No Offense To Writers, But Why Does Everything Have To Be A Fucking Love Story?

No offense to writers, but why does everything have to be a fucking love story?

I have found like 2 posts that have actually helped with my style of writing and one of them was literally just grammar. Whenever I go on tumblr looking for writing advice, all I see is relationship writing prompts. Speaking of those “writing prompts”, they are literally just singular lines of context or dialogue. The only person that actually follows the correct definition for writing prompts every post is @writing-prompt-s , which are great and almost every one of them has so much potential, each one of those is an entire, self contained story.

Writing does not require a close relationship ship, nor does it need complex character arcs. People are not malleable, humanity is an extremely stubborn species that does not like change. Too often do I read stories where the villain becomes good at the end, or they are defeated and the MC(s) live happily ever after. There is a reason why the big bad is evil, whatever that reason may be, it is what drives the antagonist. Consistency in what drives a character is important for that character to seem believable, despite what people tell you, people rarely, truly change.

For example, if the villain became evil because of a traumatic childhood, abusive parents, and or neglect, the protagonist giving them the attention they needed as a child wouldn’t change the antagonist. This realization came to me after watching the boys, Homelander is given all of the love and attention in the world by hundreds of millions if not billions of fans and even then he’s constantly on the verge of snapping. When a person is deprived of attention, they either think they don’t deserve it or that it’s their right. In both cases, if you then give that person attention and passion, they will then want more. They were at rock bottom for the longest time and have most likely been in denial about it their whole lives, when you bring someone like that back up they find out that the feeling they previously thought unimportant felt good. They might stay with the protagonist for a bit to hold on to that feeling, but the moment they find out they can get that same feeling from others, suddenly the person that first showed you compassion is no longer unique. This is a very slippery slope to addiction, and addiction can and will make a person do anything for just one more fix of the only thing they care about.

I used this example because it is of the introduction of emotional drive to a story that had lacked it previously, some stories are meant to be love stories from the beginning and that’s fine, but when it is put into another type of story it can completely take over the plot and thus overrides any foreshadowing or themes the plot originally had.

(Spoilers for the boys, skip to the next paragraph if you haven’t seen it yet.)

Going back to Homelander, he is a character driven by attention, he’s already addicted to it. Homelander goes through several relationships in the show, be it real or fake, but none of them help him or change him as a person in any way. The boys is a beautiful example on the human mind’s need to be loved and how it can never truly be fulfilled. In the end, Homelander doesn’t get defeated or proven that it doesn’t have to be this way, instead he listens to his son and walks away. Even though he hasn’t changed completely, he now has a drive that is greater than his need for attention, making sure his son gets the childhood and love he never did. At the end of the show he discovers that love is mutual and that you don’t need everyone’s love to be happy. Homelander learn’s that making sure his son is happy can fulfill him greater than anyone else loving him ever could. Even after all of this, in the very last seen he murders someone and gets praised for it, his old motives and ideals are still there but he doesn’t need them.

However, sometimes love is forced into scenario’s that are completely illogical. Morals are based on a mental line you draw somewhere in your mind, but once you kill someone, suddenly you’ve just crossed the last line. You can make excuses, but ending a life is a one way road. No matter how hard it was to end that life, it will always be easier the second time. Sooner or later that second time will come, nobody teaches you how to forgive yourself because nobody really knows how. Love loses meaning when the person giving it can be ending so easily, don’t believe me? Do you remember the feeling you got from succeeding at something for the first time? Did ever feel that way for doing it again? Life is an endless loop of winning and losing, but once you overcome that final hurdle, what then?

The villain in a story can often be depicted as bored from a life of killing, there’s no going back, so more often than not they just stop. Defeated by a hero, killed by their own machinations, or just simply ending their own life, it doesn’t matter. They’ve killed so much at this point that they don’t fear death and often long for it. I hate it when I read a book and the character is redeemed from this state. Whenever I see a story end with a “happily ever after” I just sigh, it’s completely fine to have a b plot relationship, but it should never be the ending unless it’s actively a romance novel.

Sorry for the tangent, but I have just read one to many “action and adventure” books with a sappy ending. Watching Invincible, The Boys, and surprisingly Avengers: Infinity War has shown me that stories don’t have to have a happy ending, and the ones that don’t are interesting as fuck.

P.s. the only show that sufficiently handles friendship and relationships is my little pony. I only saw it because sister, but damn. There is no reason nor does there even deserve to be a reason why mlp was so well written. It had characters that consistent motivations and morals, event that actively changed who they were as a person, and get this, multiple character traits, I know, unbelievable. The animation was incredible and dialogue and writing were fucking perfect, fight me

I need a dedicated noot button in my story based penguin game

First untitled goose game, now stray. WHEN DO I FUCKING GET TO BE A MOTHER FLIPPIN PENGUIN GODDAMNIT

Adhd is a constant inner conflict

One moment; “Okay, for the past 3 years i’ve been developing a story around a specific character. I’ve gotten the entire plot-line for a movie and half a sequel written out. I shall share this with the world.”

3 days later you delete the youtube comment; “They would’t accept the truth, it must remain hidden.”

And then you proceed to repeat this same action 5 times over 2 months, but before you do it a 6th time, you get distracted by a song for haven’t heard in ages. It’s not playing currently, you just remembered it existed.

Tldr; help All The Way is stuck in my head again, the Irish are taking over.

When did you learn to cook sir meowsalot?

“Today was amazing”, you think to yourself. Work went well, and your boss seems to like you. You unlock your door, and your cat eagerly greats you. You find the house you left dirty is spotless, and there’s a delicious freshly cooked meal on the table. The only problem? You live alone.

Nobody, I don’t have a phone.

Prompt #889

"So, who would you call? If, you know, the world would end."

I’m tired with “happy ending” this and “good guys win” that, We need more stories where the bad guy wins. Stories where the protagonist is the big bad have so much potential. They could have a redemption arc, but that’s been overdone for decades. However, the opposite has extreem unexplored potential. A fall from grace, and the continuation of that story would be really cool. Picture this;

A member of a powerful, highly technologically advanced/ magical species watches his whole species get wiped out and only barely escaping, leaving him completely and utterly alone and extremely pissed. (Gender does not matter, this is just an example and i’m too lazy to put “it” everywhere) The species prepared for a situation like this, so he follows protocol for a while. He hides himself as (human / current most dominant species) and has something that can translate any language from previously gain information and tells him how to pronounce each word. He does this for awhile, becoming a local hero or bounty hunter. Over time he starts losing his mind. Even though he can’t get drunk, he resorts to alcoholism for the distraction the bad taste gives him.

At this point he’s already lost his mind, but holds on to the illusion of sanity through denial. He start seeing hallucinations of himself, his true self, not the form he has hidden behind. He eventually loses it, attack the hallucinations until he accidentally kills a child, who simply tried to ask if he was okay. At that moment, when the town guard are surrounding him for arrest, he realizes he didn’t feel any different. There was no guilt, no sadness, no joy, nothing. Nothing except a burning hatred and lust for revenge. He casts aside his hidden form and becomes a ruthless tyrant, where the story goes from there is up to you.

This is only one extremely specific example, there could be fake-outs; where you think the protagonists are the hero’s until they’re violently killed by the villain. Or the story could be a slow reveal that the protagonist was even worse than the antagonist. The possibilities are endless.