fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3058 ]

[ SECRET POST #3058 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3058 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 042 secrets from Secret Submission Post #437.
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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Eh, I think OP has a legitimate point. If the story contains shit like this:

"who just so happened to have curves in all the right places, a bunch of guys hitting on her all the time (but she turns them down, naturally), and she's super sweet and kind and blah blah blah. "

Then it's basically poor writing. You're writing a Mary Sue girlfriend basically, instead of a three dimensional female character.

So say "this is bad writing and full of cliches and unrealistic" then, don't say "this is your creepy fap fodder and you are a creepy old man, you creepy fapper you". In a critique, you're supposed to judge the writing, not the person's character.

You can judge the character of the author however you like in private, but it doesn't belong on a critical response.

Because the writing comes across as creepy?

It's the whole fantasy girlfriend thing. It's like Twilight -- it's horribly written because it comes across as a wet dream. And super creepy.

Robert Pattinson hit the nail on the head with that one.

It's creepy to me too but I would not put "you are creepy and this is creepy" on a response, like I said. I would say this sounds like an author fantasy and sounds as though it was written more for the benefit of the author than the audience and needs to keep the audience more in mind, technical things like that which are all true. Not character judgments

Honestly, I think it's a fair critique to say that something comes across as creepy if it feels like you're reading someone's wet dream and it makes you super uncomfortable.

Maybe it's not right to say that the dude himself is creepy but I think it's fair to say that the writing can make him come across that way to a lot of readers.

The problem is that "its creepy" is not constructive. It's a personal ethical objection to which the only response can be "okay, I will not do it at all then since its always creepy" or to ignore it

If you say something like "it sounds like it was written for the author instead of the audience" it gives them something to *work* on, being more audience aware and aware of how others might might take things where "YOUR STORY IS CREEPY" does not

I don't necessarily think it's an ethical judgement to be honest.

If I say something is creepy, that means it doesn't sit well with me, it makes me uncomfortable/embarrassed, and I think it's important for an author to realize that their writing is coming across this way to the reader.

Like, the whole reason this is creepy is because it's blatantly obvious that this is the writer's sexual fantasy and I do think the author should be made aware.

I understand that, trust me, I find it creepy as well

But the way you phrased it made it sound like you objected to his fantasy or writing about the topic at all, not the *way* he went about it obviously and embarrassingly

If he was allowed to write *about* anything he wanted, it's not your call to object to the content. How the content is delivered is up for critique, and creepy doesn't do anything to address the how

It's like if you asked someone to crit your outfit and someone told you "it's disgusting". Well how constructive is that bit of information on its own? Barely

So do you object to the entire romance genre then? I imagine you don't differentiate at all between sexual fantasies written by men and women of any age group?

Romance isn't just sexual fantasy.

And there's a way to write it so that it doesn't come across as blatant.

Having flawed, three-dimensional characters helps immensely.

But when a character exists solely to be an object of lust, then it's an issue and I do think that's an example of POOR writing.

And, yes, I realize that this means A TON of fanfic is poorly written but, to me, that's not as much of an issue since no one is being paid and it's not for a workshop to improve your writing.

But OP hasn't said anything at all about the characters, except that the (adult) woman in the relationship is very attractive. OP is so focused on the fact that there's an age gap, and how "creepy" that allegedly is, that we really have no idea whether or not it's a sexual fantasy, or a romantic fantasy, or just a story. OP's bias in this case prevents us from ever knowing, really.

Well OP did mention this:

"who just so happened to have curves in all the right places, a bunch of guys hitting on her all the time (but she turns them down, naturally), and she's super sweet and kind and blah blah blah. "

Which, I've gotta say, sounds like a relationship sue if ever I've heard one.

If the author went out of his way to write a realistic 22 year old woman then I don't think it would come across as creepy.

But it's such a blatant fantasy that it does.

The age gap isn't the only issue here.

So the woman is attractive and guys hit on her. Like, okay, a bit stereotypical but not exactly shocking stuff here. And she's... nice. Well. Okay.

OP's post was entirely focused on the age gap, how appalling it wast that an adult 22-year-old and adult 50-year-old would be married. If OP wants to critique, she should've suggested then maybe breathing a bit more originality into the 22-year-old, and... I don't know, made her less hot?

The thing is creepy is not necessarily bad...I wrote a story about a person (literally) getting stuffed once, and yeah, you better believe it was intended to be creepy, but that does not make it good or bad.

Well, I don't think the author MEANT for it to come across as creepy and thus I'd say it's poor writing.

For example, you say that you wrote a story that was intended to be creepy so if it caused the readers to laugh, then it's probably an example of poor writing.

But "creepy" is also 100% subjective. You might find it creepy, someone else might not. If you show the story to 50 different people, you're going to get differing opinions over whether it's creepy or not.

Yes, this exactly. Not that I think OP put it that way, but that was probably what came across.

You can judge the character of the author however you like in private, but it doesn't belong on a critical response.

Precisely.

But the anon didn't say "this is your creepy fap fodder and you are a creepy old man, you creepy fapper you". That only happened in your hypothetical example, but you appear not to grasp that distinction. Calling a relationship between two fictional characters creepy isn't at all a judgement on the person who wrote them. It is a judgment about the writing, because it's a judgement about the characters.

I feel like there's a reason you've overreacted to this and that's your problem to deal with, but make no mistake, you are definitely overreacting.

It's called hyperbole, but that's a nice armchair you have there. Do you do psychology from it often?

I didn't offer an diagnosis, and it hardly requires psychology of any kind to tell that someone is overreacting when they're making up the other side's arguments. It also doesn't require psychology to tell when someone has poor reading comprehension and a big ol' chip on their shoulder when someone points it out.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ SECRET POST #3058 ]

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