forum Things You Want LESS Of In Books

Started January 21, 2019 by @evastardust groupRRAAAARRL

tune

I'd love to see less of love interests being horrible and then both the character and the author excusing it as 'He's a guy!' or 'It was for Love Interest's own good!'
Cool motive, still abuse.

^^title of Pornhub's sextapes.

Goddammit, Gale…..
I just choked on my water

^^Yeah yeah yeah cool cool cool cool cool cool cool cool cool cool cool cool cool cool cool cool cool cool cool cool no doubt no doubt

Cool Cool Cool Cool Cool Cool Cool Cool Cool Cool Cool Cool Cool Cool Cool Cool Cool Cool

One thing that annoys me is when a character is introduced and they are obviously a love interest and that's all they are seen as

One thing that annoys me is when a character is introduced and they are obviously a love interest and that's all they are seen as

Yes! Like, every time a female character is introduced into a mostly-male group their only purpose 90% of the time is to be the love interest! It's so stupid and in some instances, completely unnecessary! They just copy and paste the same generic romantic subplot and hope the fandom likes it!

One thing that annoys me is when a character is introduced and they are obviously a love interest and that's all they are seen as

Or when a character has no purpose beyond being a love interest…..

Hey, I found this yesterday and I thought it was cool! It's like the Bechdel Test but for LGBTQA+ characters!
I can't remember the name, but:

1. The character has to actually identify as LGBTQA+
2. The character is not solely defined by their sexuality or gender
3. The character's removal would cause issues within the plot

What do you mean by number 1?? Can you specify? Does it mean like no subtext, or like no effeminate men (for example) who are clearly supposed to be gay but never show interest in another man?

What do you mean by number 1??

My take away from it was that it has the character's sexuality actually has to be mentioned at some point. Like I know a lot of people have headcannons about certain characters being LGBT+ but it's never actually mentioned in the books that they are.
Or another example would be Dumbledore. He's gay according to JK Rowling, but it's never actually mentioned in the books.

What do you mean by number 1?? Can you specify? Does it mean like no subtext, or like no effeminate men (for example) who are clearly supposed to be gay but never show interest in another man?

Yeah, what Starfast said. It needs to either be on-page or all-but-confirmed. For example, in a fantasy or dystopian where labels might not really exist so it would be confirmed by a character saying something like "Are you a man or a woman?" "Oh, I'm not either of those."
Or
"Who are you interested in?" "Not really anyone. You?"

ALSO CAN I JUST SAY:
I hate hate hate hate the trope where no one has brown eyes (and sometimes no one has brown hair, but it's usually eyes)! I have brown hair and brown eyes and it's kinda annoying to be reading a book where everyone's eyes are blue, green, grey, and even purple, and NO ONE has brown eyes! I mostly see this in sci-fi and fantasy because then with technology/nonhuman races/magic a character with yellow, red, gold, or purple eyes isn't impossible/rare.

Brown eyes are just as sexy as other eyes. EVEN MORE SO ACTUALLY

#Browneyesaresexyasfuck2019

#DoesthismeanI'msexy?

#Causeifso,y'allneedtogetyoureyescheckedout

Brown eyes are just as sexy as other eyes. EVEN MORE SO ACTUALLY

#Browneyesaresexyasfuck2019

I love how in The Lunar Chronicles, Prince Kai (aka the dream crush of all of New Beijing's teenagers) has BROWN EYES! So do Cinder, Scarlet, and Winter!

Eris has brown eyes and no one can tell her that they aren't pretty because they are heated chocolaty goodness that burn with an inner fire of rage and sarcasm

Eris has brown eyes and no one can tell her that they aren't pretty because they are heated chocolaty goodness that burn with an inner fire of rage and sarcasm

Big mood.

Also like….there is no reason why a realistic fiction book has no brown eyed people? That's literally the most prominent eye color? And I'm guilty of having not a ton of brown eyed people but I try to have 2 or 3 per book

People say that brown is a hard color to describe. Which is bullshit, but whatever.

I try to use stats with my characters, so say I have a main character with green eye's then 5 other charecters must have brown eye's before one can have blue or green.

Like seriously…..caramel, amber, hickory, whiskey, cedar, maple, chocolate, coffee, those are all brown things with positive connotations for eye color.

I try to use stats with my characters, so say I have a main character with green eye's then 5 other charecters must have brown eye's before one can have blue or green.

I just realized with the Fae story I'm working on that I had the idea for yesterday at 3 am but whatever there's only 2 characters with not-brown eyes. Vivian, Giana, Cedar, Iam, Maia, and Esther all have brown eyes, only Ophelia and Oleander have blue eyes.

Like seriously…..caramel, amber, hickory, whiskey, cedar, maple, chocolate, coffee, those are all brown things with positive connotations for eye color.

Exactly and depending on the lighting Brown eye's shift color, my mom's eye's appear to be a very deep brown but in direct sunlight they turn bright orange.

Like seriously…..caramel, amber, hickory, whiskey, cedar, maple, chocolate, coffee, those are all brown things with positive connotations for eye color.

Exactly and depending on the lighting Brown eye's shift color, my mom's eye's appear to be a very deep brown but in direct sunlight they turn bright orange.

That's one thing I love about brown eyes. In direct sunlight my eyes turn gold and at night in the moonlight they look more red. Brown is a color that shifts way more than all the others.

I have probably an equal amount of blue and brown eyes in my stories. I think I have about 15 characters with brown eyes in 1 universe? Give or take, because one I'm still deciding on the eye color of and the other has hazel eyes that generally are brown-ish, but I guess are just hazel.
And then for realistic fiction I have 8, but also a smaller cast.

Like seriously…..caramel, amber, hickory, whiskey, cedar, maple, chocolate, coffee, those are all brown things with positive connotations for eye color.

Exactly and depending on the lighting Brown eye's shift color, my mom's eye's appear to be a very deep brown but in direct sunlight they turn bright orange.

That's one thing I love about brown eyes. In direct sunlight my eyes turn gold and at night in the moonlight they look more red. Brown is a color that shifts way more than all the others.

Yeah, my eyes either look like a caramelly color or a really deep brown depending on the lighting/sunlight.

What do you mean by number 1?? Can you specify? Does it mean like no subtext, or like no effeminate men (for example) who are clearly supposed to be gay but never show interest in another man?

Yeah, what Starfast said. It needs to either be on-page or all-but-confirmed. For example, in a fantasy or dystopian where labels might not really exist so it would be confirmed by a character saying something like "Are you a man or a woman?" "Oh, I'm not either of those."
Or
"Who are you interested in?" "Not really anyone. You?"

oof i'm queer and writing a main queer relationship but it's subtext because my parents are homophobic so it can also be read as friendship

I despise the "Oh no! I lost my memories and now I have to go on a meaningless quest to find myself again and completely disregard a whole 'nother possible plot five times as better!" This is everywhere, fantasy, sci-fi, apocalyptic, STOP IT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.