hunger games does this soooo well. many hunger games YA dystopia clones Do Not
The grifters' lie is that the gimmick will give you an edge. The opposite is true. It will weaken you, dilute you, and infantilize you. The writing is not the sale, publication, response. The writing is the writing. At the end of a draft, you're a writer. At the end of this, you're a button pusher.
annoyed may not even be the right word. bc sometimes of course a clear-eyed protagonist is required for the specific goal a given story is trying to achieve. but i think it's become the default in a certain sphere of today's fantasy in a way that makes many stories the poorer for it
sorry to be pretentious on bsky right out the gate but i didn't even realize i was annoyed at the trope of 'angry rebellious protagonist with an oddly clear-eyed view of the social structure of their oppression' until like. just now
this thought brought to you by: writing out a novel scene meant to demonstrate that [x group of people] are managed like livestock & realizing [multiple fantasy novels i read recently] have tried to do smth similar by just having the pov inner monologue grouse about "being treated like animals"
a fun skill that fanfiction specifically helped me develop is: figuring out exactly what part of a (source or comp) text im annoyed about or in conversation with & therefore taking a subconscious process and making it deliberate
novel title and chapter index ft. the john trudell quote about cultural appropriation that has haunted me since i heard it
she gets slightly possessed and has to cut her own arm off in chapter one. and then the story starts!!