[ SECRET POST #3220 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3220 ⌋

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

01.


__________________________________________________



02.


__________________________________________________



03.


__________________________________________________



04.


__________________________________________________



05.


__________________________________________________



06.


__________________________________________________



07.


__________________________________________________



08.


__________________________________________________



09.


__________________________________________________



10.


__________________________________________________



11.










Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 031 secrets from Secret Submission Post #460.
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: Justifications

[blitzwing]

I'd go so far as to say that if you disagree with my ideas, then they must be considered a flaw that makes my work worse.

What do you mean by that? Do you mean if you write a theme, like "Love conquers all" and people don't agree, they must see your work as flawed as a result?

I don't believe in universal truths or that something is right/true for everyone, so I don't see things as being lesser because I disagree with them. I don't think love conquers all, but maybe it's true for someone else.

I could write a Love Conquers All story, and then turn around and write a deconstruction, Love Doesn't Conquer All. Is the same true for you or are your stories consistent with their themes?

Re: Justifications

[feotakahari]

Every time I try to explain my thoughts on fiction, I wind up coming back to Lovecraft. In order to understand Lovecraft, you have to know that he was racist, and knowing that he was writing out metaphors for racist ideas makes some of his stories worse. I don't think I'm that bad, but I definitely have strong and noticeable biases. (For instance, I had a hard time figuring out what to do with one likable character because she was a powerful authority figure, and I couldn't get myself to write a character like that who wasn't a backstabbing villain.)

If you read Dickens, characters who don't follow the law are figures of pity or even revulsion, and that's not a good thing if you come from a background where the law was used as a bludgeon against you. If you read Hawthorne, anything the Bible could be construed as opposing is automatically wicked and corrupting, and that's a bad thing if you breed new strains of flower and don't consider yourself corrupt. Authors have biases, and those biases can get in the way of representing people who are different from you.

Re: Justifications

[blitzwing]

I would have guessed that they deliberately wrote those things in (although I haven't done a real study of any of them or their lives). I guess it's hard to tell with them if it was subconsciously done and without more self-aware deliberation, or a purposeful weaving in of things they believed.

(For instance, I had a hard time figuring out what to do with one likable character because she was a powerful authority figure, and I couldn't get myself to write a character like that who wasn't a backstabbing villain.)

That is interesting. Have you ever set out to deliberately work against that bias? Like tried doing a short story set to make a hero out of an authority figure like a principal or a prison warden?

Re: Justifications

[feotakahari]

I always wind up "humanizing" them or removing ways for them to quickly solve the plot, and that just so happens to undermine their authority. At this point, I'm not even trying. I'll leave it to someone else to write great authority figures.

Re: Justifications

[blitzwing]

That actually sounds like you're writing really good authority characters. A great authority figure character is a human one. Better to show a prison warden with hopes and fears, weaknesses and failings, who maybe gets rescued by a prisoner and has his traditional authority undermined, then some cardboard cutout who is perfect and unshakable.

You shouldn't feel bad about throwing tons of obstacles in their way. People don't want to read about problems neatly and calmly solved, after all.

It sounds like you're doing everything you need to do to write a good story.