What are pet peeves in stories or in their telling that you have? One that irks me is the theme of individualism vs collectivism. It is a complete spook. It only validates the incorrect idea that groups somehow take away a person's individuality, when the reverse is true. It is only through collectives that individuals can exist and function. From "The Right to be Greedy" "We can be individuals only socially. We can be social only individually,"
I'm still discovering what I like and dislike in terms of story writing and telling, but these are things that either get under my skin and lessens my enthusiasm, or I actively hate and avoid.
Dragged out romantic storylines.
I've come to greatly appreciate romance stories that are either established before the story begins or get started early on. Relationships are much more interesting when we actually get to see them. If you actively dawdle on getting a relationship started for no given reason, it gets real boring real fast.
Half a**ed LGBT+ Rep Treated as Something "Revolutionary"
People, it's 2021. We need to stop acting like LGBT+ people are this mysterious unknown species we'll never understand. They're exactly like the rest of society and it only takes the bare minimum effort to understand them, you just need to bother to try.
So if you're going to include LGBT+ characters in your story, you better treat them with the same level of care, respect, and justice you would give any other character in your story. They deserve to be treated as equals and not just there to serve as a "get out of jail free" card.
This is a recent trope that's been added to my sh*t list. If you write a story of an abuser and a victim where the victim has to be the one to forgive and forget and is forcibly gaslighted to not fight back, you have royally f*cked up and you need to reevaluate yourself.
In any story of abuse, the victim is not the one to blame. The only right thing to do is to see that the abuser faces the consequences for their actions and give the victim the justice they deserve. Doing anything else is the wrong answer.
Acting like Men Can't Be Victims of Abuse
Adding onto the last point, there's this trend of having men who have suffered abuse either not being acknowledged or being forced to just move past with no real resolution.
And I absolutely f*cking hate it.
It doesn't matter what age you are what gender you are or define as, anyone can be abused. And they all deserve to be taken seriously and given the help they need. Acting like men can't be abused and not bothering to listen to or assist them is not only disgusting, it's actively damaging. You're essentially telling men who haven't suffered an abusive relationship that if they ever get into one, they're basically f*cked and the only response they'll get is being told to just suck it up and get over it.
So here's a bit of advice: if a man tells you that they have been abused, you better give them the reaction, response, and reassurance you would give to a woman. And if you're going to represent abused men in your stories, you better treat them the same.
Those are my biggest pet peeves. The other things I avoid in my writing and what I read are more smaller issues and nitpick's that mostly boil down to potentially good ideas being executed poorly. I'll probably further elaborate on these another time since I have way more to say.
dededos
theartofmadeline
germansingergirl
snowghoul
gummygunk
yousharknotpass
