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Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025

4:40am EST

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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:

S 🤦

a day ago
In response to "20250210 Science Fiction Tropes I Dislike"

Patience, padawan...

1 Like

Ms. TerrifyingTuber

Feb 10, 2025 at 12:36am
In response to "20250210 Science Fiction Tropes I Dislike"

Are there any Sci-Fi tropes that work well in your opinion?

S 🤦

Jan 31, 2025 at 2:25am
In response to "20250131 Mythological Or Legendary Creatures As Cliché"

Ms. TerrifyingTuber - This is mainly Western dragons because those are the ones that feature most in books. That was the idea of this - looking at creatures that have become cliche in books. As for Eastern dragons, around 50-50 good-evil. And Native American beliefs had very few dragons, so calling them good or evil was difficult.

2 Like

Ms. TerrifyingTuber

Jan 31, 2025 at 1:45am
In response to "20250131 Mythological Or Legendary Creatures As Cliché"

Interesting, so most of the characteristics for dragons listed in this entry were more typical of western/European style dragons. In Eastern and Native American folklore their dragons can be benevolent. Are often associated with rain, rivers or the ocean and sometimes have antlers. Or so I've heard in the folk tales I've read.

But anyways, thanks to the textile industry and weird obsessions from the 80s and 90s, the Eastern Dragon has probably been overused.

1 Like

tj wanderlust-words-in-motion

Jan 27, 2025 at 2:18pm
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

Jan 27, 2025 at 11:28am
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

Jan 27, 2025 at 10:15am
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

Jan 27, 2025 at 5:03am
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.

February 12, 2025 at 1:30am

#1083732

20250212 Science Fiction Tropes I Like

Science Fiction Tropes I Like

So, after dumping on science fiction tropes recently, I am now going to talk about the genre’s tropes I like, ones that I feel can still work, whether played straight or if subverted. I’ve done this with horror, and now it’s science fiction’s turn. As before, all of these have been used for many, many years, and yet they can still be utilised today without an issue, I feel.

1. The world becomes a dystopia
The reason I like this one is that is seems all so real. I can imagine our current world falling into a dystopia, for example. And many writers are showing this dystopia in increasingly intriguing and different ways. I think there is always going to be some way to include this in writing. As for utopias, though… well…
Dystopias include things like increased government surveillance, everything being forced to happen online, post-nuclear wastelands, hyper police states, and all other manner of the world having gone to shit. Let your imagination run free.

2. Enhanced humans
This is when we attach bits of hardware to a human to make them more than human. Or maybe less than human? Is there such a thing as body cyber-dismorphia? See, these are the sorts of things that can still make the cyborg feel fresh. Writers are going into the psychology of this, and when does one cease to be human?

3. AI and/or robots taking over
This was becoming a tired trope, but with modern scientific advancements now spurring on even more creativity, it is once again a source of something science fiction does well – warn us. Some writers have even looked at it through a positive lens. There is so much scope now that we have a clearer idea of where it is heading in reality.

4. Alternate universes/ We’re in a simulation
This is something I am interested in, and can lead to alternate history tales ("20240912 Alternate History"

), moving through worlds tales (The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter) or even philosophical stories. I don’t think the well has run dry yet, although Marvel and DC and their multiverses became tedious in the comics last century, and are now tedious on the screen, so you may need to be careful if using that concept.
I included the “we are in a simulation” here (see The Matrix) because this has not yet been beaten to death. It is really hard to write, though, so that might be why.

5. Travelling long distances
Be that through faster than light travel (FTL) (which is technically possible, but only if you can jump over the speed of light itself), wormholes, cryo-sleep capsules, whatever, the possibilities for travelling vast distances of space have not gone out of fashion because they are needed for science fiction to actually work. And as technology shows us more and more what is possible or potentially possible, this means of travelling is growing increasingly sophisticated.

So, there you are, 5 simple science fiction tropes that are as good now as they ever were.
Hope something sparks your imagination!

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