Stories that have a positive outcome and the hero reigns supreme are most likely a joy to read. They make you feel good, I suppose. They just don’t feel real to me. I prefer creating a character who has had a tough go of it, for whom life has been a bitch, and they just aren’t getting any breaks. That feels more real to me. Because life doesn’t always, usually, turn out perfect for us. We don’t meet the prince riding in on a white horse to save us, we don’t hit the mega-millions lottery, we don’t get to live in the suburban house with the white picket fence (if that is what we truly want).
Some of my characters have an added struggle of not ever having enough or of living in the squalor that comes with lower class. That is because I grew up in a lower middle- class community and knew people, as I started working when I was a teen, who came from that kind of background or worse. Most didn’t have an education beyond high school so they were bound for a life of hardship and struggle. Not that those with an education do not face similar problems but it is easier when you are making more money to face almost any kind of hardship.
But those are the main issues I prefer to deal with when writing my novels. I’m also currently working on a novel about the dynamics that exist in a lot of families. You know, mom always liked you best, you were a spoiled child so my life was harder, and other jealousies that exist between siblings. I think a lot of people can relate to that kind of bickering and may even find themselves in my stories!