What is "good" these days?
Not ImpressedEh. I'm kinda miffed about something. That something is popular writing these days.
Lately, I've been seeing more and more of stuff that's written with flawless conventions and exquisite command of language, but flat characters - my pet peeve.
For example, look at Twilight.
...-awaits flames-...
Okay, now that that's out of the way, I respect Stephanie Meyer's skills greatly. I have only read one of her books, but from it I can tell that her style is gorgeous, particularly the vocabulary she uses. However, it's really a shame that her style went into writing books like Twilight.
The first time I read Twilight, I loved it until I was about a hundred pages in...something like that. After that, I looked back at the two major characters that had been introduced thus far and realized that they fit two taboo writing stereotypes perfectly.
Our beloved lead, Bella? A Mary Sue with the fault of clumsiness pinned on in an effort to balence out her otherwise perfection. Come on, people - on her first day at school in Forks, every named male character with the exception of Edward falls in TWU WUB with her and the competition begins.
The attractive vampire, Edward? Our good friend, Mr. Gary Stu. Intelligence, superhuman ability, looks, dark past, eternal life...need I say more?
Now, Twilight had a lot of potential. But the characterization along with the competing slew of vampire novels that followed its release is enough to make me hold a grudge against it. In vampire novels, people use the perfection of vampirism as an excuse to turn their characters into Mary Sues and Gary Stus and I. Am. Sick of it.
Mary Sues in fanfiction are bad enough, but when original fiction writers make their main character(s) "perfect", it makes me even angrier. They think they can get away with it by loading the stories with angst and drama and what-have-you, but that only makes it worse.
But, the worst, worst, worst part that makes me clench my teeth and punch inanimate objects is...the reader's reaction, which usually consists of,
"AWESOME! I wish I could write this good!"
kjfgksfgkj.
What seems to follow soon after, in the reader's mind is,
"Wait, I can write as good as that person! Here, I'll try and then share my story with all my friends!"
and then what they produce is a Twilight carbon copy with a slightly varying plot and different characters - their own self inserts or Mary Sues.
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To summarize:
Having a strong command of the language and a sharp vocabulary may make you an above-average writer, but it isn't enough to make you an exceptional writer. To produce exceptional work, the first thing you need is a point to make through your story. If you write the story with the main intent of getting that point across, it's likely to turn out remarkably better.
This concludes today's rant.
Devious Comments
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----------~I've pricked my heart~-----------
Sugizo x Juno Reactor ---> [link]
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Come flying out, my inner monster
Stuff a candy speaker into my body
With a voice stronger than a metal jacket
While singing jump onboard
I AM MUSIC FIGHTER
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Far off in this endlessly continuing white earth...
My voice that's crying out can no longer reach anyone
I had never thought about it in the ways you put it. Thanks for opening my eyes a little more. I always appreciate really good insights to various art forms, and writing IS an art form.
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Clubs: ~MTR-Fan-Fiction-Club,~MeettheRobinsonsclub,~TCTF
I am Lewis Cornelius Robinson in *The-Disney-Directory's Character Claimers' Crew
Because, I already have a family. - Lewis, MTR
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Far off in this endlessly continuing white earth...
My voice that's crying out can no longer reach anyone
...Yes.
In many words?
While the Teilight characters grow and develop later on, your first impression of them is accurate. However, that's nto what this "rant" is about.
This writing diesease IS effecting a large majority of both young and old amateur (and professional! ;-
It'd be nice to get this message out to all of the new and "experienced" writers out there and see if the over-all qrality of writing changes.
This is the type of information that should be given is ALL creative writing classes.
I ranted about this book as well. I tried to keep in mind the adolescent audience and that I was only reading a sample, but I saw too many cliches and Mary Sue/ Gary Stu abuses to forgive. Moreover, I saw too much Buffy and Anita Blake in it.
I know the idea of the vampire is romanticized, and the gorgeous, mysterious bloodsucker is popular, but it's all been done before ad nasuem. The opposite would be the mindless killing machine. As one person commented, "I want to read about someone who doesn't love a vampire or a vampire who isn't absolutely stunning."
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Snarky Snarkfest
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Far off in this endlessly continuing white earth...
My voice that's crying out can no longer reach anyone
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