How come evryone has tragic backstory

okay, maybe not everyone. 80 % I think

but seriously browsing through the app, it is every story. my bad past, running from a tragic past, keeping my past a secret cause it is tragic. messy past, abusive past, been an orphanage.

what is wrong with a normal family life. I know most of these stories are the once where they up in the mafia and something like that.

apparently, you place the person in so bad a life that take the path down criminal lane make it an easy choice.

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Usually, people that overuse tragedy do not know how to write characters, so they have to put these many burdens on their characters’ shoulders to make readers “empathise” with the MC(s). If done properly, it may work, but most of the time… well, it turns out to be too much, to the point that it is not realistic at all. I mean, 7 foster families and all of them abused you? What the hell?

And no, of course no, there is nothing wrong with characters having a normal life. I mean, a person with a normal life can still be interesting. But with the trend I mentioned before, authors seem to think that tragedy is more important than personality.

Also, I doubt that all the people with tragic pasts would want to be depicted as sobbing stories. What happened is important, but it should not be the only thing defining your character.

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I know right! and it’s not even diverse, it’s just the same thing over and over again.

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I know, I basically stopped reading most stories because of all the tragic pasts and mafias

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I think when reading something with a tragic backstory it often leaves the reader with some sort of emotional attachment which basically you’d want to keep reading but there are SO many of them the effect doesn’t really work anymore.

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