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megwritesA good post about how pain and trauma are not romantic, but rather boring and also painful. All you writers, listen up and take notes. Because this is important.
Good writers are going to have occasion to traumatize their characters, either on or off screen. Learning how to manage that in your writing so it doesn't breed distrust in your readers (and yes, bad portrayals of pain and trauma inevitably will break the trust of the reader) is vital.
This goes back to one of the elements of Urban Fantasy that I'm quite fed up with. Using trauma as a character flaw or quirk doesn't cut it. It rings false for me in 99% of the books I read.
I have such a hard time articulating why. I still haven't dredged up the right words to explain why it is that when I see these things on a page in front of me, I totally unplug. I can't explain what sets off the Bullshit Detector, but it's there. It's real. It affects my reading choices.
I think it amounts to a feeling of being insulted that someone expects me to believe that pain is beautiful. People who think that either have the wrong definition of beauty or the wrong definition of pain. Possibly both. And I wonder if those who say those things have experienced either.
Good writers are going to have occasion to traumatize their characters, either on or off screen. Learning how to manage that in your writing so it doesn't breed distrust in your readers (and yes, bad portrayals of pain and trauma inevitably will break the trust of the reader) is vital.
This goes back to one of the elements of Urban Fantasy that I'm quite fed up with. Using trauma as a character flaw or quirk doesn't cut it. It rings false for me in 99% of the books I read.
I have such a hard time articulating why. I still haven't dredged up the right words to explain why it is that when I see these things on a page in front of me, I totally unplug. I can't explain what sets off the Bullshit Detector, but it's there. It's real. It affects my reading choices.
I think it amounts to a feeling of being insulted that someone expects me to believe that pain is beautiful. People who think that either have the wrong definition of beauty or the wrong definition of pain. Possibly both. And I wonder if those who say those things have experienced either.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-30 02:04 pm (UTC)Basically. Because you never see the really smart, savvy writers doing this crap. It's always the not so savvy ones, yanno?
I say it makes you stranger.
Yes, THANK YOU. THIS. THIS X 1000.
Why is it you can articulate the things that I just can't seem to get to come out of my mouth. Is it because you are made of Grade A awesome? Is it because you are smarter than EVERYONE ELSE I KNOW? Maybe both?
We don't know, it's a mystery.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-30 02:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-30 10:06 pm (UTC)