Brief Thoughts
A collection of thoughts too short to write entire articles about yet.
If you plan to hook up two regular characters, build up the romance on screen/on page. People really hate it when you throw a romance out of left field.
It's okay just to give people what they want sometimes. It's okay to write a fantasy without subverting or deconstructing everything. It's okay to have a vampire romance. It's okay to have cute little fairies that aren't secretly maneating monsters. It's okay just to let people have fun.
"That's how it's always been done in this series/genre" is no excuse to keep doing something that is incredibly offenseive or just plain ridiculous.
Christian literature by the likes of Jerry Jenkins sickens me. The only reason his characters do anything good is to win/keep the approval of the man upstairs. Empathy never enters the picture. It's like all of these characters are sociopaths and narcissists on short leashes.
For the millionth time, an "interesting" name is NOT GOING TO MAKE YOUR CHARACTER ANY MORE INTERESTING OR MEMORABLE. Good characterization will make your character memorable.
I really think writers should create universes that are friendlier to fan characters. X-Men and Disney Fairies are examples of universes extremely friendly to fan characters, since there's no cap on the amount of potential mutants or fairies that can exist and generally the mechanics and rules of the universes are fairly obvious. Sailor Moon makes the halfway mark because while you can have infinite senshi, the rules and mechanics are frequently vague. Any fiction that has a small and non-negotiable number of Chosen Ones or Special People is hostile to fan characters by nature. Be a good sport and share your toys - write universes that easily accomodate fan characters and make the rules and mechanics clear.
Fanfiction and fanart, providing a fee of some kind isn't standing between it and the reader, should be officially protected under Fair Use.
Just because you try to explain something (like vampires or werewolves) without invoking any supernatural forces DOES NOT MAKE IT A SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION. The word you are looking for is 'naturalistic.' Also, most "scientific" explanations for vampires and such are so awful and un-scientific that the author would have been better off sticking with supernatural explanations.
Keep a notebook or a file to write down the Rules of your universe as you create them so you won't contradict yourself two episodes/books/chapters later. Please.
It's bad enough when one writer writes all of their characters with the same voice, but you know what's even worse? When everyone in a series written by multiple writers has the same voice. Ever notice how in CSI, everyone, including one-shot characters, talks exactly the same? Seriously, how do you fail that hard, writers?
I can't stand shounen entertainment. It basically all boils down to HHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRRRRRRNNNNNNNNNGGGGGG WILLPOWER!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The whole concept of someone with less-than-average intelligence beating every obstacle through SHEER. FORCE. OF. WILL. sounds pretty good on paper, until you realize that's pretty much how the US government has been operating lately. IT HASN'T WORKED.
Star Trek is not a ship. Star Trek is not a uniform. Star Trek is an attitude that if we can just get our act together we can see and do wonderful things. It's a philosophy that we have to strive for fairness and equality. It's a lesson that we should never stop asking questions. Too bad J.J. Abrams completely missed all of this.
After actually thinking about it, I cannot believe that anyone actually find it remotely plausible that Disney ever planned to reveal that Mozenrath was Aladdin's brother. There is no possible way that this could go well. It would be one of the most horrifying things that could happen to Aladdin. It would be like discovering Charles Manson was your brother.
No, nobody could actually get away with instating a one-world religion. It would backfire spectacularly and hilariously. Well, they might be able to get away with it... if the world's human population was approximately 1. Also, if you think it's even remotely plausible that someone could somehow merge all of the world's religions into one religion, you don't know anything about religion.
Every time someone says "this character has a healing factor," I think to myself, a healing factor of what? Is this a 1-10 scale? Where do normal humans fall on it?
Contrary to what writers like Dan Brown and assorted conspiracy theorists think, a person cannot be the one and only heir to an ancient bloodline, nor can a royal or special lineage be contained within a tiny family group indefinitely. This article explains why.
To be declared insane, you have to be so poorly-off that you are a clear and present danger to yourself or others without being placed under care. Most of the characters whom people refer to as "insane," "crazy," "mad," or any similar labels are simply eccentric or somewhat unbalanced, but are not actually insane.
So called "randomness" - that is, that thing where you just spout out whatever comes into your head or act in a bizarre manner for no apparent reason - is not actually that funny. It's more annoying than anything.
If your character follows another character against xir will, or follows your character into a private place without the other character's knowledge, your character is a stalker, no ifs, ands, or buts. It doesn't matter if your character is "in love" with the other character. YOUR. CHARACTER. IS. A. STALKER.
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