Oh the Drama!

[Drowemos]

Scott Kurtz of PvP has recently asserted that writing Drama is easier than writing comedy. Personally I believe the exact opposite. Now nether Scott or myself has ever written drama in our lives so I was wondering what people around here though. Is drama easier, harder, than comedy. Are comedic strips more work than dramatics?

[Birdie]

I think they discussed it enough on the halfpixel forums, and you should give it a rest.

[CaptainClaude]

*obligatory "scott kurtz writes jokes?!" post*

[GeorgeComics]

For some people, it's easier to write comedy. For other people, it's easier to write drama. For some people, it's difficult to write either. For some other people, both are easy to write.

[Cartoonme]

For some people, it's easier to write comedy. For other people, it's easier to write drama. For some people, it's difficult to write either. For some other people, both are easy to write.

Yup, it's true.

[Drowemos]

Well I guess it is not so much of an argument here. I am a lover of good drama particularly in webcomics and I appreciated how hard it is to do right. The statement made my blood boil a little. Still in hind sight this post seem a bit pointless. Sorry.

[Yeahduff]

Don't let em get you down, yo. He ain't the first to say it and shan't be the last. Recently the jackass who directed Rush Hour 3 declared it was harder to make that caliber film than, like, Apocalypse Now or something. We all tell ourselves things when we're full of ourselves or are insecure.

Truth of the matter, comedy or drama, it's hard to be good.

[Dutch!]

We all tell ourselves things when we're full of ourselves or are insecure.

The percentage of people in that category is possibly much higher than any of us would care to admit, too.

[IVstudios]

I personally would say that comedy is harder, but mostly because I am more interested in comedy and pretty apathetic towards most drama. I guess it also depends on what you view to fall under the cataloger of "Drama," which for me is pretty much anything that isn't "comedy," "action" (i.e. anything that deal with human emotion in a serious way)

As for when I am writing, I could probably go on for pages about my theories on how I write drama vs. comedy and it would all be uninteresting and convoluted and probably wrong. So I will just say that I sweat a lot more over the jokes in my writing that I do the dramatic parts.


Edit: Okay, the stuff above was a hastily written attempt at communicate an idea I had not taken the time to fully think out, so after taking the time to flesh out my idea further I ad this addendum.

When I think of drama I think of it in two categories. "Light Drama" and "Deep Drama™." Light drama I consider to be pretty much any writing that conveys a story where the main focus is on the emotions of the events, but the events and emotions are not partially deep. The intent being to create a situation that the viewer can relate to. Deep drama being the exaggeration or heightening of these events and emotions to elicit strong emotional reactions in the viewers.

In that respect I would say that "Light Drama" is pretty easy to write, and is actually a part of most humorous writing. When I write, in order to create a humorous event, I must first write a dramatic (light) event and then find a way to make it humorous. The same steps would be taken to create a "Deep Drama," making it about the same level of difficulty as humor.

So I guess my question would be, are you talking about "Light Drama" or "Deep Drama?"

[Drowemos]

We all tell ourselves things when we're full of ourselves or are insecure.

The percentage of people in that category is possibly much higher than any of us would care to admit, too.

101% from my experience. (margin or error + or - 1%)

[EmergencyExit]

Could just depend on a person's focus in their writing. Drama bits seem harder for me, but comedy is what I wrote most anyway. Writing drama can feel awkward and difficult for me.

[Bustertheclown]

I fret over both.

[Jen_Babcock]

Scott Kurtz is being ridiculous- how do you even qualify "hardness?"

Writing well is hard period- some people are "better" at writing comedy and others are "better" at writing drama. It doesn't mean that one genre is harder than the other.

[Dutch!]

Yes it does! That's a cop out reply!

Nah. I generally agree because I too don't see any point to arguing the fact other than to try to make yourself feel better pretending to write one of the two well when the reality is that you're probably only really mediocre in both at best anyway.

[KWill]

Truth of the matter, comedy or drama, it's hard to be good.

But getting it done right isn't really the question, is it?

On the bottom line, writing drama is easier than comedy, simply because basic drama consists of people in a problematic situation while comedy consists of funny. I'd wager even less-than-funny jokes are harder to churn out than the proven situations which get recycled in drama.

Good drama and comedy, on the other hand... I'd guess good drama is a bit harder to achieve, mainly because it's so easy to reproduce bad or mediocre drama, so a good piece of drama really has to shine.

[Phact0rri]

I think the truth test of a writer is the ..

....dramedy!

[McDuffies]

If what Kurtz thinks of when he says "drama" is those "serious" stories of his where characters break up and get together again, then no wonder he thinks they're easy to write. Only they're not called "drama", they're called "soap opera".

Yeah, to me humor comes naturally, and personally I find humor somewhat easier because not everything has to add up to a story, sometimes humor is enough. On the other hand I can imagine that to people to whom humor doesn't come as naturally, writing comedy would be more difficult.
The thing is, though, that I'm having problems thinking in such sharply divided categories. For one, when I think of good comedy, most of stories that come to mind do have some serious dramatic elements.

[Kirb]

If what Kurtz thinks of when he says "drama" is those "serious" stories of his where characters break up and get together again, then no wonder he thinks they're easy to write. Only they're not called "drama", they're called "soap opera".

Yeah, to me humor comes naturally, and personally I find humor somewhat easier because not everything has to add up to a story, sometimes humor is enough. On the other hand I can imagine that to people to whom humor doesn't come as naturally, writing comedy would be more difficult.
The thing is, though, that I'm having problems thinking in such sharply divided categories. For one, when I think of good comedy, most of stories that come to mind do have some serious dramatic elements.

My view on the topic for the most part. The best dramas have a bit of comedy in them, and the best comedies a bit of drama.

[Jim North]

According to Mel Brooks, tragedy is when I cut my finger and comedy is when you fall down a sewer hole and die. It's way easier for me to cut my finger than to wait for someone else to fall into a hole, so obviously Kurtz is right!

Anywho, just to throw it into the ring, one of the primary justifications for the idea that comedy is harder than drama is that it's easier to make someone cry than to make them laugh. Purportedly, the buttons you gotta press to make an audience sad are pretty universal . . . families breaking up, horrible body-breaking accidents, death, losing tons of money, etc. etc., all stuff that most everyone on the planet fears or feels insecure about. What comprises "funny" apparently tends to be a far more subjective thing. What makes one person laugh can severely offend someone else, and it's not always easy to gauge exactly which one is gonna happen. Just try going up to to folks at random and say the words "dead puppies" to see what their immediate reaction is!

[Yeahduff]

Scott Kurtz is being ridiculous- how do you even qualify "hardness?"

Anyway, I really don't understand why I'd be interested in whether it's harder to write bad drama or bad comedy. They're both pretty easy, and they both suck, so who cares?

People who think it's easier to write drama probably just don't know they suck at writing drama.