This doesn't really apply to most stories on this website, or any other ones anywhere.
Except maybe for Fanfiction.net, but well- fanfiction is to me more of a first step to creative writing. So I understand that fanfiction writers- or at least most of them- have poor grammar. And writing style. And ideas. And creativity. And most of them shouldn't even be allowed to touch, see or think of pens, paper, or any sort of keyboard anywhere.
I'm serious. I know what kind of mess fanfictions can end up being, mostly from personal experience.
I made my debut in writing with fanfiction, and it was god awful- just effin terrible. But I wrote for myself. ( Not that encouragement doesn't always help, but I'm re-reading this crap and the whole thing is a cringe festival. ) Anyhow, I believe that fanfiction is a great way to get started wih writing, for a lot of diffrent reasons I'm not going to list because I tried to in the shower, and I ended up making a whole essay about fanfiction.
Sad, I know...
So of course there's a lot more to the topic than people give it credit for, but there is a reason why fanfiction has such a bad reputation.
First thing I can think of is stereotypes and clichés, but that's a whole other subject. Today, I'm giving you a tip when it comes to writing fanfiction or any other genre really, on Wattpad or anywhere else really:
Whatever ou do, don't use the words 'female' or 'male' to talk about your characters.
" Jane had never been so angry. The young female punched Jared in the face, sending him flying to the ground. Jared grunted as he hit the floor; the male never knew a female could hit so hard."
I mean- geez people, you're the author of an e-book that's read by a couple people, not the narrator of some animal mating ritual show on the Discovery Channel!
God...
Even when you're dealing with Werewolf, or Furry, or Anthropomorphic-Human/Animal-Thing fanfiction or general fiction, never, ever- EVER should you be describing ANY of your characters as 'the female' or 'the male'.
It de humanizes/furrizes/anthropomorphic-human/animal-thingizes your character! It makes them seem like a hunk of meat with the capacity of mouvement and reproduction! That's it! Other than that, Jane isn't Jane, she's just a female, a being with more estrogen than testosterone in her genetic makeup!
And I'm sure that's not what most people who use this sorry excuse for a personal pronoun (if it can even be thought of in that way) mean to do. They probably just want to make sure you understand that their character. Is. A. GUY. MALE. EQUALS. GUY.
" GET IT THROUGH YOUR HEAD!" screams fanfiction writer number 185638410783.
Point is: please stop with the male/female thing. It's not cool, it doesn't add to the story. Describing a group of people as 'females' or 'males' doesn't make you a good writer, it makes you a lazy writer.
Which is ironic since the better alternative to feamle/male would be girl/guy. Let's take our previous tidbit for example:
" Jane had never been so angry. The young girl punched Jared in the face, sending him flying to the ground. Jared grunted as he hit the floor; the boy never knew a girl could hit so hard."
Ah, much better. And shorter to write/type.
Funny ain't it? Lazy writers write longer words. Well, guess we can't change how the Internet writers' effed-up minds work...
Till next time.
