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  1. motormouth

    motormouth Member

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    trends you hate

    Discussion in 'The Lounge' started by motormouth, Apr 30, 2011.

    what are some of the trends that you as a writer have in books, movies, plays etc????

    Here are some of mine-

    Zombies- The trend is dead, and theyre one type of mnster who have no personality or attitude . They're just moving plot devices imo.

    Movies billed as action/adventure but which are only drama inan action wrapping (See Iron Man 2, All Star Superman,Inglorious Basterds) when i go to see actio, I WANT TO SEE LOTS OF ACTION.
     
  2. Youniquee

    Youniquee (◡‿◡✿) Contributor

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    VAMPIRES.
    vampires.
    Did I forget vampires?
    That is all.
     
  3. Sabreur

    Sabreur Contributor Contributor

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    Humanity: This trend should go the way of the dinosaur, asteroids and all.
     
  4. Lemex

    Lemex That's Lord Lemex to you. Contributor

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    Tell me - exactly how much attitude or personality do you think a reanimated hunk of meat can manage?


    As for me: I'm sick of novels about writers who face some kind of horror. I'm looking at you Mr. Stephen King!

    I'm also tired of something that is already starting to emerge as cliche in the young 'Slender Man Mythos', and that is using anything and almost everything from Marble Hornets. It's not just in other Vlogs, but in fictional blogs too.
     
  5. motormouth

    motormouth Member

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    Not that but its like the movies always follow 1 trend- mysterious plague, collapse of humanity, zombies overrun world. few survivours band together, 1 gets infected mysteriously. All for what??? lumbering moaning corpses. Honestly. Something that slow, stupid and ALREADY DECAYING would never overrun the world. The Militaries and WHO and trigger happy people would see to that
     
  6. Lemex

    Lemex That's Lord Lemex to you. Contributor

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    Not all. Zombieland doesn't do this, but you are right, most of them follow that formula.

    But then again, I'm sure that's the point of Zombie films.
     
  7. Nightshade

    Nightshade New Member

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    I'd have to agree with zombies. I can't recall the name of the very old american film but they spent the whole thing fighting zombies and at the end a whole group of zombies are like "Mergh, braaaaaaaaaaains" but are walking off away from the humans. One raises a gun to shoot the zombies and his friends stops him and goes "No, they're just trying to find a home, like us..."

    WHAT?!

    You spent an hour and a half killing the suckers and now you're letting them go?! WHAT?!

    I'm so sick of movies or books that end on a note that sounds like the writer is saying "And the moral of the story is...." It doesn't HAVE to have a moral, it just needs to be a good story, entertain me, don't lecture me!
     
  8. Lemex

    Lemex That's Lord Lemex to you. Contributor

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    That was Land of the Dead, which a bad, bad film.
     
  9. FrankBishop

    FrankBishop New Member

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    Edgy for the sake of being edgy.

    Teen paranormal romances............ at least kids are reading

    Six chapters dedicated to describing one thing. The landscape is green, got it after the first dozen metaphors, please move on.

    Cardboard cutout villains that are evil for the sake of being evil. Sometimes I have the feeling that if I sat down with the main antagonist for an interview, when I would ask them why they are being evil, their heads would explode.
     
  10. dizzyspell

    dizzyspell Active Member

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    Vampires. Need I say more?

    I agree with FrankBishop about evil villians with no motivation, too.
     
  11. TheSpiderJoe

    TheSpiderJoe New Member

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    One trend I'm not too fond of is the "MC causes and accident that threatens to destroy the world". Not that I've seen too much of it but when I do the only reaction I have is to cringe.

    Maybe it's just me, but it always seems pretty easy to do something that will bring utter chaos and devastation. Anytime I read a book or watch a move when that happens I can't finish it. I'm probably missing out on a lot of good stories too but for some reason I just can't bring myself to read those types of stories.

    However, the animated Little Nemo movie is the exception to rule. Mostly because it is one of my childhood favorites.
     
  12. Shade Wolf

    Shade Wolf New Member

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    People falling in love. LOL JK But it happens a lot. And me not being the most cheerful person around...... Although falling in love makes the plot better, y'know like the main character has something really important to do, but they fall in love and it kinda gets in the way. Or something like that...........
     
  13. LaGs

    LaGs Banned

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    Zombieland felt very fresh to me as the humour was spot on.

    Bill Murray cameo anyone? LOL
     
  14. FreightTrain74

    FreightTrain74 New Member

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    I agree. This genre is so overdone is makes me puke.
     
  15. minstrel

    minstrel Leader of the Insquirrelgency Supporter Contributor

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    One trend I don't like is fantasy series. No offense to anybody on this forum, though it does seem like about 90% of you are writing fantasy series. But not all fantasy novels have to be part of a series, and not all series have to be fantasy.

    Doesn't it get a bit old when practically every book you see is subtitled something like "Book Six of the Chronicles of Thumbliban" or "Book Eight of the Histories of Rasslefisk"? Just looking at the titles makes me yawn. It just seems like they were all inspired by a very small number of originals - LOTR, Harry Potter, Narnia, Twilight, very few others. So they all tend to be similar. (I'm generalizing, of course - I haven't read them all, but just reading the discussions of them here, and the ideas some of you have for your own series, makes them seem similar.)

    If I were working on a fantasy series of my own, and I came to this forum and found that everyone else is doing the same thing, I'd sigh, chuck my series into the garbage and find something else to work on.

    It's okay to write stand-alone novels. Really. Not everything has to be part of a series. Not every book has to involve vampires or zombies or elves or magicians. Not every character has to have some kind of superhuman power or carry a sword. It seems to me that it's rather limiting for a writer to think that these elements have to be included.

    I think it would be incredibly liberating for writers to free themselves from the chains of the fantasy-series model of fiction. It would vastly expand the range of inspiration and allow for the creation of more original work.
     
  16. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Griping is easy. And pretty much pointless.

    Ifr you don't like a book trend, don't vote for it by buying it. Be part of the solution by writing something outside that trend.
     
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