What is that thing that you hate seeing in novels?
What turns you off in a novel?
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Protagonists who turn arrogant and just become the same bullies as the people who used to bully them. "Oh, I was bullied before because I was weak, but now that I'm strong, I'm going to forget all the suffering I went through and do the same thing to other people! Because I can!"
Also: infidelity. This is a son-in-law story, right? So why is he sleeping with multiple women? What about the wife he claims to love so much? And take note, this isn't even in an ancient or fantasy setting, it's in a modern urban setting that outlaws polygamy. Why bother with the whole son-in-law premise if you're going to forget about the wife and give him a harem?
grimreaper906 Rape and sexual assault. Humiliating the female lead by stripping her off her clothes. I also dislike it when a novel starts with one night stand.
Tomoyuki absolutely. I'm very cautious about reading novels because anything related to sexual assault triggers me. One time i was reading a novel and in the very first chapter the female lead got raped by the male lead.. I was so disgusted that I dropped the novel immediately. And there's another one where the male lead humiliates the female lead and orders her to strip stark naked in front of him when there were not even lovers yet. I don't know how people write stories like this, it's so triggering and disgusting i swear.
Nana_1928 Absolutely agree with you two on this. Sexual assault is very triggering and I believe it shouldn’t be glorified in writing, especially if it’s the male lead that’s the one doing the traumatizing.
As for me, I cannot stand female leads that can’t think for themselves, or at the very least, grows up into a person that thinks for themselves. I love my strong men and women, but I also love when a character grows into the person they want to be :)
Bad or lazy writing. Do I need to say more? Haha.
Honestly, I think the thing that is killing me right now is the “genius” or “predictive” character. You know, the guy that knows everything that’s going to happen and makes the perfect counter plan. It’s best (by best I mean worst) when there are two or more of these characters fighting. Here is an example:
“Muhahaha, I’m evil and I knew you would attack me, so I used a spell that made anyone who attacked me die!”
“I’m the hero, and I knew you would use that spell, so I made your henchmen attack you while using an illusion spell to make you think that it was me attacking you!”
“Well, I knew you would try to trick me, so I used a bigger illusion that made you think that I killed my henchmen when he is really right behind you!”
“Ha! I knew you would do that too, so I put a lion behind me that is eating your henchmen!”
“Exactly as I planned! My henchmen is a werewolf that eats lions!”
“Perfect, since I predicted that, I poisoned the lion!”
“That’s why I made an antidote that cures your specific poison, which I predicted even though there are millions of poisons that you could haves used!”
“Checkmate, I made a better poison that can’t be detected and isn’t poison until you take an antidote for my other poison, it will kill your henchmen when you try to cure the other poison!”
“Nooooo! How did you know to do that?”
“I locked eyes with you two episodes ago and just realized it from your smile.”
Hope you get the idea… it’s horrifying to read stuff like this. For some reason it seems popular with both heros and villains right now.
While I agree with all of you, for the sake of asking, is it better when a female lead does the traumatizing? To me it seems like an awful subject either way. Maybe it hits different when the female can sexually assault some poor guy though? Just asking because of how you phrased your answer.
grimreaper906
Another 'what's a trope you're tired of seeing' post.
Just wait for Rooster to come.
Reading incest in a smut novel and I hate novels in which the MC has a sister cause we all know where that's going.
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grimreaper906
Is she perhaps sick? Maybe she's super hot and not related to MC by blood!!
Gasp!!
totally original!
Tomoyuki
My dude, you should just get married, no use in showing your jealousy here.
SlaveOfTheLord this is kinda different. Those things authors do in their books that you don't like or that make u stop a book
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SlaveOfTheLord What makes you think I'm not already married? Why do you think I abhor harems and infidelity?
When you find your significant other, you will discover that the last thing you want to do is to hurt her (or him). Trust me. Nothing destroys a relationship more than cheating on her (or him), or vice versa. And nothing is worse than finding out that she (or he) cheated on you. The emotional pain is...it just tears you apart from the inside.
shadowdrake27 Trauma is still trauma, no matter who does it, male or female. Sorry, I should have phrased it better. If I were to read it, regardless of gender, the act of someone being put in that position would still garner feelings of disgust. You'd still feel off about reading something like that. Wouldn't you agree? People are still people. You treat them as actual humans, even in novel form. Let's be honest, people still include these types of scenes in novels because it sells. It works for them and it's what gets views. But I truly believe novels can be smutty, but still be consensual when doing so. What it all boils down to is whether you are skilled enough to write something that doesn't include sexual assault just for the sake of it.
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shadowdrake27 I think she means "especially if it's the male lead who does it, as opposed to the (male) antagonists/villains." Like, the guy who does it ends up being the one the female lead falls in love with, so they glorify the abuse or rape instead of presenting it as the vile act done only by criminals.
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Man I won't even write the huge list I have, it's mainly 4 things.
- Harem, ofc
- Repitition and word padding. I just read a novel where the author uses the cliche 1-9 and other word padded terms and repeated the long list several times and each time he adds more useless info to it. The story was so freaking slow I couldnt bear it anymore.
- Unoriginal and beyond lame settings. Copy and taste country. I can't with these authors.
Misguided_Rooster I really want to see the full list.
shadowdrake27 Sexual assault either way is triggering and traumatizing, it doesn't matter whether it's a man or a woman doing it. But we're speaking about it in regards to men because if you look at the statistics in reality, the amount of women adult or underage being raped and sexually assaulted is significantly higher than men. And for them to be writing and glorifying such behavior is absolutely disgusting.
I hate when the author tries to justify the vile act the protagonist did. It just pushes me away. Like "pulling out the weeds so they don't come and bite me in the ass", after eliminating a whole clan