{"id":6765,"date":"2011-12-27T13:02:04","date_gmt":"2011-12-27T20:02:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/?p=6765"},"modified":"2011-12-27T13:02:04","modified_gmt":"2011-12-27T20:02:04","slug":"trope-tuesday-new-year-has-come","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/trope-tuesday-new-year-has-come\/","title":{"rendered":"Trope Tuesday: New Year Has Come"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just like a story, every year has a beginning and an end. \u00a0For this reason, New Years<\/a> has become a time to celebrate change, renewal, and the setting of impossible goals which we will all probably break by March. \u00a0Over time, this tradition has become so ingrained in our culture that it’s only natural for it to pop up in our fiction.<\/p>\n

Most stories that feature a New Year subplot are episodic, such as cartoons, comics, anime\/manga, and television shows. \u00a0They usually reflect real-world holiday traditions, such as the practice of setting\u00a0New Year’s resolutions<\/a>. \u00a0Because all stories need conflict<\/a> (but also because fiction sometimes reflects reality<\/a>), the characters in these stories are often just setting themselves up for failure<\/a>\u00a0in some hilarious way.<\/p>\n

At first glance, this might seem depressing. \u00a0After all, if most of us will never reach our goals, why do we even bother setting them? \u00a0Why torture ourselves with guilt<\/a>\u00a0when, in all likelihood, we’re just setting ourselves up for failure?<\/p>\n

In some ways, I think it comes down to this quote from David Gemmell:<\/p>\n

May all your dreams come true save one; for what is life without a dream?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One of the things that makes us human is that we all need to have some impossible dream to strive for, some sense of hope for the future. \u00a0Through our New Year’s resolutions, we tap into that sense that anything is possible, and that we can change who we are and become better people.<\/p>\n

For some of us, those resolutions are an effective tool to turn their lives around. \u00a0For those of us who lack that kind of will or self-discipline, the act of setting resolutions still helps us reflect on our lives and change in ways that perhaps we don’t immediately perceive. \u00a0After all, the truest measure of success isn’t whether you’ve accomplished all your goals, but how much you’ve changed through striving to meet them.<\/p>\n

That’s my take on it, anyway. \u00a0In any case, a New Year’s story is a great way to give your characters some time for reflection, since it’s probably the most introspective holiday in our Western culture. \u00a0It’s a time for beginnings, endings, and chasing impossible dreams.<\/p>\n

Happy New Year!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just like a story, every year has a beginning and an end. \u00a0For this reason, New Years has become a time to celebrate change, renewal, and the setting of impossible goals which we will all probably break by March. \u00a0Over time, this tradition has become so ingrained in our culture that it’s only natural for… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: New Year Has Come<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[379,113,191,222,673,42,231,599,641,565,626],"class_list":["post-6765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-beginnings","tag-david-gemmell","tag-dreams","tag-endings","tag-episodic-storytelling","tag-frustrations","tag-hope","tag-thoughts-reflections","tag-trope-tuesday","tag-tropes-and-cliches","tag-tvtropes","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iXK-1L7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6765"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6766,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6765\/revisions\/6766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}