For me, personally, slice of life is much easier to write compared to the intricate and complicated worlds of fantasy or more action and mystery packed stories. I find that not being forced to create constant cliffhangers or fairly past-faced linear narratives gives me more freedom to explore character relationships and deepen the world-building. I have, in the past, attempted to write non slice of life (my first book on Wattpad was a fantasy epic), but ultimately, I felt to caged in my the format and decided to move to writing slice of life.
I do admit that what I write is a twist on the traditional slice of life by doing one set in the apocalypse because it helps increase the stakes more and allows for me to explore themes that are not typically explored in apocalyptic novels. By outside of that, it pretty much adheres to the traditional slice of life story. It’s a day by day portrayal of life during the end of the world, filled with some interesting moments of action and adventure but mostly things that people would typically consider to be boring. I know that it doesn’t exactly sound like the most interesting thing to write, but at least for me, it’s this mundanity, this sense that the story reflects the trials and tribulations of normal life, that makes slice of life stories so fascinating.
When I was younger, I was drawn to sci-fi because it was so different from real life. I always thought the setting, advanced technology, etc, was what made it interesting. But as I got older I realized that those things were only the tools used to put human nature in perspective in ways that couldn’t be done normally. And suddenly all of those old Star Trek episodes I thought were awesome because of the spaceships and aliens, I could see were written firstly about the people.
It’s the same with old fairy tales. If it was really just about ogres and witches for the sake of being different, the stories wouldn’t resonate with people.
Spoken as a true writer
That is what I used to believe, as well, but you would be surprised how self-oblivious so many adults are. And even those who are self-aware might prefer their reading to be more of an escape than more introspection.
Personally, I seem to tend more towards slice-of-life in my writing, even when I dipped my toes in a bit of fantasy. As for reading…I’ll read just about anything, but I think generally I tend towards slice-of-life as well
I write plenty and it’s probably one of my strong points, but I’m not sure how true to life any story could really be unless you go into detail about every little thing. Some things should be skipped over or at least only summarized.
I think some people read slice of life stories because it’s more of an escape for them than fantasy or sci-fi. Someone who isn’t close to their family might find escape in a story about a closely knit family, for example. I think even the teen romance stuff is a form of escapism for teens who have never experienced love.
I’ve never actually tried writing slice of life, but there are times when it’s the only thing I’m willing to read, and times when I can’t handle reading it for the life of me. It really just depends on my mood, I guess
