forum Things You Want LESS Of In Books

Started January 21, 2019 by @evastardust groupRRAAAARRL

tune

Lol in my story I have two "love at first sight" things, but neither of them actually work out

Ah but do you go into the cultural misunderstandings of how relationships work and how that damages relationships?

… I will work on that

You don't have to, my guy. But it would be cool.

Character: I'm not going to the dance. I don't like them
Character: oooh cute boy, I'm going to the dance
Me: :/

I feel like this one could be done right. But I agree that it would be nice to have people solidly sticking to what they do and don't like.

It depends if the character's love of cute boys trumps their dislike of the dance. Like for me it's always joked that I'll eventually like sporting events cause boys will be there, but I don't like guys more than I hate sports so that would never happen. Though for typical YA, its almost required to have a shoehorned romance so boys it is.

Exactly.

This is media in general

But when someone who doesn’t (Or hardly) know their mother/father Gets pissed off when their parent starts dating

I was ecstatic (if I used the word right) when my mom met my Step-dad

Yeah, I mean, its understandable if they get legit bad vibes from an individual their parent is dating, or they feel some amount of jealousy or nervousness, but cut out that "angsty teen hates their parent's SO" shit

Especially since most of the time I see it the only reason they dislike them is….because they're not the MC's birth parent? Granted I'm not experienced with having divorced parents but so often it's just a slightly awkward parent that just wants the kid to care about them.

God, I legit want my parents to get divorced, and I couldn't care less if they started dating again.

I've read an unfortunate amount of books where the MC just relentlessly slutshames the father's new gf, it's so gross can we stop doing that??

Ewww

All she wants is a stable, happy relationship, and the MC is off in the corner like "I can't believe this slut has the balls to be dating my dad….my real mom would never be such a whore" and I'm like "can you just???? chill????"

Your real mom dated your dad at some point, stupid

Oop sorry they wanted to be happy instead of forcing something terrible to work so you don't have to face your crippling fear of other adults

I've probably said this before, but less sexual assault/rape. Find another way to elevate the stakes without messing in a serious matter that you need to be a very good writer in a very specific way to do right. I'm SO tired of anything resembling a rape backstory.

Ugh, I absolutely agree. While sexual assault and rape are very important issues that deserve to be addressed, they’re definitely used clumsily most of the time, and a lot of authors seem to use them only for more tragedy points

^^^^ yes
and I hate that this is even a pattern that I know to point out, but sexual assault/rape is not some minor roadblock to toss into a sappy love triangle that gets addressed once and then glossed over because it's no longer convenient to the plot

I once read a series where the character spends 5 books flip flopping between two guys when one of them literally tried to date rape her the first time they went out together
like if that's not?? the biggest red flag??? then what is???
(regretfully, I was also a little baby ninja at the time and didn't take that as my cue to nope out of the series like I clearly should have)

Right?? Like no honey that's not okay well I guess it's the other guy gotta go yiffy it up, that's trauma

"I like a girl with a hearty appetite" ….?

I mean, its okay to be like "ah, she doesn't feel like she has to eat a salad in front of me. I hope that means she's comfortable around me." But any more than that is uncomfy.

I hate when rape/sexual assault is tossed in like "haha yeah see how Grimdark my world is? it's so intense!!!" and used as a footnote. If your character has been raped/sexually assaulted, that's going to impact them, it's going to have a lasting effect, and that effect will not be miraculously cured by getting a love interest.

It's like casually killing off characters but so much worse. It can be heartbreaking to see what it does to people and knowing that it's gonna take years for them to even try to claim back their old self.

and I hate that this is even a pattern that I know to point out, but sexual assault/rape is not some minor roadblock to toss into

Yes.

I would like less impulsive, reckless, curious, "poke-my-nose-into-everything-troubling" main characters
not because any of that is inherently problematic, I'm just so tired of dying of avoidable secondhand embarrassment every .05 seconds
like I get propelling the plot. and having active characters. and all that. I really do. but can we just have a single coward, just for my sake

I agree with this ^^^ Also I don't like characters who are just dumb. Especially if they are the main character, and it's even worse if the book is first person.

I'm fine with nosy main characters, but when they constantly jump headfirst into everything without even taking a second to consider the consequences? I hate that.