[ SECRET POST #3522 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3522 ⌋

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

01.



__________________________________________________



02.


__________________________________________________



03.


__________________________________________________



04.


__________________________________________________



05.


__________________________________________________



06.


__________________________________________________



07.


__________________________________________________



08.
[Supernatural]


__________________________________________________



09.
[Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries]


__________________________________________________



10.
[Star Wars]


__________________________________________________



11.
[Great British Bake Off, series 5]






Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 24 secrets from Secret Submission Post #503.
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

[fscom]

10. http://i.imgur.com/zRiYd7Q.jpg
[Star Wars]

[(Anonymous)]

idk why, but Chuck Wendig sounds like a really cool name

[(Anonymous)]

I hadn't heard about the conspiracy theory but it's generally agreed upon in the SW community that his first book was rather weak. Lots of people think the writing was bad. His second book is getting more praise (but only by comparison). I'm hearing much more positive things about Claudia Gray, so you may want to check out Bloodlines.

[(Anonymous)]

Bloodlines and Lost Stars were both terrific reads.

[sadiesockmonkey]

I can't speak for Star Wars novelizations, but I love the first two books in Claudia Gray's YA Firebird trilogy.

[(Anonymous)]

Awww, I like ol' Chuck. His shouty writing articles always help me with my writer's block. I haven't read Aftermath though, but I'm halfway through Blackbirds and it seems readable enough so far.

[(Anonymous)]

I have heard only horrible things about Aftermath, and until I read this secret, I had no idea it had gay characters in it. Somehow, I don't think the "anti-gay agenda" was the problem.

I really, really wish authors (and actors/ directors/ singers/ etc) would shut the fuck up more when they get bad reviews. Your work is not for everyone. Get over it. And if EVERYBODY hates your work? Maybe you should think about that. Sure, vent to a friend, just don't post about it on Twitter or your blog. It makes you look insanely petty and insecure.

[(Anonymous)]

Just to play Devil's Advocate (because I generally agree that it's better not to engage at all if you're an author), there was a lot of hate from the anti-gay crowd in Star Wars. They were pretty vocal. I'm not saying that this had any reflection on his scoring but I can see him getting burned out from dealing with them on Twitter and the like. I know I've seen him getting hate for adding zhe/zir for a trans(I think?) character in the newest Star Wars book. He's, so far, been classy about that.

[(Anonymous)]

When I read this secret I thought, oh please, how could it be worse than 50 Shades of Grey? Then I read the first few pages of the book on Amazon. I cannot believe how mannered it is. There's no way I would read a whole book written like this.

[(Anonymous)]

SA

Not that I could read more than a chapter of 50 Shades either. But that writer was just bad in the sense that I'm not sure EL James knows how to write. Chuck Wendig obviously knows how to write. He just doesn't know how to relax.

[sarillia]

What do you mean by mannered? I can't tell if that's a typo or a description I just haven't heard before.

[sarillia]

Can someone tell me if it's possible for a writer to talk about homophobic responses to their work without people complaining that they're claiming that anyone who doesn't like it is just a big ol' homophobe?

He cites several other reasons for bad reviews including the writing style (even doing a whole other post on why he likes that kind of writing but he understands that not everyone does), people being bitter about losing the old canon, and "simply that people don’t like the book".

[(Anonymous)]

Because he specifically said the bad reviews NOT talking about the gay characters were related to homophobia. "It may have been my writing, but I'm betting a lot of it is homophobia" (paraphrasing) is making an excuse.

If he had just said, "Those who hate this book for the gay characters, shame on you" no one would care. But he chose to (partially) act like those who didn't like it did so because of there being gay characters. Hence "I'm not saying it was an anti-gay conspiracy, but it was an anti-gay conspiracy."

[shortysc22]

I'm basically just waiting for Zahn's "Thrawn" book because I can't even read Wendig and as much as I loved the writing of "Bloodlines" Ben being 23 before he finds out Vader's his grandfather doesn't align AT ALL with how I pictured him in The Force Awakens. I can't wait to see how else they'll fill in the gap between RotJ and TFA.

I couldn't get through this book at all and I've read almost all of the old Star Wars books. It's the writing style, it's just not as gripping.

[anarchicq]

THERE'S A NEW THRAWN COMING?!

I'm currently listening to Heir to the Empire 20th anniversary edition in preparation for Star Wars Rebels S3. I had heard Thrawn was cool, but FUCK is Thrawn cool!

[(Anonymous)]

I read it in one go on vacation and didn't have trouble with the writing style. I can absolutely see why it would get irritating if you were reading in smaller chunks, though.

My only real complaint about the book was the fake-out deaths for a certain character. You can do that once and get away with it, but after that it loses all effectiveness.

[(Anonymous)]

I actually loved Wendig's books on writing--his voice is hilariously over the top crude and it works. I didn't pick up the SW book, because before I even could, I got his blog post basically calling anyone who criticized his masterpiece as homophobes and haters. Turned me off. Dude, sometimes your schtick isn't everyone's cuppa. Get over it.

[anarchicq]

Agreed. So many writers' "How to write" books are so fucking precious that I just nope out of it.

But Wendig? He slaps the craft of writing around.

[(Anonymous)]

You're right, OP. It's just like the Ghostbusters thing.

Obviously people hacked Leslie Jones' webpage and posted gorilla pictures and racist slurs because they were legitimately critical of some of the movie writing.

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you! I love it how people keep bringing up the new Ghostbusters without recognising that there was legitimate sexism and racism involved!

Instead of getting annoyed at Sony, why don't people get annoyed at the sexist assholes who ruined it for everyone? Sony didn't make up the sexist assholes, Sony just capitalized on them.

[(Anonymous)]

They deleted any comments that criticized it for legitimate reasons and paraded around the (far fewer) sexist comments as though they were the only possible reason anybody could ever dislike it. They were telling feminists that they were misogynists because heaven forbid they didn't give a woman-led movie full marks.

Nobody has said that there wasn't actual sexism or racism. But when comments that are down on something that DON'T contain those vile elements are RECORDED to have been deleted, then you can't seriously keep up the narrative that there was no legitimate complaint.

[(Anonymous)]

Could idk it be possible both are reasons for people not liking the book?

[lentils]

Oh man, one of my best friends loved the EU and was so pissed off about this book's shitty writing. He made me read some of it and I couldn't believe it got published, it was so bad. We spent a good fifteen minutes ranting about it together, it was great fun.

[(Anonymous)]

now I'm depressed, I want a good Star Wars book with gay characters :(

[(Anonymous)]

The writing is amazingly bad. And yeah, I'm very, very much in favour of more LGBT representation in Star Wars, but did one of the only two or so books that feature it have to be such a hilariously shity one?
(And I still think the non-binary character was a dumb gimmick for the sake of "Oh hey, it's totally trendy these days so I'll include it" instead of anything else.)