8
Working With Genre II: The Melodrama and the Thriller
The melodrama and the thriller represent two extremes of genre. Although both are genres whose tone is realistic, they are opposites in terms of their structure. Simply put, the melodrama is a character-driven genre, while the thriller is a plot-driven genre. In this chapter, we will explore these two story forms not only to highlight these differences, but also to illustrate the way they incorporate narrative characteristics from each other that enhance the power of both.
The Classic Melodrama
In profiling the classic melodrama, it is useful to look at its dominant qualities. They are as ...
Get Alternative Scriptwriting, 4th Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
