>> Healthy processing: definitely more work. Also it can produce interesting, thought-producing conversations <<

Yes, exactly.

>> (see also: the entire "Love is for Children" series, haha; you're very good at writing adults trying to react like adults and not sitcom characters) <<

Thank you!

>> however, I see a distinct difference between plot (something that happens) and drama (a way in which something happens). <<

Oh. I thought we were talking about drama in the theatrical sense (opposite of comedy) rather than histrionic sense.

>> Drama is more interesting to film, so there's more of it. <<

Gods, NO, I hate that kind of drama. I hate it in real life and have very little tolerance for it in entertainment. I consider it a flaw, in the same category as buckets of blood, nekkid boobies, or cheesy special effects -- something that directors whip out when they don't know how to create real substance. Turn it off.

>> (And then you have cultural side-effects, like my husband not realizing how dysfunctional his family of origin was because they acted just like a sitcom family. [They really do; it's weird. If I want to figure out how my mother-in-law will react to something I just have to think about sitcom moms from the 80's and it'll be pretty close.]) <<

O_O *everything is spiders*

>> Then again, I had to stop reading Mercedes Lackey books when half her interpersonal plots could be solved by the participants having a damn conversation. <<

:( Not all of the later books are like that, although I do miss the glory days. The Elemental Wizards series is very plotty.

>> I've lost all patience for characters whose lives would be profoundly simpler if they read Captain Awkward. XD <<

Agreed.