(no subject)
I think my absolutely biggest pet peeve in writing is when the major conflict is miscommunication. Don't get me wrong - I think it's terribly realistic, this idea of two people that maybe love each other but are unable to get it out in the open. But if your entire plot can be resolved by Character A pulling his head out of the ground and saying two sentences to Character B, something's wrong. I think I just read it so often as a middle-schooler (Sarah Dessen, coughs pointedly) and in fanfiction that I'm just completely 100 percent sick of it. I'm also fed-up with this plot scheme of:
1. Two characters meet
2. Flirt
3. After some minor problems, get together
4. MISCOMMUNICATION.
5. Break-up
6. Get back together in the last chapter
7. La-de-da, happy epilogue
Unbelievable frustration from this little formulaic writing. Again, don't get me wrong - I've seen it done right. But I've also seen it done wrong a thousand and one times. Is it so much to ask for for the major conflict to be something that takes more than two seconds to fix? It can still be miscommunication, but at least one of the characters should be aware that this is the problem. Having two clueless main characters make such a boring read.
Also, I was talking to one of my friends yesterday at dinner and she brought up something incredibly important: What is the point of epilogues? I understand its to stretch out the story, to give the reader a glimpse of what happened later... Yeah. I get that. But we were talking about it, and I just sort of realized that it usually completely weakens the main plot of the story. Too often, we get this clean, wrap-it-up epilogue where the main character is so far from the rest of the action in the story that it almost seems irrelevant. These are sort of pointless musings, but I'm still off Tumblr for Lent, and Reddit just doesn't allow for musings. Hmm.
1. Two characters meet
2. Flirt
3. After some minor problems, get together
4. MISCOMMUNICATION.
5. Break-up
6. Get back together in the last chapter
7. La-de-da, happy epilogue
Unbelievable frustration from this little formulaic writing. Again, don't get me wrong - I've seen it done right. But I've also seen it done wrong a thousand and one times. Is it so much to ask for for the major conflict to be something that takes more than two seconds to fix? It can still be miscommunication, but at least one of the characters should be aware that this is the problem. Having two clueless main characters make such a boring read.
Also, I was talking to one of my friends yesterday at dinner and she brought up something incredibly important: What is the point of epilogues? I understand its to stretch out the story, to give the reader a glimpse of what happened later... Yeah. I get that. But we were talking about it, and I just sort of realized that it usually completely weakens the main plot of the story. Too often, we get this clean, wrap-it-up epilogue where the main character is so far from the rest of the action in the story that it almost seems irrelevant. These are sort of pointless musings, but I'm still off Tumblr for Lent, and Reddit just doesn't allow for musings. Hmm.