Yeah I think the difference comes in lazy writing shortcuts and hand wavium, rather than use of a trope or cliche itself.
Yeah, I've got a similar reaction to Terrible Families vs. "Let's slap on abusive parents for instant Tragic Backstory angst factor." I'd rather read a fic about Dudley Dursley having to untangle all the fleas he's picked up from Vernon than a fic where Vernon and Petunia are way more physically abusive than they are in canon so Harry can be Very Sad about it, but there's way more of the latter than the former.
I'm suddenly paranoid that I handled suicide attempts poorly in my fic, but given that the whole thing was based heavily on personal experiences with severe depressive episodes, I hope I at least did an acceptable job... .-.
man I'm sorry I guess I really upset some people. I wasn't trying to accuse anyone. I'm sure you did fine and even if you didn't I won't get angry with you specifically. (honestly if a writer has any experience at all with mental illness and/or does even the slightest bit of research they're already miles beyond some of the garbage I've seen)
IT WAS A GOOD ACEY people who like su and well handled mental illness: GO READ HER STUFF IT IS THE BEST. On another topic: I know that CSA is a real thing a lot of people go through. But having Vernon Dursley rape Harry for the dramaz in your creature fic is... Bad. And makes it seem as though you believe emotional abuse/physical neglect doesn't count.
*has written whumpy fic involving suicide, but is very sure she's innocent of The Thing because the viewpoint character is so clueless/in denial that the only attempt they recognize as suicide is the one that's actually emotional blackmail*
It's one of my Radiant Historia fics. The premise is basically "my favorite character dies a lot and it gets undone via time travel," and while I'm pretty sure the writers didn't intend it, it's very easy to read said character as passively suicidal in canon, so, uh. There are a lot of instances of Death By Heroic Sacrifice in there. Spoiler: Further elaboration, great big spoilers The viewpoint character of the fic is the main character's uncle, who desperately wants to keep him alive and in one piece but also projects onto him like crazy and is abusive as hell. The emotional blackmail thing is re: an event in the endgame where Uncle gets mad at MC for not agreeing with his plans and threatens to lock him in another dimension, cue boss fight. So I had a timeline where MC loses that fight... and immediately kills himself, because he guessed, correctly, that his uncle would go back in time to try to prevent his death.
I mean, BBC America is a Thing, and a couple years ago I watched, like. all of Top Gear on it?? and I don't care that much about cars, but they're one of my dad's special interests and it was a Bonding Activity. and I did like those challenges where they were like, "here's a really shit car, do the thing." and the holiday specials rank high on my list of Most Humorous Films. and I had a really big crush on Hammond, ngl. so. anecdata? HEY AON with any luck I will be going to a """mental hospital""" (aka in-patient treatment center, which I think is what most people are thinking of when they use that term?) shortly and will therefore be qualified to write one of those which is based in an actual experience and therefore not shit. so maybe I will write one of those? if I can think of something I want to AU, anyway. hmm. the Stormlight Archive, maybe... hey, I love that kind of comment too! giving and receiving, although admittedly I haven't done any of that on AO3, just in workshops. (and no one gives me much. ugh.) I like giving general sort of Writing Comments also? like "hey, I liked that phrasing there" or "...I don't think that's the best word you could've used" or whatever. THEREFORE @all y'all fic writers if you're interested in that sort of feedback (whether it be constructive criticism or "you did [x] really well" or both) feel free to link me to your work? (...though nothing E-rated, and I forget if M-rated stuff gives you the lil "certify that you're 18 or older" popup? if that's the case, that's out too, since of course I do not want to Lie On The Internet. :P) can't promise I will give feedback, or that I'll give a lot, but I'd appreciate a reading list of things where I know the author won't get upset by that kind of thing.
Let's be honest here, Kaladin and Shallan in an outpatient treatment group would be the funniest damn thing. Their service animals hate each other. So much.
Dear person who was asking questions about extremely basic worldbuilding information in the fandom Discord the other day: this does not give me any confidence in the likely quality of that fic you just posted which was tagged "filling in plotholes" whatsoever.
Well, I once saw a college student AU where spren are cats, but while being a beauteous white floof might work for Syl, I feel like Pattern's personality is better represented by a horrible screaming gremlin chicken bird. Too bad service chickens birds are probably not a thing for people who are not pirates.
@LadyNighteyes I know nothing about that fandom, but apparently there are some people who have trained parrots as service animals, so if that would fit in with the characters' situations--I have met parrots that fit the description of "horrible screaming gremlin bird."
I was thinking of this post. :::PPP (FTR Pattern is very strange, endlessly curious, can copy voices, and generally seems like he would probably be a bird if he was an animal and not a sentient manifestation of the concept of lies.)
Spoiler: Uncharitable Oh my god Oh my god GUYS THINGS CAN BE TRAUMATIZING WITHOUT MOLESTATION. yes let's imply some death eaters were pedophiles for reasons of... Angst? In a otherwise good fic, too. Christ.
Canon: Realistic, nuanced portrayals of trauma and the many different ways it can affect survivors, including things that are usually ignored because they don't fit a convenient narrative of how survivors "should" act Every frigging fic: CLICHÉ PARTY WOOHOO IT'S LIKE A LIFETIME MOVIE UP IN HERE YEAH! FUCK NUANCE THAT'S LAME! Me: facepalming forever (eta: Okay, in fairness, I actually found two very good stories. So not technically every fic.)
I don't want to tag noname back into a convo they no longer want to have, but their comments helped me realize something that feels very important to me. I worry about not having enough personal information about an author to know how to comment. It didn't really occur to me that the fact that the author has even less information about me might cause them similar problems. Maybe that's why my most well-received comments to total strangers have tended to be the rambly ones with a lot of personal asides. There may be extraneous information. but at least it's not lacking in context. I do really want to leave more comments, and I think this thread has given me more of an idea about how to approach that in a way that might work better with my own anxieties. Not "ramble moar" though I probably will do that anyway, but try to convey a sense that I'm an actual person with a real life personality. Or at the very least give enough context that people can feel pretty confident that I'm not insulting them. Thank you to every author who gave their opinion on what makes a good comment. It's honestly really helpful.
