if done correctly, a succession of events that leads to a breakdown at what would otherwise not be a sob worthy moment is also cool with me
Exactly! Although sometimes when you've been through stress like that you're too shocked to cry. Your brain is like "Did that really just happen? I think it did but I can't be sure because it seems like bad melodrama." And all you can do is laugh, even though it's horribly inappropriate.
One of my favorite things to read in fic is when a character has been through all sorts of things and just sucks it up, but then one small thing goes wrong - We have no more cookies! - and they just fall apart. Because the big things are too big to wrap their head around, but that one little annoyance is just too fucking much. And the reader knows that it's not really about the cookies, it's about everything proceeding that, but the character is all weepy and at the same time kinda "WTF? Why am I crying over cookies?" but still can't stop themselves.
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winterfish
no subject
Date: 2010-03-29 12:10 am (UTC)Exactly! Although sometimes when you've been through stress like that you're too shocked to cry. Your brain is like "Did that really just happen? I think it did but I can't be sure because it seems like bad melodrama." And all you can do is laugh, even though it's horribly inappropriate.
One of my favorite things to read in fic is when a character has been through all sorts of things and just sucks it up, but then one small thing goes wrong - We have no more cookies! - and they just fall apart. Because the big things are too big to wrap their head around, but that one little annoyance is just too fucking much. And the reader knows that it's not really about the cookies, it's about everything proceeding that, but the character is all weepy and at the same time kinda "WTF? Why am I crying over cookies?" but still can't stop themselves.
Thank you, m'dear!