: How does one write fluff? So in watching playthroughs of various video games, because I do that when I find something interesting, I had this strong urge to write some fluff. However, when

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A lighthearted story is generally one where the consequences of failure are mostly the status quo. The MC isn't going to die or go bankrupt if they fail. They must have something at stake (money perhaps, lifelong dreams) but if they fail their life isn't ruined. Nevertheless, the reader wants the MC to succeed, and sympathizes with them.

Consider a story like "The Money Pit", an engaged couple naively buys a dilapidated house as-is, thinking it just needs a coat of paint and some minor repairs, and in scene after scene they realize it is worse, and worse, until they are going to give up, perhaps not get married, but in the end it all works out.

Or Brewster's Millions; the 1985 Richard Pryor version: In order to inherit 0 million, Pryor must spend million in thirty days, and cannot tell anybody why he is doing it. The audience knows, of course, so it becomes very funny watching somebody desperate to unload money by the rules (a limit on charity, gambling, etc), and funny when he thinks he has made a terrible investment but it works out (so he didn't get rid of the money). A lot of reversals that make him seem crazy to other characters, but we know he is not.

But the stakes are neutral. Expected windfalls that do not materialize, in both cases. Perhaps monetary losses in The Money Pit, but nothing they cannot afford.

Once you are free of the consequences being dark or devastating, failures can be funny, as long as the consequences of failure are not life changing. If your character falls off the roof, he doesn't break his neck, he gets up and limps away and is fine in the next scene. If something explodes in his face, he isn't blinded or scarred for life. The dog getting loose causes a fender bender he ends up paying for, without hurting the dog.

The same thing can go for moral failures or cowardice: Say after causing the fender bender, the prospect of him having to pay for it makes him grab his dog and literally run away, being chased for a minute by one of the motorists. Cowardice has been played for laughs (eg Angel in the Rockford Files), as can minor violence (getting punched in the nose, falling on the ice, crashing into a tree on a bike).

The key is that the setbacks and consequences are all recoverable by the characters, things tend to stop being funny when the audience senses life-changing (or life-ending) consequences, at least for the main characters.

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Are you looking to write something to take your own mind off your problems, something easy, enjoyable and unchallenging? Or are you looking to give the reader a lighthearted experience?

If it's the former, write whatever comes to mind and is fun for you --if that's darker themes, then go with those. But assuming the latter, keep in mind that what seems most effortless to the audience is often the hardest to produce. As the old chestnut goes, "dying is easy, comedy is hard." Nothing is worse that seeing someone failing at being funny because they treat it contemptuously. Like the perfect pop song, the best "fluff" is often quite effortful behind the scenes.

In my opinion, what makes for good comedy is strong characters and a point of view that perceives the natural humor in situations. If you're having trouble getting started, you might do a parody of the kind of stories you typically write. All humor has a dark side, and all darkness has a humorous side. Similarly, if you're going less for "funny" and more for "not giving people nightmares," you still have to do all the same work to craft a compelling narrative, and with the added challenge of not going to your usual bag of tricks for help.

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With lighter stuff the trick is not to play down the importance - someone thought it significant enough to write about it, so thinking of it as fluff could be counterproductive. It could be something ridiculously mundane, but if written well it can attract more readers than heavier plots.

I'm seconding Henry Taylor's Twain recommendation, and if you wanted to go even lighter throwing in a dash of P.G.Wodehouse wouldn't hurt.

You might find some good examples in the video games you're watching. I know it's not the most original answer, but finding someone you think does it well and trying to paraphrase their style will take things in the right direction.

There's a nice one paragraph short story about a writer struggling to give their words a certain feel at the top of this page. If you can get in the same frame of mind as when you wrote the question, you're most of the way there.

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You many not find a lot of lightheartedness in video games or even videos, because those are both products of our modern age and this is an age when dark themes are more sensational and therefore more marketable.

But look back a hundred years, to a time when life held real hardship and the threat of lasting darkness. You will find the literary arts being used as a candle in that gloom.

Read a little Mark Twain. He will show you how to do it right.

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