I recently watched a video by someone who used to work at Penguin Random House and she said she saw someone using comic sans in their query letter! Imagine thinking that was a good idea!
.....I do want a story now about a girl who ends up finding solace at a cracker barrel cos she's so burnt out tho. That's just the most accurate experience it'd hurt so good. As someone who grew up in small dying towns I can confirm, if you're lucky sometimes you may have a local ice cream shop at best. MAYBE some people in the area will have little stands where they sell the stuff they grow or make so you might find a pie there, but there's almost no small town diners left in small towns. Best 'small town diner' pie I ever had was in a city. The diner definitely had that small town feel but those places just don't exist anymore in actual small towns. Not enough business to keep them afloat.
Recently stumbled on your challenge and I wish I had much sooner lol. I recently published my first book and I'm working making it into a series. In the sequel I have plans on killing several characters including a few from the main cast. But in terms of the side characters who I literally made to die, I'm trying to give them enough character so it doesn't feel like I just wrote this character to die lol. I need to show the cruelty and power of the villain during the big reveal. So this was a big help, thanks!
That point about small towns is the reason I dislike the song “try that in a small town” except it’s a slightly different context. He sings about how in the cities people “pull a gun on the owner of a liquor store. Hijack an old woman at a red light” and all sort of bad things. And then the punch line is “try that in a small town” as if plenty of small towns in America aren’t riddled with crime, gangs and violence.
"I cannot stand it when the love interest gives the main character an annoying pet name, right when they first met just to be a d1ck." Im 5 years late I know, but the main character gave the love interest the nickname "Freaky Practitioner" or "Mophead"
Great video with appropriate nuance. I love the fact that you acknowledge the grain of truth in masculine stereotypes, because most men DO conform to masculine norms to some degree-- its just that very few men conform to masculine norms across the board, and most (though not all) of those that seem to occupy this ideal are pretenders who are very broken on the inside.
That every time anyone(who knows me) has read anything of mine the knee jerk has been "Well you can tell you have some Mommy/Daddy issues. Do you think you need to talk to anyone about that?" To which I just blink at them. "Yeah that's not a secret to anyone including my Mom/Dad. It's also an extremely common plot device that I was utilizing on purpose. What did you think of the rest of the story?" "Eh it was alright. It was good."
There's definitely some folks who think it's a flex to shit on someone's good reads. It's a weird power trip. Not sure if that's niche but it did scare me away from her work at first
I'm glad get reviews picked up. I liked her RU-vid channel but a lot of the negative book reviews she had at first really shook my confidence in her. I also returned with some perspective and there's definitely a group on good readers who shit on her for no actual reason
That costume makes it look like you're always shrugging. And it tires out my shoulders/neck in sympathy. You know how the lice episodes of Invader Zim and Bob's Burgers can make people itch? I've got that right now but with muscle strain. I think magic tattoos are fine, even tribal ones (as long as the person with them is, you know, actually tribal), but that they work best in non-contemporary settings. I'm writing a smutty story where in passing it's mentioned that her tribe gets their first solo hunt commemorated as a coming-of-age thing; it doesn't really do much, but it does glow when she gets blessed by the witch-priestess on her wedding day. This is very much a Heroic/Migration Age type setting, not a modern one.
I agree depending on the location of the story. Like iv made a story of my home town were non white people (at the time of story/my child hood) was 1 family maby 2 per town. Everyone was white and straight (or pretending to be) if I was to do same now every other charter would be gay or trans
So many villains are disabled and it used to really upset me as a kid. Because the only time a person like me was in on screen was as the villain. The first time I ever saw someone in a wheelchair on screen they were a Bond villain. You don't have to make all your characters disabled or gay or any other minority but if the only character in your entire story that is a minority is the bad guy what does that say? That shows exactly how you see us. The other, the different, the bad guy. I say this as a writer myself btw, don't give me all that "it's not that deep" bull, the way you code a villain is by giving them differential features that quickly distingish them from the hero. If what you use to code a villain is them being disabled or gay or black it says about you exactly what everyone thinks it does.
THEE worst outfit comes from, none other than Twilight! Not Bella's long khaki skirt, but Edward's white button down SLEEVELESS shirt. 😂 Yanked me right out of the story to try and justify it in my head.
Definitely agree! There are so many times when i’ve been completely turned off from reading things due to these biases showing up and destroying an otherwise unique plot 😅
I have a soulmate bond in my fantasy world and I had to search for a new name. I decided on Kindred, because I didn't want it to be an inherently romantic relationship
Gross? Shes telling the truth😂😂 And what i mean is that people notice when you have a bias, they notice racism/sexism/whatever you get the gist. As the writer, you dont have control over how people interpret your stuff to the current social political climate, but you have control over how you present your characters to the world
@@taylorbechstein1681 not sure why writers should be required to add “racially diverse” characters for the sake of realism of society, yet would be called “racist” for having those characters behave in ways that are literally accurate according to real world documented statistics. Liberal logic
I gotta say, I love your vids. This is not a rant. It's snarky fun from someone actually living in Smalltown USA. The basis of BFE Vill. [Nobody in their right mind wants to move here. Everybody wants out] Things to do in Smalltown USA? Yeah... Wal-Mart [nope, not in 'city limits'], Dollar Tree, Dollar General - legit. AppleBees? Pfff... not here. That's the next town over. Best place to eat in town? Tickets [a little pub] or Uno, Doce, Trace [a little Mexican place that opened about 6 months ago] beyond that, it's McDonalds, Wendy's Arby's, KFC or Taco Bell. Maybe Subway. Let's see... places to go: antique shops, a comic shop and its sister gaming shop [D&D, Warhammer oriented], the library [gasp] and Foy's. Three blocks of Foy's Halloween five & dime. We have been labeled the Halloween Capital of the nation. The biggest things to do? The block parties. Hairborn [small-time bands] - the Halloween Block Party. 3 days of vendors and thousands of people clustered downtown. Dr. Creep used to haunt that event before his unfortunate passing. He was a good friend.
So, im going to say no because not all writers have the skill to write every type of person well. Ive seen enough stories try to force things they dont understand into the plot and it takes away from the story.
I agree, except then the villains should all be from that same viewpoint too, right? Why would you be able to write from the perspective of a person outside of your experience only when they’re evil?
A note about #9: The reason monsters in horror movies jump out at the characters so often is to mimic big cats, which were natural predators of humans for most of our existence.
See my main character is scared of goats and sheep. But he always makes a point of saying 'they freak me out. But i would never deliberately hurt one. I'd be too busy crying in a fetal position.'
true but sometimes it really just isn't that deep, i try my best to make sure theres a good amount of representation and i still end up making bad decisions for characters sometimes.
