forum Things You Want LESS Of In Books

Started January 21, 2019 by @evastardust groupRRAAAARRL

tune

I also think it would be interesting to see how a character’s personality changes because of the magic they’ve been given. For example, I have a character who gains the ability to read minds. Her previously low empathy level increases significantly, but so do her manipulative tendencies, and she ends up becoming the main villain.

that's very cool

Thanks!

Nice! I see the appeal in both sides.

I like to mess around with symbolism and such.
One of my main characters has a fiery personality, but the color she wears is blue.
Her sister is still fierce, but more of a behind-your-back type than in-your-face. Her color is red.
It's really fun!

Like fashion wise? Or magic?

Fashion.
I'm not sure if they'll get magic or not, they might later on but they don't have any right now.

Yes!!! I gave my antagonist a red and gold color scheme which is more frequently associated with royalty and the “good guys.”
Then my protagonist has a black and dark purple color scheme, and honestly dresses more like a stereotypical villain.

I have a villain dressed in green and another in white.

my villain is very attractive and seems really nice and stuff until one of my protagonists (who is in love with his arranged fiancee), who is below him in status, does something to irk him. he turns psychopathic So Quick and the reader goes Oh

I would advise sociopath instead. Far easier to create a villain that could act perfectly natural before the "Oh snap" moment.

My villains include (in all different stories)

• A fairly young royal woman who Stalin-style executed everyone in her court after her parent's deaths (she may have orchestrated her parent's deaths as well, still working out that one) including her 11 year old brother at least she thinks she killed him and replacing them with people around her age instead. She's insecure and paranoid about everyone, so she attempts to control everyone around her with varying degrees of success.
• A 21 year old sadist who wants to climb as high as possible in an anarchy, and is part of an organized crime group. She's unhinged and tends to manipulate people into doing what she wants, and the second she's done with someone, she takes them out either on her own or by hiring someone to. Also she basically manipulates her younger brother into committing murder, and shatters one of his hands in their final showdown, along with giving him a glasgow grin.
• A basically pirate woman who stormed the castle and assassinated the king because she felt that he was pouring efforts and money into the wrong things. She has a group of pirates and other soldiers who are exceptionally loyal to her.
• A wealthy businessman who has a disturbing fascination with the possibility of world domination. He's controlling and not above straight-up beating the information out of people.
• A fae who possesses and manipulates human women into joining him so he can have an heir. He usually kills or severely injures them and then brings them back as fae. He's also a sociopath and an overdramatic bastard.

I would advise sociopath instead. Far easier to create a villain that could act perfectly natural before the "Oh snap" moment.

yeah, sorry, that's what i meant, not psychopath. at some point he tells a servant to bring him food. and then i don't know exactly what happens but the butter knife ends up lodged in the table because the servant made a Mistake and the protagonist is there to witness it but she's not a noble so she can't do anything

I like them.

Can we STOP with the adults telling kids that they need to change when the kid was doing the right thing

Example?

This happens everywhere also irl but what made me think of it again is the movie I'm watching with my family right now. The boy who would have been king? I don't know exactly. Also The Secret Series and just every book ever with young children protags

literally every single second of A Series Of Unfortunate Events works as an example

Wait there's other people who've read the Secret Series???? That's my best friend's favorite series!

Yes!!! I gave my antagonist a red and gold color scheme which is more frequently associated with royalty and the “good guys.”
Then my protagonist has a black and dark purple color scheme, and honestly dresses more like a stereotypical villain.

My hero is literally a villain in a lot of people's eyes but then she kills them so it's all good I guess lol. Basically she understands humans better than they understand themselves. She know which ones will do bad/good and where relationships will go so she doesn't hang around waiting for horrible things to happen.

Wait there's other people who've read the Secret Series???? That's my best friend's favorite series!

Unintentional shriek YES I STILL LOVE IT BUT I'M PROBABLY TOO OLD its fine

Yes!!! I gave my antagonist a red and gold color scheme which is more frequently associated with royalty and the “good guys.”
Then my protagonist has a black and dark purple color scheme, and honestly dresses more like a stereotypical villain.

My hero is literally a villain in a lot of people's eyes but then she kills them so it's all good I guess lol. Basically she understands humans better than they understand themselves. She know which ones will do bad/good and where relationships will go so she doesn't hang around waiting for horrible things to happen.

I like it.

Wait there's other people who've read the Secret Series???? That's my best friend's favorite series!

Unintentional shriek YES I STILL LOVE IT BUT I'M PROBABLY TOO OLD its fine

Are you referring to ASOUE? If so, then yes. I love it too and am also probably too old.

Wait there's other people who've read the Secret Series???? That's my best friend's favorite series!

Unintentional shriek YES I STILL LOVE IT BUT I'M PROBABLY TOO OLD its fine

Are you referring to ASOUE? If so, then yes. I love it too and am also probably too old.

No, it's a different series but with a semi-similar feel/premise.
If you enjoy ASOUE you'd probably also like the Secret Series!

Yes!!! I gave my antagonist a red and gold color scheme which is more frequently associated with royalty and the “good guys.”
Then my protagonist has a black and dark purple color scheme, and honestly dresses more like a stereotypical villain.

My hero is literally a villain in a lot of people's eyes but then she kills them so it's all good I guess lol. Basically she understands humans better than they understand themselves. She know which ones will do bad/good and where relationships will go so she doesn't hang around waiting for horrible things to happen.

I like it.

Thank you xx

I'd like to see less of the sloppily done 'Chosen One' trope.

I want less of the "One person saves the day" trope

My newest projects breaks tropes all over the place and that makes me happy.

I like to play with the 'one person vs the world' trope.
One of my characters thinks he's the only one who can save everyone, and it will likely result in his death, or at least a very bad injury.

I like it.

One of my favorites is when my boy Josiah turns down the protag Daniella because he has his own life.
Also in that story the tough trainer Silas is an asshole and Daniella hates him. Also more than half of the cast are girls. Also the protag never has a romance that lasts. Most of the characters consider relationships as great things that they don't have time for at the moment. The vengeance-bent leader had her older sister killed which is a very rare dynamic. (Yeah I'm just bragging at this point. Idek.) Also the protagonist doesn't become leader because that's stupid and Rune is smart enough to have a chain of command in case of emergency. I love this project so much.

Anyone else want to brag of their trope breaking skills?

• Meg has had 2 love interests prior to the story and isn't viewed as a 'slut' for it
• When Lucas finds out his heritage, he's rightfully pissed off and upset at his father for forcing him to spend 17 years in the care of an abusive woman.
• Same with Iam, he's conflicted about how he doesn't find it morally right to be upset with his mom because she's dead, but still resents that she never told him that he wasn't fae.
• Ansel is only 12, and is traumatized by the war he fights in. After the first battle, he starts crying and breaks down in the arms of his mentor figure
• Therese and Nich, Leah and Stephen, Fern and Asher, Esther and Cedar, Jackson and Geneva, and Giana and Lucas all have strictly platonic relationships, because meeting a person doesn't mean you have to want to be with them romantically
• Oleander is dramatic, pretentious, and generally irritating and sleazy, and viewed like most people view that one really racist and homophobic family member they only see at Thanksgiving in a 'well, I have to see him, but then I won't need to be around him for a while'
• Lysander, an average size/slightly petite 16 year old, is an eager and intelligent farmboy turned royal guard, and duels a guy 6 years older than him and twice his size. He gets the everloving crap beaten out of him, breaking several ribs and getting fairly deep cuts across his body
• Huxley sees his father's execution, and has PTSD from it 10 years later, because trauma doesn't disappear. Even after he falls for Fern, he still doesn't magically heal from his trauma.
• Oliver is still pretty messed up from, y'know, seeing his fiancee arrested and executed for treason as he was forced to watch, and generally has a lot of issues that he tries to solve via showing no emotions and drinking too much. He's forced into a leadership role he's not nearly as prepared for as he should be, and in the current draft dies a fairly painful death at age 24.
• Giana wishes that she hadn't been forced to let Vivian risk her life throughout her teenage years, but also knows that she had to or her and Ophelia would have died. Instead of just dismissing that, she struggles a lot internally about the role she played/plays in the lives of her sisters.

My book isn't as exciting lol, but…

• My protag Quinn has an anxiety disorder, but she manages it well and it isn't the center of her personality.
• When she has a panic attack, not everyone handles it like a mental health professional, and some do things that make her feel worse.
• My love interest Compass is seen as a more sexually charged person, but she struggles with romantic relationships and NEVER pressures Quinn into anything.
• Quinn, similar to what you guys are saying, is very much not the leader of the friend group and needs a lot of help to get the main accomplishment of the story done.
• My antagonist Leah isn't just a bully with one dimension, and gradually through the story you begin to sympathize with her.