The Happy Medium

I've been thinking about this for a while. I can't honestly say I've come to any conclusions, but I'd like to understand so I'm throwing it to the Universe and you fine people.

Pop culture--popular fiction, television series and movies--is dominated with happy endings. Maybe not super happy endings, but ending in such a way as we can consider it a somewhat happy ending. Good for those two people who survived the end of the world. Yay, William Wallace's death wasn't for nothing, we have a happy(ish) epilogue bit. So, in my mind, and certainly by my tastes, a happy ending of some sort is all but required.

But not so much with music. Love songs? Most of these are not happy ditties. They're sad. Broken-hearted. Sometimes of the Good Riddance--You Suck Anyway variety, or the You Should Go Out With Me format. But, I can probably name all the happy love songs I know on one hand.

I don't know why. Is it due to the length of time these forms of entertainment run. We're only willing to commit 2+ hours to things that have a somewhat happy ending, but we can handle four minutes of heartache? 

I saw a documentary that likened the first human speech to birdsong, and I can only imagine how unbearably cheerful that would have been. Especially for delivering bad news. *happychirp*Grandma got eaten by a bear in the cave where she liked to finger paint!*chirpchirp* Did a thousand years of happy chirps irritate people so much we evolved to prefer the more melancholy melodies?

Okay, so maybe I'm being an idiot there at the end--I do that-- but really, I'd like to understand the psychological drive that wants happy stories and unhappy songs.

New Year -- Return of Enthusiasm

I have finally recovered my ZEST for writing. And it's right back to romance, those are the stories I get excited about, even if they aren't the stories that come in my dreams.

Reasons for The Return of the Happy:

• Got my critique partner back! She was MIA for half a year, being a mom and a student and a new-job-go-getter and a NINJA. But she's back. YAY.
• Time to just let myself step back and examine my wants and my goals without putting pressure on myself to produce
• New craft books. I know, I am the worlds biggest nerd, but I love craft books. I love learning how other people build their stories, keep track of what, come up with new twists and all that. The one I'm still working on is amazing. Unlike the proliferation of beginner screenwriting books out there, this one is definitely next level and I'm learning a heap. Will give a review when I've finished it and know what I absorbed.
• Success stories of friends who, while also aiming for publication with Harlequin, are finding success with other publishing houses.
• Got to the six months mark Monday on my submitted full manuscript with the London office of HQN, sent an email to check status. It's just an email to check status, but it still feels like some kind of forward momentum.
• I think part of my malaise had to do with the fall. I always get blue when the leaves fall and the air goes cold, but January feels *new* and full of possibilities, and that always reinvigorates me. 
• Starting a second blog with another writing buddy, details to be announced later. For it, I get to draw turtles. I love turtles. That is all. 

Back soon.