Things I'm looking for in a story
Jul. 21st, 2019 07:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI had a long post but realised I'd framed everything in negatives, things I'd been seeing and do not want to see. So, here's the more positive flip side:
What I Want in Stories
I like reading stories where No Archive Warnings Apply.
I understand people like to hang out in the dark side, but things can get plenty dark and layered with issues without tripping Ao3's particular required warnings.
And I know TV shows I've really liked have tripped most of them, but, I would like to read about adults, who survive the story, and only have like 12 rated violence.
I'd also like to see costs and consequences brought into the story? It's too easy to lighten the story by just not looking at the victims, or putting them all in helmets, or saying they're not human. Just have everyone be people, of whatever variety, and have consequences, and have the good guys try and provide medical care after the fight.
I know I like elegant violence and martial arts with swords, but I also very much like the kind of martial artist who is a healer too. There could be more of that in western stuff. Kindness.
I like when whatever the size of a group of people they all have something to contribute. Everyone helps save themselves. The most ordinary people can do extraordinary things. On a good day Doctor Who is really good at that, you can grab anyone at random and at the end of the day they've helped save the world. It makes for more interesting story. Widens the focus. Gives everyone a moment. A reason for being there. And implied backstory. More to them than their appearance.
I like when there is a Look After Friend, who will make sure everyone has a food and eats a green thing sometimes. This works even better when everyone can basically manage, but the Look After Friend makes it better and them happier. Like they'd be part of turning a house into a home, but the characters already live somewhere with actual walls and necessary requirements. If someone is literally living in a cave it makes it easy to improve on their situation but it don't make anyone look particularly good for helping achieve basic necessities. I like the bit where they do a little something extra so you know they specifically care. That requires things already being a bit okay without them.
I like when they help each other recover after The Bad Thing, whether that's physically or emotionally. Though I also like when there's a functioning health system that can get them the care and support they need, otherwise I get distracted by politics rant.
The bit where someone has been through too much and put up their defenses and needs to learn to hug again is a really great bit. ... though not if people just pounce hug. consenting hugs only. important.
But people who have been through stuff still have their own strengths. I like watching people combine strengths to be something greater, not one person swooping in to save everyone. Angel said he helped the helpless, but there aren't a whole lot of actually helpless people. I've had in mind for like twenty years now what they could have done if they brought together the skills of everyone they helped, accountants and homeless people and all. Because that's civilisation. You don't help the helpless the ones, you get together so no one will be without help later.
Also there was a really great training and fight bit in one of the fics I read the last few days where in training they all got told their weaknesses and they all sound pretty grim, but when it's time to fight they pair up and their weaknesses patch each other to become strengths. Like I didn't quite agree because it thought not killing people was weak, but, it was great that everyone's weakness was a question of context, and remixed it worked right. Because their responses made sense from their own past, they just were limited outside that, so they remixed them. It was good.
... can't remember which fic, I read a whole lot.
... do remember that they only did all that because one (1) person sometimes swept into town to tell them how they're doing it wrong, which somewhat undermines the teamwork yaay fun. Like, couldn't everyone be right a little? Then the new person can add something that brings it into perspective?
I like reading about good parental relationships.
I want stories to stop using alcohol as the only excuse for bad ones. Like, alcohol is bad, but sometimes people are bad without alcohol. That needs to be clearer.
People looking after people is the yaay.
I like when they wouldn't initially be expected to look after that combination of people. Like, it isn't just that someone got born making the relationship is all important. People choose each other.
I also like stories that are fine with people walking away from bad relationships. You don't owe abusers a damn thing, ever. Doesn't matter if you're related or there's only the one of them. Behaviour matters.
I like when different kinds of relationship support each other. Like there might be a wobbly bit in the middle where you think you've got to choose between family of origin and family of choice, but it doesn't have to be a greek tragedy, if you can find ways to make it work for everyone.
And I don't understand people seeing different teams as rivals when they've all got the same goal? It isn't sports, it's saving the world, yaay for team up time. Jurisdiction isn't exactly the issue, usually it's more familiarity and being up to speed and stuff. Or having different lines about what's acceptable and correct, but then those can be worked through.
Like I read a lot of / so they work through their values differences in a romantic context, but they've also often got teams on different sides of the issue, and it can be a whole team thing too.
civil discussion not civil war.
... I'm not sure my prior media consumption really lends itself to knowing how to do that, they usually have a go and then get really sad about 'having to' blow everyone up anyway.
*sigh*
But birth family and chosen family and team and partner and lover(s) don't have to be at odds or messing each other up, not by the end of the story.
I get really puzzled by how some stories demonise canon pairings to make their pairing go. Like, find the strengths that make them work? Build from there? That's more fun?
But then I just read a whole story where the drama came from one partner pretending to sleep with someone else so a serial killer would pick a different target. The other partner wasn't annoyed about getting targetted by the killer, just about the pretend kissing. I so thoroughly do not understand that. Even if they sleep with someone else it seems much less end of the world y than, you know, most episode type content,
But then Cordelia nearly destroyed the timeline because Xander cheated, so, there's stuff that's... puzzling. I get how lying is a problem and not trusting people is a problem, I do not get how this kissing context is more important to trust than the whole fighting and maybe dying side of things.
important, but, scale is a thing.
oh well.
People working out their differences is yaay. People having drama that nearly ends the timeline is also yaay, but more so when it leads to figuring out how to do better later.
I like teams that turn into families. I like partners that are romantic but like as a side effect of all the other ways they fit together. I'm kind of bored and puzzled of stories where they only fit together because they're hot.
What else...
Tension over the status of Chosen One is always great. Like if there's someone everyone assumes is Chosen but then the more modest person who has embodied all the actual values steps up to do the thing instead.
Or people who reject being Chosen, because they Choose.
If they start on different sides and decide the right side is not neither of them winning but a peace made by finding a third way, that is The Good Stuff, especially if everyone had a prophecy in mind and everything technically fits it but both sides were wrong about theur interpretation all along. Twists are fun, if they're fair play when you look back on them. As is throwing out the whole idea of prophecy, because team free will is yaay.
Or what happens After. Just, after the prophecy, after they've done everything expected of them, often at a shatteringly young age. They reach a sort of mid life crisis where the original programming is just Done, and they have to figure out who they are now, with all the pressures either gone or changed. That's great.
I like when sides have actual problems that they actually need to work through, and the solution isn't just hitting one side until they stay down. Like if you remove their support by changing rhe situation and then hit the hardcore who refuse to change, that gives you the viscerally satisfying violence but also actual factual improvement. Much more effective that way.
So there can be a lot of build up, especially when needs are as varied as zygons or goa'uld or vampires or werewolves, but the solution is never to kill one set off. Because both bad and boring. Been done.
I like when there's a huge gap in ability, which still involves everyone in their own solutions. Like Watchers haven't got supernatural strength or speed, but they're still essential. Watcher in a wheelchair would be too. So I like seeing the big difference in ability that feels like a disability story, but it's sort of relaxing seeing it on people who can manage all the day to day things. But there need to be more real disabilities in these stories I'm reading as metaphor disability.
Also to not just make everyone magic. It's one kind of satisfying, but it means everyone ends up with the same kind of appeal, and it's more interesting to diversify.
Doing the Doctor Who thing where appealing characters of different ages are baked in to the design, that's a good thing.
And every generation has their own strengths and things they bring to the group.
This is a really long one then.
But it kind of adds up to, diverse people who work together, like each other, and find a way to make even the angsty stuff work out.
I'd like more of that.
What I Want in Stories
I like reading stories where No Archive Warnings Apply.
I understand people like to hang out in the dark side, but things can get plenty dark and layered with issues without tripping Ao3's particular required warnings.
And I know TV shows I've really liked have tripped most of them, but, I would like to read about adults, who survive the story, and only have like 12 rated violence.
I'd also like to see costs and consequences brought into the story? It's too easy to lighten the story by just not looking at the victims, or putting them all in helmets, or saying they're not human. Just have everyone be people, of whatever variety, and have consequences, and have the good guys try and provide medical care after the fight.
I know I like elegant violence and martial arts with swords, but I also very much like the kind of martial artist who is a healer too. There could be more of that in western stuff. Kindness.
I like when whatever the size of a group of people they all have something to contribute. Everyone helps save themselves. The most ordinary people can do extraordinary things. On a good day Doctor Who is really good at that, you can grab anyone at random and at the end of the day they've helped save the world. It makes for more interesting story. Widens the focus. Gives everyone a moment. A reason for being there. And implied backstory. More to them than their appearance.
I like when there is a Look After Friend, who will make sure everyone has a food and eats a green thing sometimes. This works even better when everyone can basically manage, but the Look After Friend makes it better and them happier. Like they'd be part of turning a house into a home, but the characters already live somewhere with actual walls and necessary requirements. If someone is literally living in a cave it makes it easy to improve on their situation but it don't make anyone look particularly good for helping achieve basic necessities. I like the bit where they do a little something extra so you know they specifically care. That requires things already being a bit okay without them.
I like when they help each other recover after The Bad Thing, whether that's physically or emotionally. Though I also like when there's a functioning health system that can get them the care and support they need, otherwise I get distracted by politics rant.
The bit where someone has been through too much and put up their defenses and needs to learn to hug again is a really great bit. ... though not if people just pounce hug. consenting hugs only. important.
But people who have been through stuff still have their own strengths. I like watching people combine strengths to be something greater, not one person swooping in to save everyone. Angel said he helped the helpless, but there aren't a whole lot of actually helpless people. I've had in mind for like twenty years now what they could have done if they brought together the skills of everyone they helped, accountants and homeless people and all. Because that's civilisation. You don't help the helpless the ones, you get together so no one will be without help later.
Also there was a really great training and fight bit in one of the fics I read the last few days where in training they all got told their weaknesses and they all sound pretty grim, but when it's time to fight they pair up and their weaknesses patch each other to become strengths. Like I didn't quite agree because it thought not killing people was weak, but, it was great that everyone's weakness was a question of context, and remixed it worked right. Because their responses made sense from their own past, they just were limited outside that, so they remixed them. It was good.
... can't remember which fic, I read a whole lot.
... do remember that they only did all that because one (1) person sometimes swept into town to tell them how they're doing it wrong, which somewhat undermines the teamwork yaay fun. Like, couldn't everyone be right a little? Then the new person can add something that brings it into perspective?
I like reading about good parental relationships.
I want stories to stop using alcohol as the only excuse for bad ones. Like, alcohol is bad, but sometimes people are bad without alcohol. That needs to be clearer.
People looking after people is the yaay.
I like when they wouldn't initially be expected to look after that combination of people. Like, it isn't just that someone got born making the relationship is all important. People choose each other.
I also like stories that are fine with people walking away from bad relationships. You don't owe abusers a damn thing, ever. Doesn't matter if you're related or there's only the one of them. Behaviour matters.
I like when different kinds of relationship support each other. Like there might be a wobbly bit in the middle where you think you've got to choose between family of origin and family of choice, but it doesn't have to be a greek tragedy, if you can find ways to make it work for everyone.
And I don't understand people seeing different teams as rivals when they've all got the same goal? It isn't sports, it's saving the world, yaay for team up time. Jurisdiction isn't exactly the issue, usually it's more familiarity and being up to speed and stuff. Or having different lines about what's acceptable and correct, but then those can be worked through.
Like I read a lot of / so they work through their values differences in a romantic context, but they've also often got teams on different sides of the issue, and it can be a whole team thing too.
civil discussion not civil war.
... I'm not sure my prior media consumption really lends itself to knowing how to do that, they usually have a go and then get really sad about 'having to' blow everyone up anyway.
*sigh*
But birth family and chosen family and team and partner and lover(s) don't have to be at odds or messing each other up, not by the end of the story.
I get really puzzled by how some stories demonise canon pairings to make their pairing go. Like, find the strengths that make them work? Build from there? That's more fun?
But then I just read a whole story where the drama came from one partner pretending to sleep with someone else so a serial killer would pick a different target. The other partner wasn't annoyed about getting targetted by the killer, just about the pretend kissing. I so thoroughly do not understand that. Even if they sleep with someone else it seems much less end of the world y than, you know, most episode type content,
But then Cordelia nearly destroyed the timeline because Xander cheated, so, there's stuff that's... puzzling. I get how lying is a problem and not trusting people is a problem, I do not get how this kissing context is more important to trust than the whole fighting and maybe dying side of things.
important, but, scale is a thing.
oh well.
People working out their differences is yaay. People having drama that nearly ends the timeline is also yaay, but more so when it leads to figuring out how to do better later.
I like teams that turn into families. I like partners that are romantic but like as a side effect of all the other ways they fit together. I'm kind of bored and puzzled of stories where they only fit together because they're hot.
What else...
Tension over the status of Chosen One is always great. Like if there's someone everyone assumes is Chosen but then the more modest person who has embodied all the actual values steps up to do the thing instead.
Or people who reject being Chosen, because they Choose.
If they start on different sides and decide the right side is not neither of them winning but a peace made by finding a third way, that is The Good Stuff, especially if everyone had a prophecy in mind and everything technically fits it but both sides were wrong about theur interpretation all along. Twists are fun, if they're fair play when you look back on them. As is throwing out the whole idea of prophecy, because team free will is yaay.
Or what happens After. Just, after the prophecy, after they've done everything expected of them, often at a shatteringly young age. They reach a sort of mid life crisis where the original programming is just Done, and they have to figure out who they are now, with all the pressures either gone or changed. That's great.
I like when sides have actual problems that they actually need to work through, and the solution isn't just hitting one side until they stay down. Like if you remove their support by changing rhe situation and then hit the hardcore who refuse to change, that gives you the viscerally satisfying violence but also actual factual improvement. Much more effective that way.
So there can be a lot of build up, especially when needs are as varied as zygons or goa'uld or vampires or werewolves, but the solution is never to kill one set off. Because both bad and boring. Been done.
I like when there's a huge gap in ability, which still involves everyone in their own solutions. Like Watchers haven't got supernatural strength or speed, but they're still essential. Watcher in a wheelchair would be too. So I like seeing the big difference in ability that feels like a disability story, but it's sort of relaxing seeing it on people who can manage all the day to day things. But there need to be more real disabilities in these stories I'm reading as metaphor disability.
Also to not just make everyone magic. It's one kind of satisfying, but it means everyone ends up with the same kind of appeal, and it's more interesting to diversify.
Doing the Doctor Who thing where appealing characters of different ages are baked in to the design, that's a good thing.
And every generation has their own strengths and things they bring to the group.
This is a really long one then.
But it kind of adds up to, diverse people who work together, like each other, and find a way to make even the angsty stuff work out.
I'd like more of that.
no subject
Date: 2019-07-21 04:22 pm (UTC)You've done a great job articulating your thoughts here. As a writer it's interesting to see and, hopefully, grist for the mill. Thanks for sharing.