Search where?

This Portfolio (steven-writer)

All of Writing.Com

◄ January ►
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30	31
Archive				RSS

Create New Item

Read & Review

Community

Browse By Type

Browse By Genre

Writing Resources

Monday, Jan. 27, 2025

8:56pm EST

Members: 892

Guests: 3,736

Total Online: 4,628

Writing Blog Number 2

by S 🤦

Rated: 18+ · Book · Personal · #2311764

This is a continuation of my blogging here at WdC

This will be a blog for my writing, maybe with (too much) personal thrown in. I am hoping it will be a little more interactive, with me answering questions, helping out and whatnot. If it falls this year (2024), then I may stop the whole blogging thing, but that's all a "wait and see" scenario.

An index of topics can be found here: "Writing Blog No.2 Index"

Feel free to comment and interact.

Show Recent Comments

10 Most Recent Blog Comments:

tj wanderlust-words-in-motion

about 7 hours ago
In response to "20250127 List Of Bad Tropes"

Similarly, minimum workers who drive an expensive, new car and travel overseas, stay in high end hotels, etc...

Kissing in the rain? My wife and I had attended a street dance many years ago that had been moved inside the Fire Hall because it was raining. It was hot and humid, about 39^oC with a relative humidity in the upper 90% range. They had the overhead doors open and fans, but with all the people it was stifling, so we stepped outside the doors and danced in the soft, light, and slightly cooling rain.

I agree, however, they use kissing in the rain way too often, and it's usually in a cold downpour.

1 Like

Jayne

about 9 hours ago
In response to "20250127 List Of Bad Tropes"

Basically agree, except #12. There's a reason women cut their hair after leaving awful relationships. There's a reason women cut off their hair as a middle finger to society. Ask around and see how many women with short hair have been told they're cute but would look cuter if they grew their hair out. Why do we need to look cute? Why can't we have a style that makes us feel fierce?

Not all women, of course. It's not that wide of a brush. But for some women, absolutely empowering and does result in a different outlook and demeanor. As to having a hairstyle that won't get in the way - yeah, that's part of it.

I freely admit I'm part of the empowered brigade. Fierce jet-black pixie-cut bed-head I-don't-care-if-you-think-women-should-have-long-locks mention-it-at-you-own-peril hair.

Not directed at you. But it's mind-boggling how many strangers still call it 'brave' or ask 'why did you do that?'

My least favorite is, "Oh, I wish I could do that. My husband/boyfriend/partner would throw a fit." I don't usually say anything, because it's not my place to say, "Get a new partner."

If you feel it's overused, that's fine. But it's definitely one of the more believable ones and has a valid reason for sticking around.

2 Like

Ms. TerrifyingTuber

about 11 hours ago
In response to "20250127 List Of Bad Tropes"

The way you phrased number 11 in this list really made me giggle. Although I agree, it is a really annoying trope.

1 Like

Dave Ryan

about 16 hours ago
In response to "20250127 List Of Bad Tropes"

There was a comedy sketch show in the UK in the late 90s called The Fast Show, where the sketches each week used recurring characters. They had fun with trope 2 in a series of spoof trailers - "coming soon to the BBC, a brand new drama series":

John Actor is a tough, uncompromising cop

.
John Actor is a tough, uncompromising doctor

.
John Actor is a tough, uncompromising vet

.

and so on, and it was all the same ridiculous cliched crap every time.

2 Like

Kåre เลียม Enga

Jan 23, 2025 at 1:02am
In response to "20250122 Romance Tropes That Annoy Me"

As Quilli ☕ said, "we've seen it all before". It becomes boring.

The Thai BL industry overdid 'enemies to friends' except perhaps "Bad Buddy" where the parents were the true enemies and the two main characters struggled with their childhood secretive friendship becoming much closer. Personally, I've had friendships that had rocky starts, and that's common.

The 6 you mention may exist in reality... as do unicorns and dragons...

Quilli ☕

Jan 22, 2025 at 7:17am
In response to "20250122 Romance Tropes That Annoy Me"

Great entry! Most of these annoy the hell outta me, too. I think some tropes, regardless of genre, bug folks who do a lot of reading, like us. Often while watching a movie with my husband, I goran and tell him that it's too predictable and then tell him how things will go down - because we've seen it all before.

Adherennium - Maybe Writing?

Jan 20, 2025 at 2:52am
In response to "20250120 Utilising Peter's Evil Overlord List"

What if Sceleratus exercised his royal prerogative with some Palace maid, who on discovering her pregnancy has a fair idea what will happen to her if Sceleratus finds out, disappears. Son grows up, overthrows the father. If the mother dies in childbirth without revealing the father, you can avoid the more obvious plot lines.

Adherennium - Maybe Writing?

Jan 17, 2025 at 5:56am
In response to "20250117 My Most Hated Tropes"

Trope 2 above is a staple of all British soap operas. The thread weaves its tedious way to the inevitable line, "We've got to talk." Whereupon the misunderstanding that has spawned fire, murder, theft, adultery and more is explained and resolved. Till next time. I'd personally rate this my least favourite of the three, but they are all terrible.

4 Like

Kåre เลียม Enga

Jan 13, 2025 at 2:17am
In response to "20250113 Vocabulary Matters"

Hmm... Thai:

ใจดี heart-good 'kind-hearted'
ดีใจ good-heart 'happy' translates as 'delighted'

I use these two words to make the contrast between heart-good and good-heart.

But:

ความสุข 'happiness'
มีความสุข have happiness 'be happy'

ความ changes a verb into a noun. รัก 'love' is a verb. ความรัก is the noun.

The structure of the language is different and it's very easy to mistranslate as so much is contextual. On top of 5 or 6 tones there's 'tone' (attitude) as how it is said and to whom can change the meaning. Body language and knowing what is the proper exchange is also a key to what is going on. Loses so much in translation!

Audio-visual media is a delight though as Thais are expressive.

Subtitles work if the translator is fluent in both languages and culture. Yet, even then, both make distinctions that the other language does not.

So... in using a word or two a knowledgeable writer might get away with it; but, everything should be checked with a native speaker.

Same with English dialects and slang by-the-way. Street language has it's own vocabulary and grammar. And then there's jargon... which is why so many PhDs and Powerful-People can't hold a conversation. They literally do not know the common language.

As an aside: why do I think you should write in Australian? Because that's authentic. Maybe provide a translation into English, Irish or American... Or submit the translation as "translated from Australian". Always keep an Australian original copy. Your voice matters.

[Visit the entry for more...]

Elisa: Snowman Stik

Jan 10, 2025 at 9:32am
In response to "20250110 The 'Of' Naming Trope"

Would you consider City of God to be a Thing of Thing example? (Note: this movie is a far cry from sci-fi/fantasy.)

January 27, 2025 at 12:05am

#1082846

20250127 List Of Bad Tropes

List Of Bad Tropes

And I will continue to dump on some tropes because I am having fun doing it.
These, though, are just in list form, things I hate in writing, be that books, films or TV.

1) The very attractive, rather smart, hard-working, physically fit woman married to an ignorant man-child who can’t even remember birthdays. And do we ever see this reversed? No! Because TV writers are men and this is their Gary Stu insert!
2) A detective who doesn’t play by the rules but is tolerated because he solves crimes and never gets pinged for his bad behaviour by ethics people/ HR or taken to court or sees convictions over-turned.
3) Minimum wage workers who can afford mortgages on large houses or rent on huge apartments. Plus food, kids, holidays, a couple of cars…
4) The father who encourages his son to be a stereotypical frat-boy with no regard for the rules, especially with regards to the opposite sex, but pulls a shotgun on any male who so much as looks at his daughter.
5) Bad guys with a British accent, always dressed immaculately.
6) Mental illness (depression et al.) being seen as sexy and being fixed by the love of a beautiful member of the opposite sex.
7) Villains who don’t appear until the Third Act. Especially egregious when the person we thought was the villain was barely a lackey.
8) Kissing in the rain after a fight or as a first kiss. Kissing in the rain, full stop. It’s cold and unsexy.
9) Everything is a simulation. Yeah, I saw Tron, too… oh, and The Matrix.
10) Bad girls with a Russian accent, always dressed sexily, with slicked-back hair.
11) The characters who need rescuing are female. Always female. No matter how strong, they still need rescuing. Males? Let ‘em die, I guess.
12) A woman cutting her long hair off indicates becoming powerful and self-assured… not having a hairstyle that will now get in the way all the time.
13) “The nerdy guy loser falls in love with the manic pixie dream girl, and she soon falls for him as well.” (Stole this one, but I agree.)
14) The apparently senile person saying something so profound the story hinges on it (see Parenthood). Everything else they say is insane, by the way. But one moment of lucidity and they are Socrates incarnate.
15) Feminist women who fall in love with misogynistic arseholes. This is just an extension of number 1, but it really grates on me.

And these are some of my personal gripes in writing. Sure, some might be based too much in realty, and some of them might even work in one or two cases, but most… don’t.
And I am sure abuse is to follow.

3 Like • Comment • View 4 comments

Printed from https://www.writing.com/main/profile/blog/steven-writer/day/1-27-2025