[ SECRET POST #4994 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #4994 ⌋

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


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 26 secrets from Secret Submission Post #715.
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]

05. https://i.imgur.com/NhbLoPt.jpg

[(Anonymous)]

#why i don't write in 2020

[(Anonymous)]

Agreed a hundred times over.

[sparklywalls]

This isn't an either or for me and it is a little frustrating when the complaints about darker media seem to imply that enjoying bleak means you don't enjoy lightness or joy.

I just want it to be believable in the context of the story. Sometimes I'm in the mood for hopeless, sometimes I want healing to be a possibility. Authors: just don't do a complete 180 within the tone you established in your own universe is all I'd ask!

[(Anonymous)]

+1

[(Anonymous)]

I think that's the only type of bleak that I can't get behind. I don't ship people who couldn't be happy together long term. I ship lots of compatible people who are doomed by circumstances.

[(Anonymous)]

I agree with this 1000%! I used to love the more 'problematic' side of writing and storytelling. I miss it a lot more than I'm willing to admit, tbh. This whole trend of things having to be squeaky clean and pure fluff all the time is not only boring but incredibly limiting as well. Like it doesn't have to be the dark ages, but most plots need to have some sort of problem to overcome in order to be effective, even in fanfiction.
Fluff is good too, but some sort of variation is nice every once in a while.

[(Anonymous)]

more than I'm willing to admit

This shit ain't gonna change until y'all grow some balls and speak up.

Writers aren't going to put themselves out there if you're all cowering on the sidelines, pretending you don't like some stank.

[(Anonymous)]

ayrt


True, but I don't interact enough in fandom (or at all) to have anywhere to say anything. I only read fanfic, and while I do support what fics I find with substantial plots and thus forth, but short of screaming all my thoughts onto fluffy ficwriters, or creating a tumblr account to yell unto the void, there's not much else I can do.

[(Anonymous)]

I like problematic shit a lot, but people enjoying bleak outcomes tells me how privileged they are overall that they don't have to constantly BE in a place of bleak outcomes in their real life. I want the good, optimistic endings because my life sure ain't getting better and I need that good ol' escapism or I'll break because hoplessness is so fucking constant, and people who can wallow in it for writing tend to have a lot of hope in their own life from my experiences.

If I wanted hopeless, I can unplug and look at real life where I live under a wannabe dictator who wants me dead for being a gay, disabled pagan woman who's also liberal.

[(Anonymous)]

people enjoying bleak outcomes tells me how privileged they are overall that they don't have to constantly BE in a place of bleak outcomes in their real life

Or maybe they get a release from seeing people in even more bleak and hopeless outcomes than their own.

[(Anonymous)]

I mean, you can have both optimistic and pessimistic stories exist so that people can choose from a variety of stories instead of only having just the one kind.

Also sometimes people write stories to vent things out and aren't obliged to give a happy ending to anyone if they don't feel like writing it :P

[(Anonymous)]

No one's saying that you can't have both, just don't be fucking surprised when most people in the world of 2020 don't want bleak and hopeless while it's being shoved down our throats constantly.

[(Anonymous)]

You can have stories that aren't all fluffy kittens and rainbows without them being "bleak and hopeless," you know.

[(Anonymous)]

I've loved bleak and hopeless stories more than ever since 2016, thank you very much indeed. Give me that delicious commiseration.

[(Anonymous)]

who's forcing you?

[(Anonymous)]

Bold of you to assume that just because I like bleak stories means I don't have a lot of issues in my own life. Hahahaha no... I mean some of us get catharsis putting our favorite characters through pain because we identify with the struggle.

OP

[(Anonymous)]

Hi. I'm sorry that you've faced hardship and I understand this is why a lot of people crave lightness and sweetness; what I don't understand is why it's acceptable to declare that the only way anyone is allowed to work through depression or their own failings in life in a way that gives them healthy distance from it. Nothing about what I said in my secret invalidates your feelings or what you seek fiction for, but thank you for invalidating my own.

For what it's worth, I am a gay woman in the deep south who was raised under fanatical religion and very traumatized by it. I don't owe you that explanation for why I should be allowed to write realism in my relationships not always working out. I'm truly not intending to belittle your feelings but this is sort of exactly what I'm talking about when I say I think people paint with too broad of a "dark" brush onto anything that isn't perfect. Maybe it's me but I think ascribing "hopelessness" to an already rocky ship not getting a conventional happy ending with wedding bells etc is somewhat overstating things.

Re: OP

[(Anonymous)]

DA

Sending you my love OP! <333

[(Anonymous)]

DA

I truly am sorry that you can't parse the difference between imagination and reality... But I honestly think you should look at some of the genuinely good recs for this "bleak" type of scenario. If only because that bleakness is almost always overcome, and depending on which fic you read the same bleakness you shy away from isn't as bad as it initially looks.
That you seem to dismiss such a thing so easily is definitely worrisome by my standards. Rather than deny people the fiction which might tackle more problematic issues that run rampant in our world. I suggest you seek a therapist if you can, if not, call/message a prevention line hotline, referenced below:

http://www.pleaselive.org/hotlines/


Stay safe.

[(Anonymous)]

Always nice to have proof that the people who demand sunshine and rainbows are in fact enormous assholes.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm always of two minds about it myself. On the one hand some of my favorite stories have been quite bleak and hopeless. On the other hand, most of the dumb trash that gets passed off as "darkfic" is just Agony in Pink except with maybe better SPAG.

"Darkfic" as a genre has a lot to offer but it's overrun with bad, stupid, careless storytelling that tries so hard to hopeless and despicable that it can loop back around to comedy. In anime many people in my social circle praised Japan Sinks 2020 as a great example of bleak fiction but when I watched it I couldn't stop laughing. It was just too stupid and nonsensical because the scriptwriters were chasing stupid bleak tropes and it became so heavily layered on that it became funny.

So sure, darkfic is cool and it can touch on themes and experiences that light and fluffy fic doesn't. But the backlash against darkfic is the result of imbecilic and moronic storytelling that keeps running darkfic tropes straight into the ground. It's no wonder so many people are sick of it when media is trying mindlessly ape dumb shit like A Serbian Film. And that's not even getting into how overly defensive darkfic fans manage to ruin it for everyone else.

Be the change you want to see in the world. If you want people to appreciate darkfic more then it's up to you and other like minded people to put together stories that are actually engaging and well told.

[meadowphoenix]

this is why i loved natasha/bruce, because they were fucking terrible together in ways deeply rooted in their own trauma, and i found that dynamic ridiculously interesting, but most people wanted to focus on how whedon is a shit feminist, mocking them, or making them ~good~ or whatever.

there are a lot of caveats for me (mostly with intent versus impact), but i agree.