Which yields better stories?

Emotion

I have done some of my best writing while suffering an emotional event.

I believe both make great stories, but from personal experience it has been the emotional stories or events either in my life or others that tend to leave an impact and elicit a strong emotional response from me.

When I read a story of a person who has overcome a great deal of pain and suffering or major hurdles in life, it gives me somewhat of a reality check. It makes me stop and appreciate everything I have in life, even the small problems I have because I know things could be way worse.

I think the most recent example is finally appreciating my stepfather for who he is and realizing that even though he was tough on me, he only wanted to see me succeed in life. I had a hard time accepting him into my life before that because I had a hard time accepting the fact that my father died. I remember reading a story of a woman close to my age who lost her father and how she had to deal with her mother remarrying and with her new stepfamily. Even though this is something that has happened to many people, being able to read about all the frustrations and problems she faced made me remember how I felt and it was comforting to know that I can relate to someone.

Triumph over adversity makes a great story, especially during the human interest segment of the local evening news. Emotionally raw stories are better, and much more popular, because everyone is at least a tiny bit voyeuristic. Even if one can’t admit to that, I am quite certain that the more tragic stories allow us to feel better about ourselves. In an “at least I don’t have it as bad as <insert name here> they just <insert emotionally raw story here>.

why do you think soaps are so popular no matter what the social or political atmosphere is

A hurricane hit the coast of America and brought devastation; still, a “red badge of courage” is found in times such as these. This does not deny the fact that real people suffer calamities around the world. Put simply, the best stories have both, suffering and triumph, because, alas, this is life.

I know you asked for us to illustrate our answer with an example from our lives, but I can’t think of any good examples right now.

Anyways, either/or questions sometimes turn out to be both/neither questions. I agree that both emotionally moving moments and moments of triumph and success yield better stories, but in order to experience triumph you must be emotionally invovled or invested in that triumph. You can’t experience that if a story has not effectively gripped your emotions. They go hand-in-hand.

Triumph, but failures can be just as if not more valuable. Suppose it boils down to the struggle itself and how a person responds to it.

I don’t think anything else really gives you as much of an insight into someone’s core.

I have an extremely wealthy friend who i met back in university. His family was established and pretty large (their main business is construction and development, but the family’s also branched out into many areas- automotive supply chains, food and beverage chains, manufacturing). At some point the infighting was worse than it normally was, and basically when his father passed away, his branch of the family lost their seat at the main construction and development table. His mother was too old to fight it, and he was too young. She pulled out without a fight.

My friend deteriorated, and then dropped out of uni.

That was years ago. I spoke to him a few months back when i visited his home country for work and he’s doing extremely well. He got together with another uncle of his who also lost his place in the parent company and they run their own construction development company now. My friend attributes his success to good local economy at the time and the demand for concrete. He started off supplying it, and then moved upstream.

Sometimes, you just have to respect inner strength when you see it. I knew the emotional wreck he was, and to see him progress out of it over the years a different person is nothing short of an honour.