How (Not) To Be A Fantasy Heroine Q&A 

Have you ever watched the Lizzie Bennett diaries? They were such a great thing here on RU-vid with Elizabeth Bennett as a American grad student doing a vlog.

...entirely coincidentally, /r/swordlady subreddit just grew a [FANFICTION] post flair.

@@RecklessFables I was thrilled to discover the Lizzie Bennet Diaries through this channel! Jill has a video essay about it-- she has a whole playlist of Pride and Predjudice movies! 😁

That is indeed coincidental… 🤣

I'm looking forward to the scene when Caroline finally submits this to an editor and has to explain to Rosamund why she is redoing some of the old scenes.

I'm hoping for terrible stick on mustache 🤞

Asbolute gold. This is brilliant.

Oh, I was hoping to see her husband 🙈

@@sweetsandcharades8383 With a terrible stick on mustache?

@@thatHARVguy That would be absolutely brilliant!

I’m pretty sure there’s a joke somewhere about how she keeps renaming things 😂

@@JillBearup So that's why she focused on Caroline calling her hot enemy Leo. Either she didn't yet came up with a name, or she just kept changing it.

Me: *writes a beautiful and moving romance scene that makes everyone cry * Also me: I'm gonna name the bad guy Murderous McStabby.

I've been writing a series set in a realm where magic exists and the Seven Deadly Sins have corporeal form. Where is this wondrous place? It's called...The Realm.

I've been planning a few D&D sessions and all my notes are filled with "Dwarf captain named (?)" And "Dragonborn priest named (?)" becuase I've got no idea what to call them

Impossible. Tropes are all-encompassing. But... It could be fun if Leo is just as aware of these tropes, and starts ruthlessly mocking them in the text, while somehow being unaware of Caroline or that he's in a story. Like, for example, the author tries to desperately set up a situation where they have to pretend to be husband and wife to please Leo's mother, who is an enormously influential woman who can easily secure Rosamund's children's inheritance, but won't help her unless she sees her son finally settle down and start giving her grandchildren, and Leo starts talking about how unbelievably contrived the situation is. And Rosamund sees him doing this and starts mocking Caroline for writing fiction so badly that even her unaware characters think her writing is bad, and then they bond over the madness of life and fall in love...Thus restoring things to the tropes and vindicating the author.

@@elettramelodia8990 I REALLY like this idea!

@@elettramelodia8990 You. Are. Brilliant.

Rosemund is best man at Leo's wedding to his long-term lover Nigel?

„The diary of a fed up fantasy heroine“

Very much in the vein of genre-savvy semi-romances like Patricia Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles, or more satirical works like Diana Wynne Jones' "Tough Guide to Fantasyland"! Not to mention the revered Sir Terry and his works which sometimes seemed to have a whole novellas worth if subplot happening in the extensive footnotes 😏

@@annastevens1526 Yeah, the late Sir Terry Pratchett's epic footnotes might be somewhat of an acquired taste, but I love them.

@@Vyrlokar I miss Sir Terry, the world is a darker place.

This has form! Dicken's "Pickwick Papers", Sterne's "Tristram Shandy" and on and on...

I can definitely see the 2 personalities in this comment, and I love it (and I also do something similar from time to time, so that plays a part🤣)

@@theanicolesallustio4377 writer's delusions

Sounds like my favorite movie, Stranger than Fiction 😁

Kudos to Leo for not thinking of a sanatorium/ asylum, because those are evil. (Is he over the knives yet? Seriously, what a control freak. Surely it's self-evident that a gentlewoman does not discuss with a man what she's wearing under her dress?)

@@ajjones8013 That is one of my absolute favorites as well. I wish Will Ferrell would do more dramatic roles like that. He was surprisingly good at it.

I don't often do this, but: LOL! =^[.]^=

I can testify of this truth. 🤔 There's nothing quite like a self-insertion fanfic. Nothing else compares, although whether that's a positive or negative reflection of that genre is entirely up to the reader...

Let's Rosamund off the hook!

Caroline DID seem pretty interested to learn the hot enemy's name was Leo....there might be some budding romance there!

@@backyardrebel2149 Swap places and turn the story into a cheap romance novel?

Briefly confused Yes, Minister with The Vicar of Dibley and was very perplexed

Especially considering that Yes, Minister is my favourite TV series 😁. I love these references!

I agree, tropes are just tools. All fiction has it's tropes, it's just hard to see when it's good fiction

@@scruffy_jobe alternatively, tropes that are well executed enhances the story.

We can be pretentious and call them "archetypes".,

Bumping this up so more people see it.

Very helpful! Thank you!!

Also, watch the compilation she's making! It's a video

I'll watch the shorts to get the allround views up (shorts is how I got to this channel as well) and then the compilation video when it's done :D

I honestly think that this story is extremely well suited for this format and doesn't necessarily need to become a novel. I will say though, with the recent released bits of text I'm certain I would enjoy it

A LOT of classic novels were 1st published serially. When you see those Victorian doorstop books the original readers were getting it in installments.

He published in magazines mainly. His stories were the soap operas of the day. It was only later they were collated into books (box sets?)

I remember reading about how Charles Dickens let one of his books ramble for ages because it was so popular, and he would even add in chapters based on fan letters. Sort of like how I used to add chapters to my fanfics based on special requests, really good questions that I never thought to flesh out, or someone cracking a guess at the plot and I was like, "That's actually quite brilliant, I'm gonna steal that and pretend they're a smart reader for predicting my next move."

In school I was confused when my attempts to emulate the long winded style of Dickens were described as "too wordy". He certainly used 12 words where one would have done. I suspect he was paid by the word!

He was paid by the word, iirc.

"Caroline S. Ursa" - (for those of us who have been here since this was all fields)

If you ever do publish. I also like the pen name of " Caroline Something" ( Maybe with Cheese as the middle name)

@@duanebouchard8736 Caroline Brie Kerrygold

Pratchettian is perfect, thank you.

Wasn’t it Caroline Lindley?

People who complain about tropes existing and being used must never read or consume any fiction I'm assuming, since most fiction is tropes galore. Especially genre fiction, but literary works are not exempt. Every piece of fiction uses some kind of trope in it. Even if only to subvert or lampshade it (which are both also tropes on their own).

Agreed. I really think the biggest issue with tropes is actually often just the inability of READERS to see romantic metaphor as, um, metaphor? For instance, I love enemies-to-lovers tropes like crazy, but only because I see it as a metaphor for just 'learning to get along - don't judge a book by it's cover, people can change'; I actually would be sceptical about applying it to a real-life romance for myself (or anyone I knew). I keep that mentality, learned though it may be from romances, more for friends and acquaintances and teenage students who ACT like monsters (Beauty and the Beast and definitely The Taming of the Shrew should be required training manuals for any secondary school staff member). But using the romantic imagery in the fiction makes a deeper impact and gets the message across more strongly, because, you know, it's what the people want.

"It can happen, yes it happens. It's not just a phrase, in stories and plays, Yes it's real, and it's happened... to me!" - 'Love at First Sight', from the film adaptation of Puss in Boots

Rascal Does Not Dream of Petite Devil Kohai

@@tedweird That is not a reference I ever expected to see… pretty much ever. So, thanks for surprising me!

@@aionicthunder I watched the anime, fell in love with it, and got all 7 of the light novels (in English) within a few weeks. Hadn't read any LNs before

Truly inevitable

LMAO welcome to the internet

So...would that be CoraMund or RosaLine?

@@beckymurphy4714 CaroMund. Totally here for this.

Rule 34 strikes again.

I can't find it 😟 Do you know the title. I Googled Nora Roberts book on writing and all her fiction stuff is popping up and some interviews.

I'd be curious about the title of this book too, if you can remember it?

Exactly what I want to know! I thought I'd read everything she ever wrote since I discovered her books in 1989!

I'd love to know this too if anyone knows the title, sounds interesting!

Stephen King's "On Writing" is really good too.

I always say a cliche only became a cliche because they are so often true! Of course, creative geniuses can think outside the box and take it to the next level, but tropes are nice on a level we can all relate to.

I have uploaded it to the tiktocks, but that doesn’t pay terribly well 😁

Go rip your own bodices! Or don’t, because that’s a waste of a perfectly good bodice…

@@JillBearup It is, indeed! Besides, I've always wondered how they manage to rip the whole thing in two with just one tug. Because, there are usually _layers_. Unless you're getting un-bodiced by Hercules himself, I don't see how any one could rip through, let's say a silk gown, structured, possibly boned undergarments and a linen shift. Oh no, wait, scratch that. We don't wear linen shifts.

I just LOVE this 😍. I could simply never reconcile developing a passionate romantic bond with someone who shows 0 respect for your gorgeous clothes, or the fact that they're inconsiderately making so much work for you by ripping them! How are you going to have any fun thinking about all the extra mending you'll have the next day? Give me a guy like Leo who makes tea and can actually sew himself (at least as well as an eleven-year-old) any day.

@@JillBearup I would find it much funnier if a scene led up like it was going to be a "bodice ripper", but cut to the other party considerately spending 15 minutes at least cursing under his breath while he tries to get the protagonist out of her layers in an orderly fashion without damaging anything. Points for it taking even longer than getting into the outfit, if he is not familiar with that style of formal wear, or such. Also, if we are talking royalty, or the like, there is a good chance that the lady can not put the outfit back on by herself, and had several maids help her into it in the first place, which makes covering up that something happened much more challenging. Though it would be very amusing if some rogues have developed the skill to get ladies re-dressed, not in defense of their reputations, but rather in defense of their own hides.

@@eolhinforest7736 haha this is a great idea, I want to see this or read this in something one day! Love it. 👌

Thank you, this has been bothering me

I also wondered about that. I put it down to temporary irrational personal insecurity, which every writer appears to inflict on their character at times, I assume as a form of self-projection.

I think all tropes need a healthy dose of self-parody to be palatable. Making fun of something not because you dislike it, but because you DO like it and don't want to ruin it by taking it too seriously. I never take anything too seriously. My favourite comedy is The Mikado, which is all about not taking executions too seriously. Seriously.