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dreaming_dragons Life is a fun thing when you're shattering conventions or at the very least making them seem incredibly foolish. Like this obsession folks have with romance and romantic stories and injecting 'l'amore' into every bit of fiction and story they can find, even if there's probably a very good reason that hero A does not actively go seeking out a girlfriend. That's not to say you can't have good romances or good old fashioned love stories that can yank and turn your heartstrings to mush, but the more people cheapen the adjective, the harder it is to recognize or even bother to pick out the gems for what they are. Especially when you have to search through pile after pile of terrible, putrid, and cliched shit to find them. And we're not even talking about the done-to-a-horrible-messy-death Sue pairings. You lot have seen this, supported this, and probably been the cause of it--you sick little monkeys. Don't think I didn't see your little romantic swar-e with a Disney character of all things. And don't even get me started on the sequel to that. You know, what would come after every couples' happy ever after. Yeah.
You utterly bizarre creatures, you.
And these are not the worst offenders. To be honest, it's not the one writer that does these that I have a problem with, they're easy enough to ignore. Skip, go down a little, there's sure to be something interesting if you dig.
But what I do take issue with, is the writers that practically overload a site with their multiple or literal series of fantasies regarding a character, regarding a pairing, or just seemingly to fuck with the people that are looking for something interesting to read. It's truly sad as people that made good stories that they worked hard on are going to get them lost in the pile of shit that gets smeared over a webpage.
Now, I do have reasons to back up the way I feel, there's a good couple of points that I have to make regarding the bullshit I detect in this genre. For one, no sane person would stay in an unhealthy relationship no matter how much the guy or girl say they love them. People should have more respect for themselves than that and if they can't work this out then they should have the brainpower and common sense to know when to let a relationship go back behind the shed and put a barrel through it's own brain. In cases of people like Ophelia, Romeo and Juliet, Desdemona, these people are almost cautionary tales to the world. They are the physical representation of the phrase 'don't be this kind of a screwball, kids, it will wind up killing you!'. But romance tales seem to forgo common sense in order to fulfill their dreams, and get characters into bed with one another regardless of what their IC feeling is on this practice. And I say IC because most people that like and respect a character or a franchise would at the very least try to get this sort of thing right. After all, characterization, not to mention when it's done properly, is one of the hallmarks of a good writer. I find it especially more of a challenge to do this with another person's character as it makes you try to match what they think and the boundaries that they have set rather than making up your own, a sort of coloring-in-the-lines exercise for the aspiring writer. And of course, every writer is willing to correct their work if they are able and have been either made aware of or noticed that they made a mistake [I know, subconscious, I know I did that one wrong, and I promise I'll have it fixed, now quit clouting me with the weight of my failure!]. A person that clearly does not care about the characters or the writer if they are willing to alter what has already been set down by Word of God within the parameters that someone has given them. This means that a normally boisterous and self-assured character cannot act like they suddenly fell victim to the self-esteem vampire in your story just so your OC can come along and make everything better. They cannot suddenly fall in love with someone you've made up because they've batted their eyelashes and made goo-goo eyes in their direction. That is not love, or even really an interesting romance. That's the start of a sex novel, or some whiny person's pretentious idea of love and commitment. Both parties must do some measure of work and there must be some level of 'alright, give it some time and this could work'. In real life, a romance does not happen right away, at least not a successful one. A long-lasting and fulfilling partner must, from what I've seen, be able to connect with their other in a way that doesn't always involve goo-goo eyes and what happens behind closed doors. Now, it could be that I'm practically aromantic that I happen to see the three-day romances as utterly pointless, unbelievable, and pretencious, though to be honest it's moments like this that seem to make people think something is wrong with them if they don't find someone to bang or be coy with, like romance will solve their problems and pull them out of some dark pit they didn't even realize was in their life. Here's a thought, maybe instead of doing what everyone else does, write a story about two characters just being good pals. Y'know, shooting the shit together, go out and nab ice cream, and just talk like normal folk. If it would involve flirting, okay, but that shouldn't be a writer's one tool.
And at any rate, it almost makes me a little bit sad how people can't even seem to use the word 'love' around one another without it being given some sort of romantic subtext. You love your family, probably your friends, but that doesn't mean that you need to bang them and put them in some cliche romance, does it?
Seriously, please try and get out some, have dinner with a friend, go with family, I don't care, whatever gets people off of this kick long enough for some of the frustration to clear from the air. I'm done.
You utterly bizarre creatures, you.
And these are not the worst offenders. To be honest, it's not the one writer that does these that I have a problem with, they're easy enough to ignore. Skip, go down a little, there's sure to be something interesting if you dig.
But what I do take issue with, is the writers that practically overload a site with their multiple or literal series of fantasies regarding a character, regarding a pairing, or just seemingly to fuck with the people that are looking for something interesting to read. It's truly sad as people that made good stories that they worked hard on are going to get them lost in the pile of shit that gets smeared over a webpage.
Now, I do have reasons to back up the way I feel, there's a good couple of points that I have to make regarding the bullshit I detect in this genre. For one, no sane person would stay in an unhealthy relationship no matter how much the guy or girl say they love them. People should have more respect for themselves than that and if they can't work this out then they should have the brainpower and common sense to know when to let a relationship go back behind the shed and put a barrel through it's own brain. In cases of people like Ophelia, Romeo and Juliet, Desdemona, these people are almost cautionary tales to the world. They are the physical representation of the phrase 'don't be this kind of a screwball, kids, it will wind up killing you!'. But romance tales seem to forgo common sense in order to fulfill their dreams, and get characters into bed with one another regardless of what their IC feeling is on this practice. And I say IC because most people that like and respect a character or a franchise would at the very least try to get this sort of thing right. After all, characterization, not to mention when it's done properly, is one of the hallmarks of a good writer. I find it especially more of a challenge to do this with another person's character as it makes you try to match what they think and the boundaries that they have set rather than making up your own, a sort of coloring-in-the-lines exercise for the aspiring writer. And of course, every writer is willing to correct their work if they are able and have been either made aware of or noticed that they made a mistake [I know, subconscious, I know I did that one wrong, and I promise I'll have it fixed, now quit clouting me with the weight of my failure!]. A person that clearly does not care about the characters or the writer if they are willing to alter what has already been set down by Word of God within the parameters that someone has given them. This means that a normally boisterous and self-assured character cannot act like they suddenly fell victim to the self-esteem vampire in your story just so your OC can come along and make everything better. They cannot suddenly fall in love with someone you've made up because they've batted their eyelashes and made goo-goo eyes in their direction. That is not love, or even really an interesting romance. That's the start of a sex novel, or some whiny person's pretentious idea of love and commitment. Both parties must do some measure of work and there must be some level of 'alright, give it some time and this could work'. In real life, a romance does not happen right away, at least not a successful one. A long-lasting and fulfilling partner must, from what I've seen, be able to connect with their other in a way that doesn't always involve goo-goo eyes and what happens behind closed doors. Now, it could be that I'm practically aromantic that I happen to see the three-day romances as utterly pointless, unbelievable, and pretencious, though to be honest it's moments like this that seem to make people think something is wrong with them if they don't find someone to bang or be coy with, like romance will solve their problems and pull them out of some dark pit they didn't even realize was in their life. Here's a thought, maybe instead of doing what everyone else does, write a story about two characters just being good pals. Y'know, shooting the shit together, go out and nab ice cream, and just talk like normal folk. If it would involve flirting, okay, but that shouldn't be a writer's one tool.
And at any rate, it almost makes me a little bit sad how people can't even seem to use the word 'love' around one another without it being given some sort of romantic subtext. You love your family, probably your friends, but that doesn't mean that you need to bang them and put them in some cliche romance, does it?
Seriously, please try and get out some, have dinner with a friend, go with family, I don't care, whatever gets people off of this kick long enough for some of the frustration to clear from the air. I'm done.
