Tone Whiplash

If you've been reading my other threads, you know that I've been describing the comic I've been working on as "lighthearted." I want to write stuff like a Large Ham villain, a plague of harmless zombies, and have my heroine be excited about the whole superhero experience. However, I would also like to insert some serious elements. Some realistic, like heroine's brother not feeling comfortable telling his parents that he's gay and some super-hero related, like a villain wanting to kill his brother just for the heck of it.

How would I be able to have both without suffering from Mood Whiplash or Cerebus Syndrome?

edited 9th Feb '12 10:39:12 AM by kamikamiya

You could start to creep darker stuff into the narrative by using a few once-off (or even only seemingly once-off) episodes — and then back to service as normal. But, then gradually increase the incidence of the darker stuff.

Or, you could just pull a Doctor Who — dark, hammy, narmy and funny often crop up in the same scene. Or sentence, even. With whiplash every episode, let alone between them or by arc. It still works.

edited 9th Feb '12 1:30:43 PM by Euodiachloris

The way to avoid Cerebus Syndrome is just to not let the drama dominate for too long, and try to insert comedy into the drama where appropriate.

With Mood Whiplash, as always, tropes aren't necessarily bad. Mood Whiplash can be very effective from time to time. The easiest way to avoid it is to gradually go from comedy to drama and back again. The story's going along, everyone's laughing, and then some tension creeps in, the comedy is reduced until you hit the big dramatic moment, and then the comedy starts seeping back in.

My personal opinion is that the best way to avoid Cerebus Syndrome is to feature both comedic and darker elements right from the start, rather then adding in the latter over time. As for Mood Whiplash, it's a common feature of my own writing, and I'd like to make it smoother, but I'm not sure how.

I don't know if you can avoid Mood Whiplash. Going from a lighthearted superhero caper to a serious drama about a young closeted gay man is going to be pretty jarring to the reader, no matter how you slice it.

One question I would ask is, is it really necessary to put all of these elements into a single work?

There is always a Retcon con. Make all the past fluffy-funny stuff... less funny with hindsight with a plot revel that helps explains the shift. If it was 'trying to deny the dark by wearing rose-tinted glasses', 'unreliable narrator that nobody knew was narrating' or (worse) 'waking dream' — well, the tone-change then can be converted into Fridge, even without deliberate prior foreshadowing.

Find some events that came off funny the first time: and twist them.

Uh - I have to go trope-hunting. Most of my suggestions must already be out there... Meh - I'll go to bed, instead. Sorry, folks - no links for you today! Night!

I specifically noted in the "rules to prevent lazy plot devices" (although I don't view it as lazy so much as obnoxious) that I will never, ever, use a Cerebus Retcon unless I absolutely have to. The primary reason I strive to avoid Cerebus Syndrome is because I don't like its implication that light-hearted works can't be kept up immediately, and Cerebus Retcon not only does that, but feels as if it's biting its thumb at anyone who liked the wacky stuff better. I think it's got a much higher chance of irritating the readers then Cerebus Syndrome alone.

edited 9th Feb '12 3:56:07 PM by nrjxll