thoughtfulA few of my preferences:
* Mermaids! I love mermaids. I've been thrilled by everyone enjoying the glimpse of the Undersea in One Salt Sea, because wow did those chapters feel self-indulgent. I could have written a whole book just explaining how the social structure of the Undersea functions. Someday, if I get a good enough excuse, maybe I will.
* Evil twins. Yeah, I know, it's a Patty Duke cliche, and I don't care. I love me some evil twin action. Blame my early exposure to All My Children and move on.
* Mathematicians and scientists in leading rolls. I think math is sexy. Science is basically my favorite thing that isn't the Great Pumpkin or my cats. It's pretty rare to find a book of mine that doesn't have at least one of these character types represented. (Ironically, Feed didn't need a scientist because I was the scientist, with all that delicious virology kicking around.)
* Alternate universes and timelines. Yes, I love breaking continuity and seeing what happens when it's put together in a new shape. Enough so that sometimes people have to hold me down and take the hammer away, since otherwise, I'll just keep smashing things. My one regret about prose as a primary medium is that it's hard to pull off alt-universes in most prose settings.
* The malleability of death. Look, I grew up on X-Men comics, soap operas, and horror movies. I enjoy playing with the elasticity of mortality, and finding ways around things that seem permanent. You can't cheat, but watching your dead girlfriend's robot replacement come to terms with the fact that she's really a brain in a jar delights me.
...there are more, but you get the idea.
One of the interesting things about knowing and being at peace with my narrative kinks is that I get much, much pickier about how they're used. You can't just raise the dead and expect me to be happy; I want it to make sense within the rules of your universe, hang together internally, and be fair to the character you've just brought back. If you're going to have a lead scientist, they'd better be a scientist, and not a magical knows-everything widget that can somehow apply every field of science KNOWN TO MAN to whatever situation they happen to be in (Winnifred Burkle, I'm sorry, but I'm looking at you).
If you're going to do an alternate universe, I expect you to think it all the way through. Yes, all the way through. One of my favorite shows rebooted their continuity two seasons ago, and while they made the usual assortment of flashy surface changes, they didn't consider all the ramifications of those changes. The fact that at least two of the characters involved didn't tear down heaven and earth looking for a way back to the original timeline was incredibly disappointing to me. (Shawn says this is because I over think these things. I point you, again, to my list of narrative kinks. These are the things I am programmed to over think!) Basically, I want stories that will give me what I want, but really commit to giving it, not tap-dance around going all the way.
Also, often, narrative kinks are a lot like salt or bacon: a little can go a long way. I adored Marvel's House of M alt-universe, but I would have been annoyed if it had replaced the main Marvel Universe completely (even though it was an awesome setting, and I want them to do more with it). I'm enjoying the current season of Fringe, with its re-imagined continuity...and at the same time, I find myself restlessly demanding the original timeline back, because I invested a lot of time and emotional attachment in those characters, those relationships, and every delighted "oh, it went like that over here" is followed by a "...wait, does that mean that this other thing didn't happen?" So sometimes, getting what you think you want out of a story isn't ideal.
And this is why I have proofreaders and editors who don't share my narrative kinks. They may encourage me to put more foxes, or talking animals in silly hats, into the narrative, but they'll help me avoid the story turning into a stew of "things Seanan wants to play with."
What are your narrative kinks? How do you feel about their use, and how do you react when they get overused? What narrative toys would you rather never came off the shelf again? Enlighten me!
Narrative squicks
October 20 2011, 19:57:39 UTC 5 years ago
* I generally dislike made-up religions. Most people don't make up religions that are believable and when they do, they're usually thinly disguised versions of ones they might as well have just used. NK Jemisin is really the only person I can think of who has done completely made-up religion well enough that I enjoyed it and asked for more.
* Did Not Do The Research in anything having to do with religion. Aleister Crowley was not in favour of human sacrifice; that was a gross pun. Making all the observant Jews in your universe followers of “Yeshua” won’t stop being offensive because you call them “Habiru.” Replacing the Catholic Church in a mediaeval world with “The Goddess” might lead to oppression but it will not look the same. Generic paganism, generic Native American or African or Asian religion. Deciding that one religion is truer than the others in your world is fine, including the other gods in your world as punching bags or making them demonic not. Evil Christians should show some sign of having read the Bible. And so on.
* Romances in which a tough, self-directed female character who may not like or want kids suddenly becomes “softer” and changes her mind because she falls in love with the male lead. (Yes, this means that I loathe about 95% of all het pairings on genre TV. This is why I write original het but most of my fanfic is slash.) Temperance, I mourn you. Don’t take the cranky, childfree, emotionally stunted, intellectual, self-possessed women I identify with and turn them into Stepford Wives or I will just not trust you. (This is why I didn’t want Jo with Dean; Wincest aside, I didn’t want her to turn into Lisa.)
* Romances in which a female character who has her hands full dealing with a feckless, immature male lead professionally ends up having to sleep with him, so she is never not responsible for him. (Dana Scully, and Pepper Potts, I’m so sorry your writers mistreat you.)
* Romances in which a female character with an awesome personality and life of her own gets to do nothing onscreen but take care of some important male character’s emotional ouchies. (I never shipped Kirk/Spock until the last movie, when I saw what they did to Uhura.)
* Romances in which a female character is subjected to Nice Guy Syndrome ™ and gives in. Especially if we have to hear the guy whining about how he’s not as awesome as the other boys but he’s the only one who’s really devoted. (If Rory Williams were a girl, people would say worse things about him than they say about Bella.)
* Fake Nazis. If you're going to do Nazis, do them and do the research and take the care that you need to take to write about them well and palatably. If you think just changing the name and a few details of the setting will prevent your story from being offensive...it won't.
* People who have terrible childhoods and then grow up to completely accept the superior status of adults, and act as though troublesome kids just need a good beating? Don’t want to read it. Chrestomanci turned me off DWJ for YEARS; I pretty much want to put him through the window right after Thomas Covenant after some of his comments/actions toward bratty and troubled kids he encountered :) I can't be sympathetic toward any adult who dismisses or patronises or manipulates kids no matter how sugar-coated it is. I don’t like Dumbledore either. Disliking kids is fine, but they are people, don’t treat them otherwise.
* I don't like books where people spend more time going places than they do doing what they do when they get there.
* I hate the casual use of rape as a plot point—be that as evidence that the bad guy is a bad guy, or “because it’s realistic” (rape is common now and still some people don’t experience it). I especially hate it when it’s used to explain how a female warrior got to be so badass. Some women are just tough and violent, okay? We’re not all compassionate angels who have to be broken by the dick of evil before we can learn to kick ass.
Re: Narrative squicks
October 21 2011, 01:44:48 UTC 5 years ago
Re: Narrative squicks
October 21 2011, 05:57:30 UTC 5 years ago