forum Things You Want LESS Of In Books

Started January 21, 2019 by @HighPockets group

tune

Or the entire story somehow taking place in under a year when logically it shouldn't

Lord of the Rings

Or the entire story somehow taking place in under a year when logically it shouldn't

Lord of the Rings

Bro don't come after my boy Tolkien

Don't get me wrong I LOVE Tolkien with all my heart, but I'm just sayin that….all three books took place in a year?

Don't get me wrong I LOVE Tolkien with all my heart, but I'm just sayin that….all three books took place in a year?

They didn't, it took place in 17 years and 6 months, But the entire journey takes 6 months which when you add up all of the time that passes in the book makes sense.

Remember that everything from Fellowship On was taking place at the same time. So really it only was Two Towers worth of time afterwards.

I don't know what has already been said and what hasn't, but I want more interesting female characters and more depth in males. I want less love triangles. I want character's with physical descriptions that don't waver throughout the story (most stories actually don't waver too much but I know some that do and it's terrible X'D). I want less cliches.

Remember that everything from Fellowship On was taking place at the same time. So really it only was Two Towers worth of time afterwards.

I mean if we are talking from the beginning of fellowship to the end of Return of the King isn't it like 30 odd years?

I meant the actual journey from the shire to Mordor and back took only 13 months.

Heckity heck! If you're character is super into a thing, get into the thing yourself! Learn about the thing. Please.

YES! PLEASE!

Also, can we please have less of the "Generic Gun Guy" and "Sexy Sword Lady"-type characters?

Heckity heck! If you're character is super into a thing, get into the thing yourself! Learn about the thing. Please.

Yes!
I'm holding off on writing about Victor seriously and not just cute fluff or angst scenes with Henry because I know I'm not educated enough in chemistry to write a character who's a chemist. I'm waiting for this fall or spring when I learn about it for science.

Heckity heck! If you're character is super into a thing, get into the thing yourself! Learn about the thing. Please.

Yes!
I'm holding off on writing about Victor seriously and not just cute fluff or angst scenes with Henry because I know I'm not educated enough in chemistry to write a character who's a chemist. I'm waiting for this fall or spring when I learn about it for science.

Haha yeah, I have the same problem with Ara. I'm probably not qualified enough to be writing a character whose a doctor, but I'm doing my best It probably helps a lot that the story isn't told from his perspective and that I barely have the plot together.

Anyways though, that kind of thing shouldn't just stop at interests. If you have a character from a country that you don't live in then research the hell out of that country (Or visit it if you ever get the chance). If your character has a disability that you don't have then talk to people who do, etc. etc. It's so easy to learn about people and places and things these days when we have the entire internet at our disposal.

Plus it's not for school which makes it a billion times more interesting

Something I’m working on brought me back to this because when i was writing out the characters I was like “my GOD I’m going to need to do a bit of research for this” especially since the characters are in different countries. Ive got a doctor, a miner, a teacher, a pilot, a scientist and an artist as the main characters. But it’s definitely worth the research to know a bit more about your characters and further improve the story. And who knows? Maybe you could also use some of those things you learned in a conversation yourself.

BAD👏ROMANTIC👏SIDE PLOTS

Amen sister.

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

@ Uncle Rick

Yeah
Cough Caleo Cough

@ Uncle Rick

at least uncle rick put some diversity into it so it's a little less cringy lmao

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.

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.

I know that Jyn.

Less GRIMDARK retellings of stories, especially fairy tales.

They're not bad as long as they actually have originality to them, but for the most part they don't so I will agree with you

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