I take issue with the opening line from Anna Karenina: “All happy families are alike; all unhappy families are unhappy in their own way.” I think a happy family is happy in their own, unique way. But I understand Mr. Tolstoy’s point. Writing about a nice family that’s not boring can be more challenging than writing about a miserable one. Writers think they have more to work with when they create unhappy characters within a family. But as long as the kind members of a family aren’t perfect, and writers don’t shield them from unhappy events, nice families can prove just as interesting as unhappy families. I’ve learned this writing about the Malinowski family in my Rae Riley mystery series.
Not Every Member of a Family Always Gets Along
Even when they love each other. You know from your own experience that there are times when you’re in conflict with some relative. Creating believable conflicts between loving characters adds a lot of interest and tension to a story.
My amateur detective Rae Riley has recently found her father, Mal, and his family. Her father’s mother, sisters, and brother-in-law have been very warm and welcoming. But … in my latest mystery, A Storm of Doubts, Rae’s Aunt Carrie, Mal’s younger sister, is angry at her brother. She’s angry with him for keeping such a huge secret as fathering a child in high school. She’s angry because she feels like she doesn’t know him any more. But more than that, Carrie’s angry that there’s more to Rae’s story that she and Mal aren’t revealing.
So although the siblings love each other, they have a giant problem to resolve that is subplot for my mystery. And because of that love, neither one of them can go off the deep end and do something like spread lies about the other. They may hurt each other, but the family love keeps them trying to fix their problem, instead of sabotaging each other.
In my other Rae Riley mysteries, I’ve established the close relationships Rae is developing with Mal. But that doesn’t mean they can’t have conflict. A major plot line in A Storm of Doubts is Rae’s habit of feeling sorry for people in trouble and trying to help them. Since Mal is the sheriff and seen a lot of life’s ugly side as a cop, he wants her to stay safe.
Their conflict not only makes their relationship real, it also underlines their love. If Mal didn’t care for Rae, he’d let her help whoever she wanted and leave her to clean up her own mess when it goes wrong.
What happy family in fiction is your favorite?
