forum Things You Want LESS Of In Books

Started January 21, 2019 by @HighPockets group

tune

Spider body, but where there should be a head there's a human from the waist up. I think I have a drawing somewhere

I know this is old but like the Stalk from Saga? My arachnophobia was not happy with her lol

Spider body, but where there should be a head there's a human from the waist up. I think I have a drawing somewhere

I know this is old but like the Stalk from Saga? My arachnophobia was not happy with her lol

I think this was my comment, maybe? The answer would be yes, but their limbs don't look like long arms with extra joints, their Spider half is a tarantula actually if I remember correctly, either that or a Wolf spider, I dunno one of the fuzzy ones.

Merfolk that aren't pretty girls/guys with taped on fish tails and seashell bras, give me those cool fins and spines and not-so-human features. I read a thing about how mermaids could have hair in the form of a type of thin spine found on some fish, or how a creature living underwater would have other features like sensory fins or echolocation cause eyesight doesn't mix well with underwater. I can appreciate The Little Mermaid, but there's so much other awesome merfolk stuff out there!

You should read The Deep by Rivers Solomon, it has some really interesting takes on mermaids!

Cool.

I only like magic being almost gone if there's a good reason for it as opposed to it being an excuse for the main character to be extra special because they have magic and no one else does. I feel like you could do some cool stuff with a fading-magic world, especially if by a certain point it really does go away and leaves your characters magicless (especially if that happens, like, for an entire book and/or some important battles) even if it does ultimately return. You could probably explore some cool plotlines about how the magic went away too, like maybe its source was destroyed or it's become so thinly spread that it might as well not be there at all.

What about a world where magic is just starting?

That's kind of a fresh take tbh

It was a random thought too!

Yeah I put that on More in books. It'd be fascinating to think about.

I have that hapening in my prequel of Althalos.

I've seen that Idea in two places I think, according to my very sleep deprived brains recollection. One of them I haven't actually seen but the other I thoroughly enjoyed. I can't remember titles though and neither of them are books.

Cliches definitely… no more cliques! no more dumb blondes! etc…

I don't run into this often, but if I never read another book where the main character dies in the end I'd be 100% ok with that. I always feel so cheated like, I got so invested in what the MC was going through, but none of it mattered anyways because they just died?

I think a certain book trilogy ruined the protagonist dying at the end for good. A certain book series that will not be named.
Anyway, I totally agree on that. I think it could possibly be done in a meaningful way, but it's really hard to do. Usually it's a shock value thing, especially in YA, which is cheap.

I think a certain book trilogy ruined the protagonist dying at the end for good. A certain book series that will not be named.
Anyway, I totally agree on that. I think it could possibly be done in a meaningful way, but it's really hard to do. Usually it's a shock value thing, especially in YA, which is cheap.

what trilogy? please name I enjoy making fun of bad YA

It's just Divergent. So mainstream and popular, but at its core it was really… shallow in a lot of ways, if you get what I mean.
And because it was so mainstream (and maybe still is? Idk, I'm a little too old to consistently keep up with YA), it just kind of ruined the concept. It really didn't make me feel anything, which is pathetic because I feel a lot. So for a major character death to have little effect on me? Just. Do better, you know?
(I hardly remember a thing about the books, just that they weren't shit despite all the popularity.)

…i dont even remember reading that series tbh
I just remember "edgy for no reason" as the main character trait and the MC being the Extra Special one with a random love interest

I don't run into this often, but if I never read another book where the main character dies in the end I'd be 100% ok with that. I always feel so cheated like, I got so invested in what the MC was going through, but none of it mattered anyways because they just died?

I actually think there are some books where it one hundred percent is a good move and should happen. It's rarely done well though so I see your point. It's more of a marketing publicity stunt when I see it done these days it's ridiculous. What annoys me more is when they kill off a main character only to plot armor their way into reviving them, that, that is real annoying,

Not you Tolkien you can get away with it

I have Three main character deaths planned currently, the three siblings, they just made sense. they were also to stupidly poetic to not do. The first two really had to happen it's the catalyst for the next chapter of the story and happens at the end of book two of the Sibling trilogy (The whole thing is split into three trilogies, Sibling, Search, and War, all are place holder names) We follow the third sibling for the remainder of the story and when I wrote in the plan that she was going to die I scratched it out because I wanted to giver her the happy ending she deserved, but, every time I went back and tweaked things to somehow make it so she didn't Die at the end didn't seem like the right ending for her character. She's the character I've had for the longest the first one I ever made and by the end of her story, it shows, shes exhausted and ancient quite literally a relic of a much earlier, very different time. Not to mention it's also really freaking poetic. Doesn't change the fact that I'm dreading writing that scene just mapping it out makes me cry. Sorry this turned into me explaining and justifying my writing choices.

But I do think it's a tool used to lightly and it's real hecking annoying to read when done for the shock factor.

Cliches definitely… no more cliques! no more dumb blondes etc

Agreed. Popular girls are stereotyped pretty badly in general - they always seem to be the Pretty Popular Mean Girl, who hates the main charater for no reason whatsoever, and never pays attention in lessons or follow the school rules. Plus, your hair colour doesn't define your intelligence.
Most of the popular clique at my school are really smart, (and pretty much none of them are blonde - most people seem to be dyeing their hair darker at the moment anyway), and so are the two actually blonde people I know.

Cliches definitely… no more cliques! no more dumb blondes etc

Agreed. Popular girls are stereotyped pretty badly in general - they always seem to be the Pretty Popular Mean Girl, who hates the main charater for no reason whatsoever, and never pays attention in lessons or follow the school rules. Plus, your hair colour doesn't define your intelligence.
Most of the popular clique at my school are really smart, (and pretty much none of them are blonde - most people seem to be dyeing their hair darker at the moment anyway), and so are the two actually blonde people I know.

Yeah! I know plenty of REALLY smart people - blondes and otherwise.

I will agree with Rels and say that mc death is pretty great if used properly.

I too agree with Rels!

The girl who ends up changing herself (usually for the worse) for the likes of a male love interest

Oof yeah. Thinking specifically about the trope where she takes off her glasses, and everyone's like "she's so beautiful under there!"
(Partially angry at the objectification, partially angry because I think glasses are lowkey hot)

Oof yeah. Thinking specifically about the trope where she takes off her glasses, and everyone's like "she's so beautiful under there!"
(Partially angry at the objectification, partially angry because I think glasses are lowkey hot)

Same

Oof yeah. Thinking specifically about the trope where she takes off her glasses, and everyone's like "she's so beautiful under there!"
(Partially angry at the objectification, partially angry because I think glasses are lowkey hot)

Same

Bro, Glasses can do wonders to a face, Get the right frames on the right face. Like if they changed to trope to "We're getting you a new set of frames" I would be more than ok with it.

That sounds awesome lol