Balancing Angst?

Angst happens in stories. Since conflict is an integral part of plotting, a character must react in some way towards this strife, hopefully in a way that resonates with the reader. However, there are far more ways of poorly writing angst than writing it well, and it's not hard to find several examples of Angst? What Angst? or Wangst on YMMV pages here at the wiki. Even the connotations of the word "angst" tend to be more negative than positive, likely coming from an association with irrationally moody teens even though the dictionary itself simply defines angst as "a feeling of dread, anxiety, or anguish." 1

There are several works out there where readers or viewers find that a character barely reacted to a traumatic event, maybe even making quips about it at the time despite the fact that most people would have a serious case of PTSD afterwards. On the other hand, I'd go as far to argue that people have an even harsher reaction to characters who angst too much, stating that they are instead whiny and annoying rather than sympathetic.

My question is this: how do you effectively write angst in stories so that it resonates with the reader rather than alienates them? What makes a character's reaction appropriately angsty vs. too little/too much?

At the risk of sounding obvious, I'd say give them something that it would be reasonable to angst about. This is variable based on genre and the age of the character and what others are experiencing in the story. For example a character who thinks he is the most unfortunate soul in the world because his girlfriend dumped him would be reasonable if he was say 14 and in a book about students in a suburban high school. It would be less tolerable if he was 40 and another character in the story had been exiled by a tyrannical ruler who conquered their country and murdered their family.

For me, it comes to how the angst relate to the character's personality as a whole, and how well integrated is the tragedy to the rest of the character's backstory, environment and subsequent story arc. It should neither define the entire character, nor should it have 0 impact on his mindset/worldview/thought patterns. Either extremes usually show that the angst is just put there for instant dramatic impact with no further thought put into it.

Someone with a more serious and introspective temperament would naturally appear more despondent and angsty than someone who is naturally more sociable and would probably hide their angst behind quips and jokes instead, even though the latter may have suffered more tragedies. But that doesn't mean either is reacting to the bad incident "wrongly". How well the writing can avoid Angst Aversion from the readers depends how well they identify with the particular characters so I don't think it's something you can absolutely get right, because Unpleasable Fanbase.

Also, I think one of the most important factors that determines how well a character would be able to cope with a tragedy is how much support they receive from their friends/society, which many fiction tend to ignore.

edited 20th Mar '18 7:06:43 AM by Adept