7 Steps for Ridding Your Story of Melodrama

7 Steps for Ridding Your Story of Melodrama

Melodrama, strictly defined, means a “song drama,” of the French tradition. The tradition of this story was characterized by over-the-top emotions, to the point that the character's emotions were unintentionally funny, or ridiculous. Melodrama in modern literature, is a term used for when the emotions of your characters are absurd, petty, beyond control, and seem to overshadow the story; and today I'm going to talk about overcoming the melodrama in your story. Please note that this is something to be considered in the editing process, not in the first draft. There will be melodrama—but don't worry about it until you have a whole story down on paper or digital ink.

Step 1: Identify the melodrama in your story.

If you have written a first draft with a good number of characters with different wants and desires, there WILL be melodrama. And so your first step will go to every scene where there are emotional flares—of love, inspiration, anger, sadness, and disagreement. Then, mark them and collect them into a compilation of scenes with similar editing requirements—using the following steps as a checklist for each one.

Step 2: Read the scene aloud, and imagine it happening in real life.

If you have any friend who will help you read parts, it will be especially helpful here. The goal of reading each of these scenes, like a script, is to imagine two (or however many) real people walking the streets and then suddenly engaging in this dialogue. If you can get an audience, even better. If not, record yourself with a phone, audio device, or camera, and then watch it several times over several weeks.

Step 3: Note if you would feel embarrassed to use your dialogue in real life.

When you publish a story, you are putting it before the worst of bullies, mockers, and critics to tear your work apart publicly. Get the jump on them by putting yourself in the shoes of these people. How would YOU make fun of how corny and unrealistic your dialogue is? Then adapt it until it gets to the point that you and your audience could imagine yourselves impressed if you heard it randomly in the street. Remember that dramatic speeches and conversations certainly happen—but ONLY when situations demand nothing less.

Step 4: Check yourself to make sure that you are not speaking through your characters.

Often, scenes of melodrama come from rants or passionate speeches that we have built up within us, and feel that we need to shout it at the world. However, your audience will detect this change of voice, and so must you. Go through each scene and check to see if any of them trigger emotions from your own past—unrelated to the story. If they do, circle them or highlight them for careful editing. You won't necessarily need to cut it, but you need to know that it is a danger zone.

Step 5: Temper extreme emotions with ambivalence.

Humans are complex creatures, and only very rarely do we feel extremely polar emotions like utter hatred or unconditional love. Therefore, there is little to justify this in your characters, short of mental illness and obsession. Find all of the extreme emotions, and reconsider how you could make them more complex ones. Love should be mixed with emotions like fear, or disappointment—hate mixed with secret jealousies, love, or even a sort of comradery with those who are respectable enough to merit hate.

Step 6: Embrace the expected emotions of a situation.

Go through every scene and imagine what a normal person would do, feel, or say in that situation. Of course, this will not normally be what a hero or antihero might do or say, but you must imagine what natural emotions and feelings every scene would produce. A scene where one's life is in peril may produce courage, but only after you deal with the initial, and continued emotion of fear. Make sure that every scene of potential melodrama contains the mixed sort of emotions that each of us would feel in that given situation.

Step 7: Remember that your characters must be flawed in order to be relatable to your audience.

The last step in removing melodrama, is to remove perfection. Although one-liners and perfect speeches may be fun, and they may be what we wish we could do in an ideal world, rarely is it the case in real life. Real characters rarely know how to put their thoughts and emotions into words. They know that inspirational speeches often feel hollow, or the speech comes from a scared and shaky voice that is trying hard to believe itself as well. When real people speak, they deal with self-doubt, fear, stuttering, and obsession—all which make their words less perfect. But this imperfection will be what makes your characters come to life. Embrace them, and remember that sometimes the perfect words, emotions, and actions fall very short of the flawed ones that can take your story so much further.

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