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Friday, Feb. 7, 2025

4:57am 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 🤦

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.

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

February 7, 2025 at 1:16am

#1083450

20250207 Horror Tropes I Like

Horror Tropes I Like

I have done a bit of dumping on tropes in some recent posts, so here, to go the other way, are some tropes that I feel can work in the horror genre, whether played straight or subverted. 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 old tome of doom
It could be a book in a hidden room in an old university, it could be the ramblings of an old relative in a diary, it could be the runes carved into the skull of a long-dead sacrifice, or (nowadays) a strange website with a ‘.death’ domain name, but finding something that when read unleashes a nastiness upon the reader is never going to get old, especially as the ways we read changes all the time. It could be a demon coming, a curse inflicted, or insanity produced, but the reading that causes it is still there.

2. Summoning an evil
Going from that last one is the deliberate summoning rite or ritual. Hell, my book Sins Of The Fathers is based on that very conceit! Finding the old book or the transcription online, and then using it to summon and attempt to control a demon, and then that demon being out of control until the words of the book are used to reign it in is something that is always fun to experiment with.

3. The strange neighbour, new or old
Urban horror is always a good go-to because it is the mundane, the normal, our own lives, being turned upside down. And having the creepy, weird neighbour is a good way of doing that. It could be the old guy who’s always lived at number 23, or the new young woman with no apparent boyfriends who moved into the house next to Mr Wilkins. They might even end up being a force for good, but that stranger in our midst trope works so well.
This can be extended to the new kid at school, the new work-mate, the new resident in the aged care facility, anything. Always a stranger, always weird.

4. The old abandoned building
Most places have one. It might be a house no-one has lived in for decades, a shop that hasn’t been used for years, a mall that was left to wrack and ruin, a used car yard, a motel, a pub, a wheat dispersement office and silo (where I live), anything. And anything could be in there – dangerous animals, dangerous people, dangerous supernatural entities. And there are so many different buildings that can be abandoned – and so many more are being let go as the world’s economy tanks – that the writer (film-maker, whatever) can have a ball making these new places and their unique nooks and crannies worthy of a horror tale.

5. The monster on the loose
The mythical creature come to life (see my own book Invasive Species), the force of nature attacking (see Jaws), the horrific mutation going full-on Nicholas Cage (see Piranha 2: Flying Killers), or the man-made monster doing man-made monster things (see Frankenstein) have all been used to great effect over the years. Well, we now have a new twist – the genetic mutation created in a laboratory. A wolverine crossed with a sheep to make it hardier and more readily able to defeat predators? Scientists after money (no longer “mad”, just “greedy” – see the Indominus Rex from Jurassic World) will do anything… and your imagination is the only barrier.

So, there we are, 5 horror tropes that have been used for years, and yet still have a lot of gas in the tank.
Happy writing!

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