Soapbox time
Feb. 13th, 2010 09:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
coley_merrinlol... In which no one should take me seriously at all, just letting off steam. XD I am not a ranty person most times, but there are special situations. XD Therefore... Yeah. This has been building up. For. A few months.
Dear World,
I realize that it is difficult to understand the preferences of readers everywhere. And I realize that I am not Every Reader, and my opinion in the grand scheme of things is no greater than the next person. However, there are things I understand to be rather evident in the world of fiction. Unless I've been fooling myself somehow.
In Romance as a book genre, you rarely (I would venture, never) see the couple advertised not end up together in the end. There are no extra tags on romance novels to indicate character death, or emotional disturbance. There is no "this pairing is broken" message because you assume, because this is wish fulfillment people, that nothing is too much to overcome in the end. They could not sell books if you went into a time and money commitment like that wondering if everything would be okay in the end. You wouldn't make it off the agent or romance editor's desk if you ended a book with the main couple with other people or dreadfully unhappy if you were aiming to publish a romance novel. There are no extra points for fooling readers. This is not literature class.
If there's angst, there's angst. If your couple is broken, it's broken. If someone dies, they die. If this all happens in a romance, I expect at least a warning. Otherwise I rant, like this, because I need forewarning before I read something that stomps on my heart. I know full well Nicholas Sparks will make me sob into my Cheerios, and thus I do not read him. So please, think of my heart.
Love, Me
*simmers down* So, genres can be pretty subjective. Romance, more or less, I don't find very subjective. Romance is romance is romance. And, if I have missed a cue on this, then absolutely, it's on me. Unwarned broken couples are probably my second biggest peeve in fanfiction... The biggest being totally unwarned character death (and even more heinous if it breaks up the main pairing, and oh, how heinous... I could devote a post of loathing to this). I do not get my ranting pants on very often, lol, but oh boy, there are those times.
If I ever mark a fanfic, and I don't mark it enough... As in, I forget to warn for smut and melt someone's eyes, or some other angst crime, someone please pull me aside and tell me so? I don't want to imagine I have scarred someone out there, or make someone want to bean me for being obtuse about my warnings. I obviously don't have to warn for character death or something, because, face it guys, it's all gravy in the end in this journal. XD
Dear World,
I realize that it is difficult to understand the preferences of readers everywhere. And I realize that I am not Every Reader, and my opinion in the grand scheme of things is no greater than the next person. However, there are things I understand to be rather evident in the world of fiction. Unless I've been fooling myself somehow.
In Romance as a book genre, you rarely (I would venture, never) see the couple advertised not end up together in the end. There are no extra tags on romance novels to indicate character death, or emotional disturbance. There is no "this pairing is broken" message because you assume, because this is wish fulfillment people, that nothing is too much to overcome in the end. They could not sell books if you went into a time and money commitment like that wondering if everything would be okay in the end. You wouldn't make it off the agent or romance editor's desk if you ended a book with the main couple with other people or dreadfully unhappy if you were aiming to publish a romance novel. There are no extra points for fooling readers. This is not literature class.
If there's angst, there's angst. If your couple is broken, it's broken. If someone dies, they die. If this all happens in a romance, I expect at least a warning. Otherwise I rant, like this, because I need forewarning before I read something that stomps on my heart. I know full well Nicholas Sparks will make me sob into my Cheerios, and thus I do not read him. So please, think of my heart.
Love, Me
*simmers down* So, genres can be pretty subjective. Romance, more or less, I don't find very subjective. Romance is romance is romance. And, if I have missed a cue on this, then absolutely, it's on me. Unwarned broken couples are probably my second biggest peeve in fanfiction... The biggest being totally unwarned character death (and even more heinous if it breaks up the main pairing, and oh, how heinous... I could devote a post of loathing to this). I do not get my ranting pants on very often, lol, but oh boy, there are those times.
If I ever mark a fanfic, and I don't mark it enough... As in, I forget to warn for smut and melt someone's eyes, or some other angst crime, someone please pull me aside and tell me so? I don't want to imagine I have scarred someone out there, or make someone want to bean me for being obtuse about my warnings. I obviously don't have to warn for character death or something, because, face it guys, it's all gravy in the end in this journal. XD
