Hey guys let’s talk about keeping your fucking opinionated asses out of your characters’ mouths.
Let me elaborate:
Firstoff, I’m sick of characters listening to Linkin Park and Evanescence in stories. I’m doubly sick of Kuki fucking Sanban listening to them. Look, guys, I know you like those bands, I know sometimes you like a band so much that you just have to project that love onto other characters. But you need to cut it the fuck out, okay?! The fact is that not everyone likes those bands and, if you’re writing fanfiction, even the people who do might not agree that that character would like that band. Overall, you run a very high risk of either angering or alienating your reader which, I shouldn’t have to point out, is bad.
So stop. Usually, if music is to be addressed, it’s better to just speak in broad strokes, saying that a character likes this or that genre, or perhaps you can create some made-up bands for them to like. It is possible to get away with naming actual bands sometimes, but you better have a damn good reason for it.
Second, please keep your fucking politics to your uninformed self. I swear to God, I don’t want to hear Dib ranting about President Bush (the fact that Invader Zim takes place in the future also makes this an anachronism). I agree that if a character exists in the same world we do he might want to make a comment or joke about current politics, whatever, it works. But too often, things just get preachy and then they’ve lost me entirely. This has happened too many times in otherwise good stories. I remember this one fic, oh gods guys this fic was amazing, and it would have been perfect if not for ONE chapter where one of the characters went on this long-ass political rant that was so out of place it hurt. And then they went and did battle with a giant fire-lady and the whole political discussion was quickly forgotten. What the FUCK, guys. Even when I agree with everything they’ve said, I still get this urge to punch the author in the face.
Seriously, every author needs to learn to put their own opinions aside and think about what the character would say, what the character would like, and whether those opinions really even need to be expressed at all.
06 October 2008
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1 comment:
Do people really do that?
That's new to me. Thank god, for all the stories i've read from my friends, don't have this kind of issues (I consider them issues).
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