Psychological dramas?

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N.L. LeBlanc

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Just wondering if anyone else is writing something that falls into the psychological drama subgenre? For those who aren't clear on the definition, psychological drama is a subgenre of the psychological thriller including the following:

- Highly character-driven
- Emphasis on conflict
- The primary conflict is internal or person vs. self
- Usually contains at least mild horror/psychological horror elements (not always, but usually)
- Little to no violence (unlike the thriller), with the emphasis on character relationships and dilemmas.

Mine is pretty much stereotypically this - it'll probably end up being classified as mainstream or literary when it gets published, but I wrote most of it with this subgenre in mind and was wondering if anyone else has something similar on their writing plate?
 

backslashbaby

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Hmmm, this sounds like how I usually write my horror, when the supernatural doesn't come up in one of my works.

Does it have to be a thriller, though? Mine work is usually not particularly thrilling; it's mainly about the character's dilemma, not reader suspense, if that makes sense.

Most of the time, I add speculative elements, though. I love the combination of speculative elements and the psychological, Jungian that I am.

So I may be far from what you mean, lol. I do love the emphasis on psychological terror, however. I write a lot about war (refugees from wars, often).

What's yours about?
 

N.L. LeBlanc

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Hmmm, this sounds like how I usually write my horror, when the supernatural doesn't come up in one of my works.

Does it have to be a thriller, though? Mine work is usually not particularly thrilling; it's mainly about the character's dilemma, not reader suspense, if that makes sense.

Most of the time, I add speculative elements, though. I love the combination of speculative elements and the psychological, Jungian that I am.

So I may be far from what you mean, lol. I do love the emphasis on psychological terror, however. I write a lot about war (refugees from wars, often).

What's yours about?

Noooo, it's not a thriller at all! It's a subgenre of psychological thriller in the sense that it's extremely character-driven and most of the conflicts are internal or emotional - but the biggest difference between both, in fact, is that the psychological drama is NOT a thriller. It's much slower-paced, for one, and usually does not have any kind of race-against-the-clock-type plot. It really focuses on characters, conflict, and character relationship dynamics, much more so than your average genre.

From what you've said, yours definitely sounds like it could fall into this basket. Mine chronicles the life of a young man living with a serious psychiatric disorder over a 17-year period. It's very stereotypically psychological drama and has some lit fic elements, which is why I say it may be classified into lit fic (though I think it fits best into mainstream, but I could be totally wrong - I haven't done too much market research yet).
 

N.L. LeBlanc

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ok now I'm a little confused. What's the difference between psychological drama and lit fic?

Lit-fic (especially the slice-of-life type stuff) tends to be even more character-driven than psychological dramas. While the latter focuses heavily on character, there's still a concrete plot driving the story and typically at least two or three subplots. I'm afraid I haven't read too much lit fic, so there are probably more differences between the two that I'm not aware of (I'm now curious and will probably go read up on it!), but psychological dramas certainly are not dissimilar to lit fic. They're very similar in many aspects, for sure.

To give you a concrete example, one author I know off the top of my head who writes psychological dramas is Jodi Picoult (My Sister's Keeper, etc). Not exactly lit fic, but similar in a lot of ways. I agree, where to draw the line between the two can be a bit confusing.
 

Chazevelt

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The main plot in my current WIP is how an aging colonel deals with his career coming to an end. He is forced to face depression, alcohol dependancy, a mid-life crisis, and PTSD. Oh, and I should mention that both his father and grandfather had to be institutionalized for insanity.

Subplots include mystery, a bit of political intrigue, action, and romance. In the end he gets his head straightened out... as straightened out as he can ever hope for it to be... but throughout the story he's waging an internal war. Not sure I would categorize it as psychological drama, but does that fit the parameters of your question?
 

N.L. LeBlanc

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@Chazevelt: Definitely sounds like it to me! Especially as you say the main plot regards his internal conflicts and battles. Psychological dramas tend to be extremely focused on character relationship dynamics as well, though, so depending on how much you focus on his relationships and conflicts with other characters, yours may or may not be typical of a PD in that aspect. Out of curiosity, what genre/subgenre would you classify your story as?
 

rachelmachelsmachel

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wheeee this means I'm writing a psychological drama too! :)

For so long I could only describe it as 'black swan / suckerpunch'.
 

N.L. LeBlanc

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Yes! "Black Swan" is one of the most typical psychological drama stories I've encountered in a long time (and what a good movie, IMO).

What's yours about, Rachel?
 

reiver33

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I have a story in which the MC is an empath who becomes the prime suspect in a string of psychosomatic murders. He begins to suspect he is actually the killer, although he has no memory of committing these crimes.


The plot uses the idea of self-induced schizophrenia (or, more properly ‘multiple personality disorder’) as a way for the psyche to cope with severe trauma. In this case the MC is killing whilst in the throes of a psychotic break, with the 'real' personality recoiling in horror from the realisation of what he has done. Hence what takes over is a virtually identical version of himself, but one that lacks knowledge of the critical events.
 
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Chazevelt

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@N.L.LeBlanc: That's a question I've been asking myself. Dramatic fiction with heavy overtones of comedy and romance. So... general fiction? If I were breaking it down into categories, I'd have to say; modern-day western with a military theme, equal dabs of mystery and suspense, adult subject matter with adult language, violence, sex, a damned fine horse, a purple muscle car, and lots of guns... And politics. Forgot to mention the politics. And the spies- couple of those. About the only things I'm missing are werewolves, dinosaurs, and angels- but they are given honorable mention.
Guess I could almost advertise it across the board, but I'm open for suggestions.
 
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N.L. LeBlanc

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@Chazevelt: Wow, sounds complex! Very interesting, though!

@reiver: This is a really cool plot idea! Just a friendly tip, though, I wouldn't describe your character's experiences as self-induced schizophrenia, but rather just as dissociative identity disorder (the correct term for multiple personality disorder) - what your character is experiencing sounds much more like DID, which is not at all the same thing as schizophrenia (your character's personality shifts would be dissociative symptoms, not psychosis). I find DID very interesting (as I do most mental disorders - I'm a psychiatry student), and your storyline is intriguing... in short I'd probably jump all over this if you got it published. :)
 
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Arcs

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I love psychological dramas. In my epic fantasy WIP, magic comes from perceived reality manifesting in real reality, so it tends to make people go crazy. Normal-crazy burnt itself (sometimes literally) from the populace a long time ago and left horrible side effects scattered across the land. The descendants are a lot more stable, for lots of reasons, but Reality Mages still pop up from time to time.
 

AnnikaHTDC

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My novel has a lot of psychological drama, but also fantasy and a bit of horror. I really love works that have a dark, psychological edge.
 

kkbe

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One of my novels is psychological whatever: actually dealing with possible Dissociative Identity Disorder, taking some creative liberties. Character-driven, for sure. . .slowly building, as the mc slooowly comes to realize that her best friend may actually be a product of her own fractured mind. . .

What do you call something like that? I'm calling it "Psychological Thriller." They can call it anything they want, Mainstream, Litfic, I care not, as long as it sells. . .
 
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I survived

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reiver, I agree that schizophrenia is the wrong diagnosis for your character, but because he really doesn't have a second character I would say he really has Dissaciative Disorder NOS (not otherwise Specified) I suffer from this and its when you drift into another time and place and don't know what happens during that period of time. Rather than split hairs you could just say he had a dissociative disorder which covers both DID and DDNOS
 

John Petersen

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Yeah, I think that's what mine is, (Paranormal psychological drama). Very little conflict though. Most of the conflict in the first book is coping with their own death.

In book two, the conflict will arise from people seeing them as ghosts. I think, haven't got that far yet.

Not sure what mine is, have to look into it.
 

Haikujitsu

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Ooh, I was wondering how to categorize my story. Scifi-themed Psychological Drama sounds pretty close.

The plot follows the perspective character as she performs a series of experiments on an ectoplasmic entity (ie, a ghost), which is supposedly a sub-sentient, unfeeling post-human manifestation of energy. MC believes she's being "objective" and "logical", but as the story goes on this gets deconstructed into layers of deeply ingrained prejudice and self-delusions.

90% takes place within a single room, and I've introduced a grand total of three characters. somehow it still works. I am cheating a little. The suspense relies heavily on canon knowledge (as this is a fanfic) that the entity is, in fact, secretly half-human, and also the MC's son. (insert dramatic music here)

-Hj
 

Karen Landis

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Haikujitsu: The suspense relies heavily on canon knowledge (as this is a fanfic)

Can you explain this?
Your plot sound very interesting. I hope I have a chance to read it.

My book could be classified as a memoir, but I don't want that. I'm calling it narrative nonfiction. I'm in this forum because memoir is considered genre lit and I'm looking for a more precise classification. Any ideas?

The story covers 7 years of my life, and is psychological. I suffered a major trauma that sent me into psychotherapy. My first psychiatrist seduced me, and my second therapist (also a psychiatrist) had an uphill battle to undo the damage.

To me, my book reads like lit fic, but of course it isn't fiction. Is there such a thing as lit nonfic?
 

Haikujitsu

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I wish i could help, but frankly genre classification has always mystified me. Do you use your real name? Changing the names and bending the circumstances a bit to suit the story would be enough rationalization to call it fiction.

Haikujitsu: The suspense relies heavily on canon knowledge (as this is a fanfic)

Can you explain this?
Your plot sound very interesting. I hope I have a chance to read it.

Fanfiction often assumes familiarity with a larger body of work. Mine is written for Danny Phantom, a cartoon about the half-ghost teenager and his encounters with villainous ghosts and high school drama (think Ghostbusters meets Spider-Man). It's pretty lighthearted and action-oriented, but with a lot of fascinating potential for deeper meaning.

The key canon knowledge for my fic is Phantom's true identity as a half-human and her son. What makes it so exciting for fandom readers is that they're "in on" the secret that the perspective character is trying to figure out (who/what is Phantom?). They already have an emotional attachment to the ghost, and so the standoffish view taken by the perspective character actually enhances the drama surrounding his desperate circumstances.

That said, I like to think it has merit on its own; it just might not be as suspenseful and some of the ironies won't come across.

Unfortunately SYW doesn't allow for fanfiction because of copyright ambiguities. I do have about 90% of it up on Fanfiction.net (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7476808/1/Phantom-of-Truth), though, and you're quite welcome to check it out. :)

-Hj
 

Haikujitsu

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We don't allow fanfiction here chiefly because it is copyright infringement. Many of our members write and enjoy fanfic and we're not making any kind of judgment, it's simply that we take the legalities of it very seriously, so only completely original work is permitted in SYW.

This is the response I got from the the mod that I PMed about the issue. I'm not saying AW is taking an uncertain stance, I'm just saying that the copyright issue itself is ambiguous.

ETA - And there is ambiguity on the issue, but you don't have to take my word for it. Check out the thread in the Round Table section.

ETA - To clarify a bit more. :)

-Hj
 
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WinterDusk14

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By this definition, my latest must-be-done projects is classified as a pyschological drama.

Basically it's about a father and son having to deal with the loss of their wife/mother. It's been years, but they're still coping. Eventually the father goes into self-destruct mode, and the son grows up somewhat neglected and begins having fantasies that I'm leaving ambiguous whether it's real or not... now that I've actually typed that and saw the actual texts with my naked eyes, I suddenly remembered Pan's Labyrinth. Damn it. Oh well. I'll try a different spin on this.

And just to add about psych thrillers, Memento is brilliant, a little nihilistic IMO.
 

Haikujitsu

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You should stick to your plot, it sounds interesting. I haven't yet gotten brave enough to watch Pan's Labyrinth (hands with eyes? no thanks!!), but if I remember correctly it had a girl as a protagonist. Doing something similar with an adult male would give it an entirely different flavor.

Memento is amazing. I love how it plays with the perception of not only you, but the characters--not to mention that it's completely backwards but still has the "feeling" of a classic movie progression. How cool is that? It would be awesome to work out how to write a book the same way--chronologically backwards, but logically moving to a conclusive ending.

-Hj
 
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