#tropes and prompts

[straight-to-the-pain]

Thinking about being prepared for what’s going to happen but still not being able to fully suppress your fear of it.

You know you’re about to be hurt, you’ve known that this might happen from the start, and you thought you’d be ready to face it.

But now you’re exposed, feeling the cold air on your skin, at the whims of someone else, completely in their hands, in their power. Maybe they’re holding something sharp, something electric, something you know will hurt but can’t quite imagine how yet.

You try to be brave but your heart is racing. You try to stay still but you flinch as they come nearer. You felt so sure before, as they dragged you into this room, but now you’re having to ask yourself: what if you can’t withstand it? What if it’s just too much to bear?

[darkplaceblankface]

Is Martha “violently Gen X” in the “Gen Z is cancelling Eminem!!! We’re the TOUGHEST generation! Gen X RISE UP!!!!” way or the “Back in my day, us kids had to hike to get to school… 👵” way?

Both. Martha Sanchez-Valentin (that’s her legal name, but everyone ignores it) was a latchkey kid and never got therapy for it. But latchkey in the way that her mother, Indie’s grandmother Fernanda, would disappear for multiple days on end. Fernanda was always on one bender or another, or frequently committed to rehabs or psychiatric wards. She was always hearing…voices. Voices that she didn’t have the ability to understand.

In Martha’s childhood, she had to fend for herself and her younger sister Maria for the most part. They were ultimate free range (translation: neglected) and Martha and Maria have the emotional and physical scars to show for it. Maria resents Martha for much of this, even if it wasn’t really her fault.

The Sanchez girls’ father Roberto had infrequent work as a migrant laborer, often out of state. Sometimes it wasn’t just work, perhaps visiting one mistress or another…to just get the hell away from Fernanda.

You could say Soledad, Indie’s great-grandmother, did her best, but was always busy working at a local factory. Soledad liked to work in loud places. The machines drowned out all the whispers, the whispers that asked her about the most horrible things.

Martha rationalizes her experience as “grit,” that has made her tougher than anyone. She was determined to have her children have everything better than she had it. Even if it meant being a little more “hands-on” than most. They just couldn’t understand! She gave up everything, a career, a purpose, to stay home and raise them. Arabella, Josie and Nicky seemed like such ingrates, for the way they cried and cursed about the tough love and sacrifices she gave them.

And Arabella was just so…stubborn. Her eldest had so many needs, and triggers, and sensitivities. That girl truly needed her guiding hand to make sure she didn’t end up like her grandmother.

Martha also legitimately believes that Gen Z is unoriginal and that they’re stealing all the trends she was into in the 90s. The hairstyles, the clothes. Really, everything. It’s like these girls are reenacting this frequent and violent dream she always had in her 20s, with all the white, the death, and people crushed beneath her heels.

[knebellindemann]

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

fanfic writing culture isn’t “oh dang! I wanted to write about this prompt with this character but someone else already wrote it, so now I can’t”.

fanfic writing culture is always “two cakes is better than one. the more the merrier. there can ever be enough fics of this character with this prompt!”

[out-of-jams]

REVERSE TROPE WRITING PROMPTS

Too many beds

Accidentally kidnapping a mafia boss

Really nice guy who hates only you

Academic rivals except it’s two teachers who compete to have the best class

Divorce of convenience

Too much communication

True hate’s kiss (only kissing your enemy can break a curse)

Dating your enemy’s sibling

Lovers to enemies

Hate at first sight

Love triangle where the two love interests get together instead

Fake amnesia

Soulmates who are fated to kill each other

Strangers to enemies

Instead of fake dating, everyone is convinced that you aren’t actually dating

Too hot to cuddle

Love interest CEO is a himbo/bimbo who runs their company into the ground

Nursing home au

[darkplaceblankface]

I’m talking in an echo chamber circlejerk here of “yuck men” (and I’m usually all for that) but I’ll bite.

I didn’t miss shit. The reason I started writing my WIP was because I was frustrated with the way women are portrayed in media and how violence against women is so normalized in mainstream everything.

Men so often don’t have the emotional intelligence to put themselves in a woman’s shoes. They’re never watching their words for fear of a woman assaulting them. Men aren’t investing in keychains with purple pepper spray, kitty themed brass knuckles and a cute little pouf to offset the look.

So I wanted to make something that could get through the thickest of skulls. It does.

In the lighter regard, I make the written version of putting other Avengers in Black Widow’s sexualised poses or that clip of Batman edited to do Catwoman’s mannerisms and slinky walk. Comically off putting.

In a darker sense, I always liked Bloodchild, Harrison Bergeron, and Unwind. Do you know why? The themes of bodily autonomy. The loss of control over decisions about your own flesh. A portrayal of the helplessness I often feel as my rights are stripped from me piece by piece. However, in those stories, for once, the men are the ones in distress too.

Men don’t always “get it.” So I wanted to explain in a way they could understand. It’s funny with reverse “locker room” talk all the way to some cosmic horror. I’d say I did a splendid job… from the amount of very male, very angry (but obviously deep down frightened and disturbed) comments I got last year in a writing challenge.

I flip everything on its head for the women in my writing as well. Some of them are extremely violent, cruel, and allowed to be evil for the sake of being evil. Women are so often reduced to being the “scorned woman” hurt by the man. I lead on with a semblance of that and then pull the rug out revealing that we’re always more complex than that.

the old master is a mother who used to be housewife and gets to take power in a way she believes she was always entitled to. She gets to trap her chauvinistic husband like he did her. She’s a master of her craft but she’s also a monster.

the combat hedonist is a literal red headed stepchild who gets to let out every bit of her Id.

I’ve got all the other reversed aforementioned tropes too because that’s literally what the story is about. “wEll iF the rOles weRe reVersEd?!?” is the key driving force.

It’s not that there are too many boys. It’s that there are too many poorly written boys, and one dimensional women. We can talk and yap all we like about what we want to see, but I challenge you to actually do something about it instead of complaining or coming at other people for having fun with an idea.

If you’re tired of something, make something fresh and different. I did, even if it’s just for me, for two people, or 200. I’m a new writer but I wanted to make something I had never seen before, something original. My point, which is the one YOU missed, is that you don’t have to put yourself in the Bechdel box, just try to be actually creative instead of critical.

TL; DR…It’s not that serious. The only point I missed is forgetting that people sometimes lack the ability to think beyond their own fixed interpretation of something. If you look outside of your narrow perspective on a simple and fun question, you might be able to write something pretty good, @eviefrie

there basically isn't a single established action archetype that you can't improve tenfold by making it a girl

[rae-butter]

Honestly, I love it when characters relapse. When someone who’s gotten over their anger issues falls into a situation so out of their depth they fall back on their old habits. When someone who’s learned to open up becomes a recluse again in order to cope with something outside their control.

There’s just something so horrible, so toxic, about watching a character grow and then slip back into their old selves in order to cope, bc you know they still care, that they’re the same inside, but watching them hurt so hard they don’t know what else to do brings a sense of catharsis.

[bebx]

reblog if you’ve read fanfictions that are more professional, better written than some actual novels. I’m trying to see something

[prokopetz]

You're a royal attendant slowly realising that you've lost track of which of the young princess' numerous anti-assassination body doubles is the real one. The royal portraits are so idealised that they look nothing like her, so you can't figure it out that way, and the Queen is a shitty absentee mom who doesn't remember what her own daughter looks like and routinely gets them mixed up, so she'd be no help even if you dared to ask. None of them will break character. You're beginning to suspect they're doing this on purpose.

[edwardcreel]

reblog if you believe fanfics are as valid as books that were published and sold by authors who write as their main careers. I'm trying to prove a point

[the-overanalyst]

it's always so fascinating and heartbreaking when a character in a story is simultaneously idolized and abused. a chosen prophet destined for martyrdom. a child prodigy forced to grow up too fast. a powerful warrior raised as nothing but a weapon. there's just something so uniquely messed up about singing someone's praises whilst destroying them.

[straight-to-the-pain]

‘I don’t know anything and genuinely I would tell you if I did because I can’t say I have any real loyalty to my cause nor do I care about their secrets enough to keep them’

VS

‘Not only do I not know anything that you’re asking me but if I did I wouldn’t ever tell you because I hate you that fucking much’

[darkplaceblankface]

Sorry if I missed this. How old are Bella and Jake? I assume they’re in like their 20s.

(ALSO WHY ARE THERE SO MANY INTERNET REFERENCES LMAO)

Yes! They are mid 20s. I wonder if I want to confirm exactly how old they are because their maturity level…fluctuates. For different reasons. They would be considered Zillenials.

I will say Josie is 22, and Aya is 21. Perfectly Gen Z.

Nicky is 18, but will turn 19 in story. KC is also 18. Gen Z-Alpha (skibidi rizz ohio)

Lin is 29. 😑 Lee is 27. James is 30. Very millennial.

Martha is 56. She’s violently Gen X…

For the references (hehe), I’m chronically online, and can you hate the characters for referring to the last trends they knew before the grid collapsed? 🤣🤣

[dying-crying-pining]

no when i say intimacy i mean one of us is bleeding out and the other is putting their entire body weight behind their hands to stop it

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

you know a fic is good when it has this

[just-prompt-things]

best trope and you can fight me over it (i abuse this so hard with my ocs)