Could you give some specific examples of what you consider a good story versus a bad story and why?

by Anonymous 2 days ago

A good story achieves what it wants through dialogue (not only dialogue of course) and not through shortcuts. Watching something like X-Files (came out before I was born lol) I was struck with how natural and gradual the dialogue and the actions of the characters were. If someone said something it made sense from the character at the time, we had a sense of their intentions but it didn't feel like the character was trying to speak in a voice that was borrowed from the writer or someone else. I am not saying it wasn't inspired by other stories, but it felt like the characters weren't just spilling their guts. I think the most egregious example I see often of a bad story is stories when there are minority side characters and (seemingly) no minority writers. I find that a lot of people write black person (especially women) for example with twitter quips, talking about privilege and such. Which I am not opposed to the idea of talking about that stuff politically, but I do not know any black person (including me) who would ever start divulging about that in a mostly-white workplace, for safety reasons. I think I realized this when watching class of 09, which is a recent sci-fi show about these people who are going into FBI academy to become agents, and the black guy starts talking about racial issues to his white female classmate. I just was thinking, 'I dont think any black person who wants to be an fbi agent in 2009 would have such a concisely worded story about police brutality with his white female roommate even if she is a woman.' It just felt like an obligatory 'police brutality is bad in a cop show' thing, but all the nuance of it is lost when you decide to make a show about FBI agents, and just make it a tiny speech about why its bad. I don't want people to think this is a dogwhistle so I will say anime/manga is also really bad at writing people and dialogue, I think its ground zero for 'introvert who doesnt talk to people writes a story with people for people who dont talk to other people.' issue.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

yes omg I made that mistake!! thank u for pointing it out

by Anonymous 2 days ago

I totally get it. This sorta thing gets mostly blamed on capitalism, as people say they are just so bummed and burned out to do anything "real" and just want to turn off their brains. To some extent, its understandable, but there is a point where one could just muster up some energy to experience life even under the dire circumstances of capitalistic burnout. People look towards media as a way to experience life nowadays, not as a mirror to life. People dont go out anymore, dont have many friends or have difficulty making friends, and people are participating in their communities anymore. It's all sad, and I am somewhat like that too.

by Anonymous 2 days ago