An Attractive Fantasy

There are several ways to make a series interesting. I've been working on a new one for the past few months and endeavoring to make it something people will be compelled to read (or watch, if it ends up being animated).

To hook people in, you know? How does one do it?

One way is to make it "An Attractive Fantasy". This means that the reality within the story is more appealing than real life in some way. The characters in the story might have the same kind of problems we do…

…but maybe

- They're better looking and better dressed than we are
- They have big houses or apartments
- They have more exciting or more successful careers than we do
- etc

Would we watch or read stories that are exactly like our own lives?

Not sure, but I suspect most of us wouldn't.

We like to relate and empathize with characters, but we also want something MORE than reality.

The characters in saucy dramas might have the same interpersonal issues as we do, but they might have a rich lifestyle that we can vicariously enjoy. Or be fitness model-perfect looking.

Or perhaps they have close-knit friendships that we don't see in our own lives. The kids in Entourage, Friends, or Sex and the City have these tenured friendships at the core of them that don't exist for a lot of adults.

Of course, super heroes, medical dramas, cop shows, and military shows or video games present an attractive fantasy in terms of how IMPORTANT these characters jobs or missions are. We can enjoy the fantasy on that level.

The other side of this is the "NEGATIVELY ATTRACTIVE FANTASY". which is the opposite but the same. We would not want the lives these characters have, because that life is very hard, or painful, or the stakes and stress levels are impossibly high.

With great power comes great responsibility, after all!

Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, the X-Files, the Sopranos and Supernatural would fit in here.

These series, and the aforementioned cop/medical/military series, might have both Attractive Fantasy and Negative Fantasy elements.

I think my comic, Typical Strange, uses this in terms of the rock solid (though somewhat mocking) friendships, somewhat attractive (if dorky) people, and the exciting/dangerous turns the characters' mundane lives can take.

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ideas taken from Alex Epstein's book, Crafty TV Writing