(LOGO)
Hellooo, everybody! The time has officially come. You guys have been asking me to rant about
the worst tropes in fiction forever, and you finally wore me down. I don't know why you
enjoy hearing me complain, but at least someone does. And apparently you're not the only one,
because this video was brought to you by Skillshare. Skillshare is an online learning
community specifically for creatorsm featuring over 17,000 classes in creative writing, business,
design, marketing—whatever you can think of. I've been partnered with Skillshare for a while now,
and that's because I really believe in what they offer, especially for aspiring authors. So much
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and doing well. As usual, if Skillshare is here that means I'm not gonna leave you empty handed.
So stick around until the end of this video for a little something-something. On a related note,
my novel The Savior's Champion is currently available for presale and everyone who pre-orders
it is eligible for my presale giveaway. All participants will receive the first five chapters
of the Savior's Champion. Grand Prize winners will be selected on the release date, April 24.
And on top of that, I got over thirty prizes to hand out once a week. Today I'll be handing out
another prize to a lucky winner, and it may or may not have something to do with Skillshare. Okay,
it definitely has something to do with Skillshare. Stick around for details. With that said,
let's get to the shitty tropes shall we? A quick disclaimer, I've already covered a lot of shitty
tropes in past videos. So for the sake of not being redundant, just assume all those guys are
on this list as well. Here are the other tropes that make me wanna gouge my eyeballs out just so
I don't have to finish reading. Number one (1): Romanticizing abuse. I know I've mentioned this
in a million videos and I said I wasn't gonna be redundant, but since this is my most despised
trope, there was no way I couldn't mention it. The hatred I feel for the widespread romanticizing of
abusive relationships knows no limitations. It makes me want to rage. (Screams) It boggles my
mind that this is an actual trend in fiction, so much so that publishers encourage their authors to
write it. “So I know this concept’s kind of rapey, but impressionable young girls and unfulfilled
wives eat it up. Plus, reinforcing self-hate in our female demographic is an actual and relatively
successful marketing tactic. Also, there's a special spot reserved for me in the fourth
circle of hell.” Readers, please stop buying this trash. I promise you, healthy relationships are
much more entertaining. They're also way sexier because both parties are consenting and no one's
being assaulted, which is nice. Number Two (2): The sexy bad boy and the plain Jane. I enjoy
opposite pairings that bring an equal amount of goods to the table. But this is never how it's
presented. He's sexy, he's brooding, he's got an eight pack, he's a player. And she's plain,
that's it. No man drowning in pussy is gonna fall for the human equivalent of a dish rag,
first of all. Second, this is such a gross power imbalance. You're setting things up so that the
dish rag can fawn over Mr. Eight Pack and bend to his every whim. Because everything he does in
her eyes is magic. (Singing) “I can show you my dick.” You've got a controlling douchebag
and a woman with zero sense of self, of course she's gonna be manipulated.
(Singing) "Shining, shimmering, penis!"
Number three (3): The chosen one. I have no issue with a character being born
into something, because that's just life. People are born into their ethnicity, they're born into
royalty, that's just how bloodlines and genetics work. What I hate is that specific chosen one that
we see all the time. They're probably a teenager, extra points if they just turned sixteen. It's
their birthday, and suddenly things are happening that they just can't explain. This is when some
supernatural person breaks the news to them. “You're not like other girls, you're the chosen
one.” “What? Not me. I just wanna be a normal high school kid.” Said no high school kid, ever.
Of course there's no reason for them to be the chosen one, and even better, they really suck at
the job. Sounds like a great book for me to throw into the garbage. Number Four (4): The somber
hipster dream girl. I feel like the Manic Pixie Dream Girl has been replaced with an insufferable
hipster character. You can catch these characters right away because they usually have a grandma or
grandpa name like Rupert or Geraldine. Or they're named after a piece of nature like Birdie or
Olive. They only wear wool thrift store sweaters, typically in burnt orange or baby puke yellow.
They listen to vintage records, they discuss philosophy and speak in metaphors, and they're
boring as fuck. Worst of all, the stories that feature these assholes often don't tell a story at
all. Telling a story is too mainstream. This book is about themes, prose and atmosphere. You know,
stuff that could be interesting if there was a story attached to them, but there isn't
cuz this book sucks. Number Five (5): Kill all the representation. If the character is black,
they're gonna die. If the character’s gay, they're gonna die too. If the character’s black and gay,
they're definitely fucked. And wouldn’t you know it, now the only characters left are straight
and white. What can you do? I'm not saying you can only kill off straight white characters,
but when you have only one gay character and then you kill them? What the fuck? How do you not see
how completely shitty that looks? Number Six (6): The woman in the refrigerator. “You know I've
got this story with a kick ass male MC, but I'm struggling to nail down his motivation. I know,
I'll kill his wife. We don't need her anyway. I mean, it's not like I even know how to write
women. Are they even people? I'm pretty sure science says no.” Writers, I'm just throwing it
out there. Men can be motivated by lots of stuff. You don't have to kill his girlfriend to turn him
into a hero, you can literally do anything else. Number Seven. This is not right. Number Seven (7):
Fucked up names. I get that when you're writing fantasy, you have the option to create names. But
for God's sake, calm down. When the name has seven syllables and twelve vowels, I'm not even gonna
try to pronounce it. Margaratheratherav—nope, nope, their name’s Maggie, that's it. And half
the time the author just took a regular name and spelled it weird. “You see his name is pronounced
Joe, but it's spelled G O A H E.” “Her name is pronounced Fay, but spelled P H A I silent K.”
“His name is pronounced Gary, but it’s spelled Q Z W Roman Numeral six, pi times the square root of
thirty-seven, penis.” What if I told you there are no laws that state that you have to invent
names. You can use ones that already exist. And I encourage you to do so, because you suck at this.
Number Eight (8): The friendzoned bestie. “I have to watch her parade around with some guy she's
just met! And it's so unfair because I've loved her for so long.” Well, have you told her? “Well,
I mean, no, but—” Then it's your own fault, you damn bitch. Maybe if you communicated with your
big dumb mouth hole, you wouldn’t be stuck jerking off to her yearbook photo. Do you expect me to
feel bad for you? Cuz I don't. You know what I did when a crush didn't like me back? I got over it.
Like a well adjusted non-baby person. No one is obligated to like you just cuz they give you penis
tingles, okay? Number Nine (9): The book ends with a breakup. You know you're not subtle. We all know
what you're doing. Come the last page, the MC and their love interest suddenly and inexplicably hate
each other. That way, readers will be eager to read the sequel to see if they make up. Writers,
there are better, more satisfying cliffhangers out there, I promise you. The love interest doesn't
need to betray the MC for some barely believable reason. They don't need to get jealous over
another person, who will inevitably become player three in the love triangle. There are other ways
to sell a sequel rather than fabricating a lover's quarrel out of nowhere. And Number Ten (10): All
the annoying tropes that turned female characters into cardboard cutouts. There's the strong female
character, a woman who punches dudes in the face and never shows any emotion, so clearly she's
an icon for female empowerment. Or maybe you just made her one dimensional and inhuman, congrats on
the suckage. Then we've got the fighting fuck toy, who is essentially the strong female character,
except that their tits hanging out. Her job is to both shoot guns and cause boners,
because she only exists for the sake of the male spank bank. Empowerment! And of course we have,
born sexy yesterday. She's an alien or a robot or some other creature with no knowledge of the world
around her, but the male MC is gonna try to get it in anyway, because she's a woman with a vagina.
Pro tip, if someone was born yesterday, it doesn't matter if they have boobs. She's still a newborn,
and you're still disgusting. So that's all I got for you today. These tropes are just the
tip of the iceberg that is the giant crock of shit that fuels my undying hatred. I blame these tropes
for my lack of faith in the human race. On that extremely positive note, we have some prizes to
dish out. My presale giveaway for The Savior's Champion is still going down, and today one of
you is going to win a free subscription for a full year of Skillshare premium. That's one
year with access to over 17,000 classes for FREE. It's not fair, I'm jealous, and I hate you. Okay,
well you bought my book so I don't really hate you, but still. And the winner is this person.
Thank you so much for pre-ordering The Savior's Champion, I know you're gonna love it. And a huge
thank you to Skillshare for partnering with me. These guys are incredible, and I am such
a fan of what they do for creators. If you're looking to improve your writing, maybe hoping to
avoid committing the sins I listed in this video, definitely check out Skillshare. They have amazing
classes available. And Skillshare is making it easier than ever to get in on the action. As a
special treat just for you guys, they are offering two months of Skillshare premium for just 99 cents
to the first 500 people who click the activation link below. It's in the description. Click it,
you'll get access to thousands of classes for two full months, for less than $1. And only the first
500 people are gonna get it, so you gotta move fast. What are you waiting for? Don't forget
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know when I upload a video. Oh that rhymed! I didn't even do that on purpose. If you wanna
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is really good, and also because this is how I make my money. And be sure to follow me on
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