Angst, and the writing thereof.

[The_Lord_J]

Okay...I'm kinda fishing for some ideas here. What kinds of scene tug at people's hearstrings most? And what's the best way of inducing extreme waterworks at eye-level?

Gimme some examples of stuff that makes you cry (be it movie/tv scenes, a scene in a fic or whatever). And more particularly WHAT about that particular scene made you reach for the tissues?

And I mean apart from THAT scene...

[Trom DeGrey]

Bread by Tulipp.

The things that make me cry in any writing are the things that are simple and true and that are easy to identify with. Death of a loved one, death of a pet, horrific injustice especially that involving the innocent. Bread is very simple and to the point and very direct. No frills attached there. It's the piece of writing (not just fan fic) that I always turn to when I start to really struggle with my own writing. It is truth in simplicity and I suppose, in the end, simple honest truth is what makes me the most emotional.

[eletricblu]

I think suffering in general makes good material for an angst fic. Be it physical or emotional, if you can describe a person's suffering, what he/she's thinking at the moment, his/her feelings, then it can move many people.

Death of a loved one generaly depresses me. Death is too final IMHO. As it goes, there are worse things than death that can be used to produce angst. For exemple: the worst way to miss someone is having them right beside you and knowing you can’t have them. That's some major angst.

See ya!
eletricblu

[LtSticks]

The angst stories that have affected me the most and given me the most inspiration are those with themes concerning self-worth etc. Don't get me wrong, those concerned with character death are very powerful and have an effect on me, but the feeling that you aren't good enough, and the battle to overcome that, and to see in yourself what others see, is something that has a big personal history with me, so I can relate more.

For me, internal suffering of the emotional kind always hits home the most. If someone can describe that with such...clarity, then they'll have me in tears.

[The_Lord_J]

Thanks for the ideas guys

I think I tend to find those situations where something goes wrong, and everyone feels helpless some of the worst for angsty stuff. The one that usually gets me emotional (certainly in films anyway) is when two people in love are dragged apart 'for their own good'. Anyone else get what I'm talking about?

[Candleshoe]

I certainly do get what you mean!

I also find that characters making hard decisions always get me blubbing, even when I know that they are actually the right decisions in the end. So I guess it's the battle between logic and emotion that gets me.

While I am here, can I just second Trom de Grey's suggestion of reading Bread by Tulipp? Simply the best fic I have ever read and the only one that I take with me every day. I think that it is the mix of reason and emotion that gets me again here. Loving the past, but knowing you have to live in the present, and look to the future. I am not making a whole heap of sense, as I don't want to spoiler the story, but I hope you get the drift.

Just realised the cheesiness of that whole alliterative-L thing, but what the heck...

[Sassette]

Great topic - and there have been some really solid answers.

I'm going to address the question more generically, and just say that different people will cry at different things. Everyone has their own, unique frame of reference that they're bringing with them when they read a story. As a writer, you might occasionally write something you found fairly sad, that just really tugged at a reader and had them bawling.

Some things, like thwarted love, self-doubt, the internal struggle between reason and emotion, are fairly universal, because we've all felt them at some point in our lives. We've felt them to varying degrees, though, so they'll affect different people differently.

Fairly good rule of thumb, if you're really >really< trying to make people cry: if you cried writing it, someone is going to cry reading it.

-Sass