dw project (running April 25-May 15), I'm posting some content just to Dreamwidth. This is a good opportunity to seek new readers for your blog and new blogs to read, and to recommend stuff you enjoy on other people's blogs to help them make new connections too. Here is a set of posts about hurt/comfort literature. Start with "Hurt/Comfort as a Genre." Skip ahead to "Hurt/Comfort and Literary Merit."Hurt/Comfort Plot Structure
Hurt/comfort functions based on a plot dynamic of tension and release. Within a short story, this may comprise a single cycle of one harm and one comfort. In longer fiction, it frequently begins with small complaints and works up to something much larger. This takes advantage of a process hardwired into the human brain: compare it to the buildup and trigger of humor in a joke, or pleasure in an orgasm. Particularly with long fiction, it also relates to physics, such as rocking a car back and forth to break it loose from a snowbank.
The rhythmic motion makes it possible to work up to a much more momentous effect than could be achieved by consistent pressure. This is especially noticeable in horror, where a common error is to overstimulate the audience. I remember watching Poltergeist -- first I got bored because the fright level was too static, and then it just started to seem ridiculous and I wound up laughing over it. Hurt/comfort moves through a story with higher and lower levels of pressure. It gives the characters a chance to recharge, so they can face the next challenge. This reduces the chance of emotional burnout and raises the change of a more gratifying climax for the readers.
Hurt/comfort combines two opposite aspects, the initial harm and the subsequent relief. These may occur in any proportion within a story. Indeed, we may consider the hurt/comfort genre a wide middle zone between the two poles of pure hurt fiction at one end (such as darkfic and some kinds of horror) and pure comfort fiction at the other (such as fluff and gentle fiction). There may be a lot of hurt and a little comfort (H/c), an equal amount (H/C), or a little hurt and a lot of comfort (h/C). This applies both to the depth of the damage and the coddling, and to the length of coverage given to them in the story.
The proportion of hurt to comfort may be dictated by plot but more often by the author's taste. People tend to spend more time describing what interests them the most. Consider a lever balanced over a fulcrum: the two sides may be equal to balance similar weights on the tips, or there may be a short and a long side in either direction for the purpose of lifting something heavier. It is easiest to maintain plausibility and plot dynamic near the middle of the spectrum, where the hurt and comfort match each other. The best hurt/comfort fiction tends to fall within this range.
Sometimes, however, quite a lot of tension may be broken simply by the relief of being rescued without need for much detailed description -- especially if the victim spent a great deal of time counting on that rescue. Other times, the hurt may come from the past, such as child abuse, while the comfort becomes available only much later and serves as the focus of the story. Good examples of these also exist. This leveraged use of hurt/comfort relates to other literary techniques such as foreshadowing and flashbacks, stepping outside the regular flow of time for dramatic effect.
What are some plot patterns that you like or dislike? What proportion of hurt to comfort do you favor, and why?
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Date: 2013-05-08 05:17 pm (UTC)Thoughts
Date: 2013-05-08 09:19 pm (UTC)Agreed. I like it both as a standalone plot and a subplot.
>> I usually avoid fics with only hurt, as they leave me feeling depressed and I read fanfiction to feel better : )! <<
Same here. If I just wanted to see people get fucked over, I'd watch the news. That's one of the things that can cost a creator my support, permanently: letting the bad guys get away with it, and just leaving the good guys to suffer.