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Know what I hate?
This plot:
1. Ianto is sick/hurt.
2. Jack and Owen care for him! Owen is gruff but protective, Jack is concerned and tender.
3. Tosh is mousy and Gwen is insensitive, but in about 50% of stories, you never know this because...
4. Tosh and Gwen are relegated to being [quote]"the girls"[/unquote], who invariably are dispatched to do Ianto's shopping for him.
(4a. If it's a gen story in particular, SOMETIMES you get a POV shift to "the girls" where somewhere on the astral plane, Alison Bechdel is weeping while Tosh tells Gwen to stop being insensitive about Ianto because he and Jack are IN LOVE OMG GWEN HOW COULD YOU NOT SEE IT?)
SRSLY. How many stories?
... I sort of feel like making a flow chart of dodgy TW fic cliches. Would that be bear poking? (Is making this a post public bear poking?)
1. Ianto is sick/hurt.
2. Jack and Owen care for him! Owen is gruff but protective, Jack is concerned and tender.
3. Tosh is mousy and Gwen is insensitive, but in about 50% of stories, you never know this because...
4. Tosh and Gwen are relegated to being [quote]"the girls"[/unquote], who invariably are dispatched to do Ianto's shopping for him.
(4a. If it's a gen story in particular, SOMETIMES you get a POV shift to "the girls" where somewhere on the astral plane, Alison Bechdel is weeping while Tosh tells Gwen to stop being insensitive about Ianto because he and Jack are IN LOVE OMG GWEN HOW COULD YOU NOT SEE IT?)
SRSLY. How many stories?
... I sort of feel like making a flow chart of dodgy TW fic cliches. Would that be bear poking? (Is making this a post public bear poking?)
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I think sometimes there can still be interesting stories when authors aren't very good at nuanced characterisation.
But what I cannot forgive is when they are actually called "the girls" within the story, and pretty much relegated to this homogenous characterisation where they aren't even individuals any more, let alone intelligent members of a super alien-fighting team.
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But yes to your larger point. It's like that plot has alien mind powers and takes over otherwise perfectly normal (if not particularly original) h/c and curtain fic.
THIS.
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ITS ALL A BIT CREEPY TW AUTHORS. Owen may be a small guy but he isn't jailbait.
Also any mention of Ianto being svelte makes me giggle. Dude is built like a coffee pot, stout and made of brass. Well, not entirely like a coffee pot.
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ALSO FAIRLY ENERGY UNEFFICIENT
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THE END.
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I mean um, darn.
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1) I think it was probably less bothersome months and months ago when I started reading TW fanfic
2) It probably seems less cliche to writers who haven't read or written a lot in this fandom
3) Sometimes, allowing one part of a story to fall into cliche allows the writer to concentrate on improving her craft in another. If the main part of the story is interesting enough, I'll forgive a little cliche around the edges
4) As a writer, who is FAR from the most gifted or skilled at what I do, I recognize the limits of my ability. I write stories I want to tell with little consideration for whether anybody wants to read them. Sometimes, the stories are nothing more than language experiments. But if someone DOES read a story of mine, and likes it enough to actually comment, that's my icing on the cake. The fact that I can give some measure of enjoyment to one or two individuals is enough for me. I try to remember this when I see a story that is a cliche, or has a juvenile plot line, or is poorly written, because...
5) Some of the most gawdawful crap out there can have a hundred positively raving comments. Go figure. One writer has connected with HER audience however much that may mystify everyone else who knows the language.
I don't know if your post was bear poking. I do wish there was a better culture of constructive criticism in the fandom. I see folks ask for concrit all the time; I rarely see any. But if we could do that, maybe we could help some promising writers write stories we'd like to read.
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WORD. Anyone who calls Ianto "svelte" has obviously not seen Ten, or for that matter Eleven. :P
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*also votes for the flow chart*
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POKE DA BEARS
Also,
I have a huge soft melty spot for #1, feel kind of 'eh' about #2, and as for #3, is that even THEM? Sure Tosh is mousy, but Gwen is TOO sensitive, if anything. I would skip right on past #4. And 4a, eh. Eeeehhhh. I LIKE Gwen's blind eye. :D
Like most things, cliches are good in moderation. I want this flow chart. I want to use it as a prompt table. :D
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Poke that bear!
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