forum Things You Want LESS Of In Books
Started by @evastardust groupRRAAAARRL
tune

people_alt 109 followers

@hollow-boned

on that note can they stop pairing all the guys with all the girls so that everyone is all coupled up by the end of the story, it's such a shitty move

@Althalosian-is-the-father book

Yeah but he handles it carelessly which is worse than not having it at all. He might as well be holding up a sign that says “Look guys! DIVERSITY!”
And that sucks. And makes his stories lamer. He puts them in like the Token Black Character instead of a character that happens to be blank but that is only one of the many facets of their personality instead of the main focus.
I finished reading a really good example of this last night. The best friend of the main wore a hijab, and when I read that I internally rolled my eyes because I hate having PC content hammered into the narrative. But it wasn’t. It was really well done. The author (Haddix) even touched on racism without preaching. A really great read. At he end of the book I discovered she was Muslim and another friend was Catholic and it was really great because it was a gift near the end of the book to learn more about these characters I liked instead of it being super important when there was an actual plot happening.
It’s called Full-Ride if you’re interested.

@evastardust groupRRAAAARRL

A character wearing a hijab isn't 'having PC content hammered into the narrative', it's having a character who happens to wear a hijab.

@evastardust groupRRAAAARRL

I'm specifically talking about the ones that make everything Edgy and Dark because like? They were dark already?
Cinderella's stepsisters mutilating their feet, the Little Mermaid turning to sea foam, Little Red getting eaten alive, the implications of the sleeping spell in Sleeping Beauty, etc. there's so much to explore that's already dark without going full EdGy and gRiMdArK

Deleted user

I have a second Pinterest account I use to collect inspo, aesthetics, faceclaims, etc. for my characters and some stories, and one of my babies characters is a female assassin. Well, not every female assassin is 'sexy' and has knives disguised as lipsticks and seduces people before murdering them. It's annoying and frustrating. {and a bit offensive, as a female}

@Kinarymo

There's so many other options besides the "sexy hidden assassin". Not every female is beautiful enough to pull that one off.

@Becfromthedead group

Right?! I’m actually in an rp about assassins rn, most of the characters are female, and none of them are the “sexy” archetype. Woman assassins have so much potential for things besides being the femme fatale typeof character. There’s a time and place, but it’s rarely a good trope.

Deleted user

There's so many other options besides the "sexy hidden assassin". Not every female is beautiful enough to pull that one off.

And a lot of authors just don't want it. Like, I just don't want a sexy character in my book, especially not hired to kill the queen.

@ninja_violinist

Is it just me or is the 'sexy trope' getting tiring? i want more average looking peeps

It's not just you
I'm especially tired of fantasy settings that still have the same standards for what constitutes an attractive person? Like even on earth different cultures have different ideas of what makes a person look beautiful

@Pickles group

Because no one understands how to show that a person is considered beautiful in their society's standards, so they settle for making the character beautiful by our society's standards.

@Mojack group

THAT.

Something I’d like to add (the conversation reminded me of it) is when people make aliens, they replicate how humans might act. They make their aliens too..human like. Unless there’s a good reason for it, (eg one of my characters was an alien growing up in a human town so she’d still have different features but she’d most likely behave more like a human) I’d like to see less aliens acting like humans, more aliens with their own sort of cultures and behaviours.

@Althalosian-is-the-father book

Is it just me or is the 'sexy trope' getting tiring? i want more average looking peeps

It's not just you
I'm especially tired of fantasy settings that still have the same standards for what constitutes an attractive person? Like even on earth different cultures have different ideas of what makes a person look beautiful

YES.

@Pickles group

Female aliens with boobs :(
Especially if they are in no way mammalian

Yes!! Have you nothing else to put there? BE CREATIVE
OR DONT HAVE ANYTHING THERE AT ALL

@Mojack group

Yeah, there are so many ways you can easily make differences (and use to identify females) between aliens in terms of genders. Different colouring, sizes, features, etc, etc. One of my species has the male with a more club like tail while the female’s is sharper, and they’re darker, too.

Also when creating aliens..don’t be afraid to get creative with making them! I have a species based off of fungi, a species based off of jellyfish, etc etc.

I do have appreciation though when people make reptilian aliens and don’t give them boobs. I saw an example of that yesterday that someone just made a size difference and gave the males feathering instead, which was nice.