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Writing Weaknesse
Writing Weaknesses!
Before I begin, take note that when I say "weaknesses", I don't mean problems with your writing. I mean the cliches, the tropes, the scenarios and archetypes of characters that you're strangely partial to writing about. The kind of thing that may be silly and overdone but you just really really have to write it okay.
I have a lot of these. Here are some.
- Misunderstood villains. The power-hungry bad guy, jaded and cold, with an analytical brain like a machine that disregards away human emotions with a flick of a gloved hand. This guy also being a sad boy lost in his own head, trying to find fulfillment and happiness in the only way he knows how. So basically the Darkling. Or Kaz Brekker. AHHhhhHh. *swoons*
- Arguing. Oh man, this is a BIG one for me. Am I sadistic? Maybe. Do I love writing about my two main protagonists with fire in their eyes, spitting venom at each other, emotions keyed up to the max? Yes. Especially ones where it's all how selfish you are, don't you ever think about how your actions affect others, don't you ever stop to think that you're not the center of everything? So. Satisfying. Just thinking about it is making me all fluttery.
- Characters getting called out for selfishness/doing bad things. Yes. Gah, yes.
- Open-ended death. Like, a character gets dragged away by the villain and the protagonist knows that they're most likely dead but holds onto the hope that they might not be. When other writers do this, and inevitably have the character actually not be dead, I just sit there, like, "Pfft. Cowards," because you know what I like to do? Have them actually be dead. Lead the protagonist on this hopeless, grief-ridden wild goose chase, blocking out attempts to heal with their delusional denial. It's fantastic.
- Enemies to lovers relationships. It's inexplicably fun.
- Introspection/character analysis. I was writing a "novel" a while ago (which I abandoned after 20k) and had my friend read it. After about twenty minutes, they looked up. "There is literally no plot. Is this just a sixty-page character study?" And I said, "What? No!" Ya know, like a liar.
- Poetic descriptions. Every time my protagonist steps onto the streets of their city or enters a room or meets a new character, my brain goes, "aw yiss a cool thing! Time to write paragraphs detailing everything about this thing using confusing metaphors involving pumpkins until your readers want to die!"
- Crying. Oh my gosh I love making characters cry. They fall to their knees, legs unable to support the newfound weight that has come onto their shoulders. Wracking sobs burst from reluctant lungs, shattered, bloody pieces spill across their lips, leaving them vulnerable and open, the grass below them wet and dewy, stained by the fruits of heartbreak. ... Yup, I'm definitely a sadist. That was disturbingly enjoyable for me.
So, what are your "writing weaknesses"? What are those things that, when your friends read your writing, they put it down and sigh and go, "Oh my god, not again"? Or maybe this is just me and you all think I'm insane. Who knows?
submitted by Abigail, age Old enough, Inside my head
(June 19, 2018 - 4:45 pm)
(June 19, 2018 - 4:45 pm)
First of all, most of this sounds remarkably psychopathic when taken out of context (compliment), and second I don't write a lot anymore but I'm a real sucker for the "Aww, they actually do love each other" trope. When two characters who have been yelling at / acting like they hate each other for the majority of the story spontaneously show their hidden affection or come to one another's defense. Fun times.
(June 19, 2018 - 6:38 pm)
It's a strange point in my life where psychopathy is taken as a compliment. :P
(June 20, 2018 - 7:01 pm)
(June 19, 2018 - 10:57 pm)
Alright,
- I love storys where everybody dies in the end, or gets defeated by the main villain, or becomes the new villain... Etc.
Annnnd that's all i can think of right now
(June 20, 2018 - 11:13 am)
This is all very amusing, but I can't think of any of my own. :)
(June 20, 2018 - 11:42 am)
I always like making up swear words. Also bizarre monsters and character names are fun.
(June 20, 2018 - 2:19 pm)
Oh gosh yes.
This is a weakness I never actually put into my writing, because it's kind of dum, but... when you imagine that scene from a book you're writing or a movie you're hoping to animate, you know, and there's this character that is totally made-up and you're never gonna put it in, but, well, there's this great fainting scene, y'know? And, uh, I'm partial to blacking-out scenes, too. ALSO, tired, spent-out heroes, wobbling on their feet is.... ah.... something I enjoy imagining for some reason.
I have a weakness for weaknesses. Wether a dehabilitating disease, losing control of oneself and turning into AN UNCONTROLLABLE MONSTER or just a disease where your brain mis-communicates with your senses so hallucinations get painful quickly, I LOVE it! It's just so... I mean, I hate to read about fainting violets who have awful powers and are SO self-centered, but, IT'S JUST SO FUN to write about ones who maybe black out a bit, but not too much, and are strong characters in general but are so SCARED of themselves! GOSH I LOVE IT.
I'm also a sucker for misunderstood and/or tragic villains. Darkstalker, y'know? Except I have this LOVELY and SAD scene for a movie and I LOVE IT and I think it's good. That is the one time I actually try to make my own hidden writing clich'es into real, genuine stories. IT'S JUST SO FUN TO WRITE ABOUT MISUNDERSTOOD PEOPLE! Really.
Oh! And I love horrific scenes. I don't know why. Read the original Watership Down book. It's a very intense little book about the lives of rabbits. Also, if you can, watch the original watership down movie. NOT the disney one, the other one. The one where the seagull actually looks like how he's described in the book. There are some LOVELY and FRIGHTENINGLY HORRIFIC scenes and... oh, yes, I don't like scary or creey things, but moderately disturbing is SO fun to write about. But I slip into over-dramatic-ness! But as I said, moderately disturbing is so fun! Like describing a rabbit being brutally killed from another rabbit's eyes.
........
I MEAN - That looked wrong. Mmm. I'm not one to actually kill a rabbit, pretty pacifist, me, but, uh, if it's written well, I love to read it, and, uh.... It's just that I love it to..... It's...... I mean, it' just fun to...... um.......
*Trails off*
OKAY so those are my writing weaknesses. This is fun!
(June 20, 2018 - 3:04 pm)
Oh my gosh, the "tired, spent out heroes" is such thing for me as well. Reading back over the things I wrote in the original post makes me realize exactly how insane I sound... oops.
(June 20, 2018 - 7:00 pm)
Ooh, I have a lot of these!
~ Making up fantasy names. I am absolutely in love with this! I can spend hours playing with random syllables and letters, looking up names and switching them around, etc.
~ Violence. I don't know why, but I find it . . . what's the word? fun? to write violence. Scenes where blood gushes out of someone like a geyser . . . wartime scenes . . . Also, I always have a "favorite" character, whether I'm writing or reading, and I always want this favorite character to get hurt and almost die.
~ Romance. Which is oddly hypocritical since I absolutely hate reading romance scenes. They are unbelievably gushy and mushy . . . but at the same time, there ARE some that make my heart flutter. I love writing romance and just laying it one, making it extremely dramatic. I never put them in my books, because they're just soooo passionate that at the end, they become over-the-top, non-gramatically-correct, making-no-sense, passages that I just delete.
~ Young people. As in, under age 10. Usually younger siblings or something in a book, but in RPs I love having my character be the youngest, for some unknown reason.
So these are my writing weaknesses!
(June 20, 2018 - 5:17 pm)
I just thought of another one.
Capes.
Especially for villains, oh my gosh, they're so visually amazing and can give such a cool image to write or draw. Just. Capes.
(June 20, 2018 - 7:04 pm)
I agree, capes are great.
-For some reason I really like writing characters betraying other characters. Maybe it has to do with the absurd amount of fairy tales I read when I was younger. People betray other people a lot in fairy tales.
- I like writing main villains who eventually get pushed aside for a bigger, grander villain, and then they become more of a nuisance to the protaganists, and maybe become heroes themselves.
-I like killing characters off. A lot.
-I end up making main characters completely mundane, like magical powers? For the main character? Pshh. Leave that for their sidekick or for the villain.
-I like making completely horrifying characters, but then they aren't a villain, they're just some side character or something.
Yeah, that's all I can think of right now.
(June 20, 2018 - 9:17 pm)
Ok, I love letting a cold, leaderly, anylitical character have a weak moment. A moment where we get to see a softness they hide, a moment of gentleness, where we can really see how much they depend on someone they love. Those are just my favorites and I always really enjoy reading them as well.
I seriously like writing descriptions for places. Even though descriptions can get long and I suppose they sometimes can be boring to read, they are so much fun for giving a sense of the place where we are. However, I constantly have to remind myself not to go overboard and that a discription should only be as long as it is useful to the story itself.
Ranting! I love letting a character have a good, long rant about something. It's so much fun for me to write! Conversations and speech in general are super fun for me, but ranting's just excellent.
(June 20, 2018 - 11:18 pm)
Oh my goodness, I relate to the arguing thing so. Much. For some reason, I just LOVE making my characters get into huge blown-up fights. Oh, and the crying thing, too! I adore making my characters cry. Oh, and capes. Yes. Capes and cloaks are so epic.
• Blacking out. I feel like I use this one too much, but I really enjoy having my characters go unconscious for some reason, especially when I end a chapter with something like 'and everything went black.'
• Character descriptions. I really like describing my characters' appearances in depth, although I always worry that I go over the top, especially when it comes to clothing. For some reason, I always feel the need to tell my readers what my characters are wearing, and this where I feel that I go too far and maybe ramble on.
• World building. Oh my goodness. I don't know what it is, but there's just something so amazing about creating worlds and delving into them. It's so refreshing for me when I can let myself develop everything I possibly can about a world. It's one of my favorite things about writing.
• Ships.
• Awkward romance scenes. They're so satisfying.
(June 21, 2018 - 10:06 am)
I'm technically not on here's anymore except for a select few threads, but I was reading this and realized how many of these I have. Here we go.
1-I love writing the protagonist as not strictly good and not strictly evil. I find the inner conflict so interesting to write.
2-Self inserts. oh dear. At least two of my OC's are basically me personality wise with a few changes.
3-I love writing villains that make the reader question if they really are the villain of the story. For example, their goals may seem good, but their tactics are... questionable at the very least.
4-Characters that make the readers torn between adoring and hating them.
5-I for some reason [probably because of Voltron, but ya know] love writing clones in my sci-fi stories. The aftermath of the other characters finding out is so fun [??] to do for some reason.
6-Soulmate Aus. they are one of the most cliche things, but I love them anyway.
7-Mental breakdowns. ok, hear me out. I find it interesting to write characters at their wits end and at the point where they're ready to just give up and be overtaken. Most of those times include the character screaming, whether at others or just in general, some form of crying, and possibly getting violent. I find a lot of storybook heroes are just like, "Yup, we're saving the world, let's go!" with barely any true mental strain that eventually does take a huge tole on them and the others.
8-I love character studies. I like to know my character almost a story if they were real and a friend or someone involved in my life. [probably explains why i've had dreams with my OCs in them...]
(June 21, 2018 - 12:13 pm)
I prefer cloaks, myself.
I also like mundane characters! It's like saying literally anyone can be the main character! GO INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES! That's why in my world literally anyone can do magic, if they train hard enough.
I also have a serious weakness for a villain who is.... just her emotions are toned down to like, three percent of the usual emotions. So then when she gets REALLY mad, her super emotions are super super emotions.
LIKE EXPLODING WITH A SCREAM OF RAGE AND THEN KILLING THE PERSON WHO MADE HER MAD! ALSO! OVERPROTECTIVE-NESS! LOVE THAT WITH OLDER SIBLINGS!
Wow Quirker! I like that too! Horryifying things I love. That sounded.... wrong... in.... so many ways...
Cockleburr (Cool name) Yeah! I like to make long dscriptions too. Just so your reader KNOWS where they are. I hate books where the descriptions are never enough. But then, sometimes just one sentence is actually enough to make the feel of the story right. I usually go overboard with descriptions.
YES YES YES LEELI! Worldbuilding is so fun!Sometimes I talk out loud to figure things out, and then, oh yes, when everything clicks into place, and it just makes SENSE! It's probably my favourate thing about writing.
Nighthawk.... This is a bit surreal. I also love inner turnoil about what is actually RIGHT and who is bad here? I love to write things from the villain's point of view. I want it to be equal, so you really don't know who is bad and you think all parties have good reasons and if everyone just sat down and explained things everything would be all right, and you can't just root for one, and you don't want just one to win. Yes, and characters that I want to be real. I loooove moral ambiguety.
(June 21, 2018 - 3:01 pm)