Hello. I've been working on a sad story that has been in the planning stages for a while now, but before I even consider submitting it, I have an important question. What makes a good sad story and what is the difference between elements that are built up appropriately, which provide a proper emotional payoff, and elements that feel forced, desperately trying too hard to get a reaction from the reader and falling on its face? I know that opinions on this vary, but it would be good to get some advice from those who have some experience in crafting these kinds of tales. Oh, and I should also mention that I'm planning on a more bittersweet short story instead of a heartbreaking tragedy, just in case that helps.

3361178 If you cry while you're writing it, you're doing it right.

If whatever your trying to write starts to sound forced, chances are you should change it up. The best sadfics have the ability to naturally elicit a profound feeling from the reader, while also still being an excellent story.

Don't think that you have to pile on the emotional end just to make the "feels" apparent. Instead of writing a story that tells the reader he/she should feel sorry for said pony, make me feel the sadness, make me become emotionally invested.

Good luck!

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3361718 To make a good sadfic the author must feel sad when writing it because if the author does not feel sad about the story then there is good chance that the readers will also not feel sad

I'm jumping on the whole, "if you don't feel it, you ain't doing it right" bandwagon".

For example, when I wrote Beautiful Day, there was a scene that I wanted to make the reader lose all hope and basically feel the hopelessness of Applejack. So, I went at it and thought, "what makes this scene so sad between these two?" Thus, I put those elements into that scene. I started to tearing up and had to choke some of my tears down because I was in a crowded airport.

Another good thing to do is get an outside opinion. I read the particular scene in question to an outside source and they started sobbing somewhat. That's another good sign.

So, yeah. Take that for what it's worth.

3443459 A bit late, since I've already figured out what I needed to do, but thanks for the advice anyways!

Here's some tips:
1. Have a sad song on.
2. Have Rainymood on.
3. Based on the event, write it in thorough detail and really try to break to the reader by making it as long as possible.
There you go. That's all I got so far.

I think writing a character's back story in contrast to their personality is really helpful when trying to make readers sad. Like, a happy character who never shows sadness could have a tragic history which they've overcome. Or an angry or sad character could have once had a very happy past before something g happened to change them. Just showing that the reader is wrong about the assumptions they have made about a character opens them up to see them as more personal and emotive.