Oh, gods, are we doing this again?
I swear, every single time...
Look, I'll try to put it small words so there's no doubt about my intention, and note that I'm not trying to insult anyone. I'm just tired of the same damn arguments coming up every bloody time I write something. Or for that matter, when anyone
else writes something that doesn't instagib everyone in sight.
Literary conflict
does not necessarily equal
battles. Literary
tension does not necessarily equal
shit constantly gets worse.
Both of these things
can be true, sure, but they don't
have to. A lot of people seem utterly unable to grasp this point.
A lot of people
also seem unable to grasp the point that
people like different things. A story that
I might think is very good is inevitably going to be one that
someone else is going to think is crap, and vice versa. It's just the way life works. Creative works are subjective. There is no one '
correct' way to write a story, or compose a song, or paint a picture. There is merely what the creator wants to do, and if some other people like it, wonderful.
When someone says "This story needs x" they almost always mean "
I would like this story to have x" and also miss the last few words of the first statement, which are "in my opinion." You're asking for a personalized story. That's fine, and if you approach an author and make it worth their while they'll probably
write you a personalized story. You'll find that a lot of other people will immediately complain that it's not done right and what
they want is
y. And so on.
But when someone is writing a story that's
not specifically done for you, you get what they write. If you're lucky they'll agree that some reader ideas are worth incorporating. Most of the time they'll just write the way they want to write.
That's how it works.
You're joining in on a trip to a destination someone else has set. Don't complain halfway there that you actually wanted to go to Disney World instead and everyone is being mean by not letting you
If you want a story where everyone dies horribly for stupid reasons, or gets maimed, or wreaks bloody vengeance on half the country, there are plenty of those. Hell, I've
written at least one like that. This story, at least so far since no one but me knows where it's going yet, isn't one of them. Neither is
Taylor Varga, which I'm fully aware annoys a lot of people who want to see blood on the walls and has become fashionable to hate for various reasons. If that's what you're into, fine and dandy, but expecting every story written to cater to that specific scenario is as pointless as expecting every story written to be soft and fluffy, and just as unreasonable.
I know that there are many fans of
Worm who can't understand why anyone would like a story that doesn't have some gruesome death every two chapters, and many people who are clearly stupid running around shooting each other in the face. Equally, there are many people who like some of the concepts from that story but want to
remove some of the gratuitous and frankly rather ridiculous idiot balls from play and see what happens. I'm clearly one of them, and there are lots of others.
Ultimately, when someone complains that a story isn't going the way they want and it should be changed
to go the way they want, it mostly comes off as a level of entitlement and, to be blunt, arrogance in assuming that they know better than everyone else what's correct. That may not be how it's
intended but it's often how it
reads. Clearly, there are a lot of people who enjoy my stories, if only going by the sheer number of likes and whatnot in various places. Just as clearly, there are a lot of people who hate everything I do. I can't change that, no matter what I actually write, and I don't actually care anyway.
You can't please everyone at the same time.
It says so right at the beginning of every story I post. I
wish people would read that, and
understand it. Then we might not have to have this same pointless argument in every thread
In the end, if I want to write a story featuring ultraviolence, I'll do it, and if I want to write a story that's character driven rather than situation driven, I'll do that instead. I may even do both at the same time. But complaining that any of them isn't exactly what you want will only get a shrug, this exposition, and the advice that if you don't like it why are you reading it?
🤷♂️
It's a zero sum game. Anyone I please will be matched by someone I displease. Much easier to simply ignore that and write a story I want to write, which is generally a story I'd like to read.
And if you really
want a story that does exactly what you want, there's absolutely nothing stopping you, whoever you are, from writing it. All you need is the ability to type and some imagination. Go wild, have fun, and in a very short time you too will have people bitching that you're doing it all wrong!
