[ SECRET POST #2763 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2763 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 060 secrets from Secret Submission Post #394.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Re: Creator's Attitudes Toward Their Creations

[darkmanifest]

I see my characters as projects, ideas of people I'm always building, shaping, and improving as the story goes on. I really hate stories where the characters are just tools to get a certain viewpoint or action across, it always shows and it's always awkward for me, I don't feel like I'm reading about well-rounded fictional people, but plot devices that talk.

Writing device I hate the most is "write what you know". That kind of thing is how you end up with the scores of novels out there that are basically "the adventures of the author's self-insert doing things the author wishes they could do". Hell with that. The better advice, I think, would be "write what you're willing to research". Why would I limit myself to what I already know when there's a wealth of things I'm capable of learning? To be fair, I've seen a ton of stories that somehow made it to the shelves with basic mistakes that three minutes of Googling would have prevented, but that's just laziness and human error. I'm lazy as shit, but if I want to write about anything other than my avatar sitting at home trying to work through writer's block and then Shit Happens, I stop being lazy long enough to research something slightly more original.

Re: Creator's Attitudes Toward Their Creations

[(Anonymous)]

Writing device I hate the most is "write what you know".

I hate that, too. I've read too many stories about pretty white college girls who, I don't know, feel stuff, mainly, in workshops to think that "writing what you know" is a strict recipe for success. There's got to be more thought involved than "What did I do last Saturday?" or "What if there's a perfected version of me who is sad because World Is Mean?"

Re: Creator's Attitudes Toward Their Creations

[darkmanifest]

Exactly, I feel like it discourages people from thinking outside of the box of their own experience. And it seems to me that that basically defeats the point of writing anything but an autobiography.

Re: Creator's Attitudes Toward Their Creations

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, exactly. There's a Junot Diaz quote floating around about writing characters different from you because there's no other way to get good at writing anybody BUT you if you don't practice getting in their heads for a bit. But, yeah, I'm like why would you bother writing if you're constantly writing what's in your house instead of what you see out the windows? Ha ha, I'm so lame with that line... :)

Re: Creator's Attitudes Toward Their Creations

[jaybie_jarrett]

"What if there's a perfected version of me who is sad because World Is Mean?"

Ahahaha that reminds me of something I wrote in 9th grade. A story about a mean girl who was singling out this character who was essentially a self-insert of me who was a quirky weird but secretly genius girl, and how the mean girl ends up losing her friends and being bitter and resentful while the self insert was successful.

It was kind of a barely disguised vent at being bullied all the time, but still a blatant, shameless, self insert fantasy.

But yeah, if I followed "write what you know" I'd still be writing Misunderstood Geniuses who are bullied by jerks and jealous people.

I prefer advising people to "use what you know and learn what you don't".

Re: Creator's Attitudes Toward Their Creations

[(Anonymous)]

I prefer advising people to "use what you know and learn what you don't".

Sounds like good advice.