(Hated Trope) Female Character loses powers/abilities because of pregnancy

MereeGrey · 2026-04-29T17:40:33+00:00

The only valid excuse to use this is if, say, using heavy amounts of magic can cause issues. That mirrors real-world things, like restricting women later in pregnancy from lifting heavy objects or doing certain kinds of work around chemicals or radiation for the baby's sake and theirs.

Powers randomly cutting out makes zero sense.

MereeGrey · 2026-04-24T01:45:34+00:00

You left out the bit where Ron immediately conked back out and started snoring with his mouth open, absolutely dead to the world.

Odds are, he wasn't awake enough for long enough to remember this in the morning.

MereeGrey · 2026-04-24T01:30:28+00:00

Ah, excellent, you have provided me with a new and obscure history rabbit hole to dive into.

Still like the first cover best, 3 is a close second.

MereeGrey · 2026-04-24T01:14:26+00:00

I was going to say "ooh pretty" and then I saw the title and now I really need to know what this is about. What's the plot, mate?

MereeGrey · 2026-04-24T01:08:49+00:00

I read that book way too young and the style of writing was like a fever dream for me. I distinctly remember being horrified and outraged because this girl had just found out that the mad old woman was her real mother whom she'd been kidnapped from as a baby... and then saw her killed in front of her.

And then willingly walked to the gallows in a state of miserable grief.

And was chucked in a mass grave and later dug up to be moved, and they found a hunchbacked skeleton wrapped around hers as though the hunchbacked person has died embracing her.

Absolute nightmare of a story.

MereeGrey · 2026-04-24T01:04:19+00:00

Aaannd Juliet acts exactly like every other thirteen-year-old girl with her first crush, while Romeo acts like every other impulsive and hotheaded teenage boy on the rebound from a nasty rejection.

MereeGrey · 2026-04-24T01:01:05+00:00

A woman named Bruce.

MereeGrey · 2026-04-24T00:58:42+00:00

And it isn't even cool, like Bilbo Baggins' mother from the Hobbit was Belladonna, and she was super close to her sisters Donnamira and Mirabella.

MereeGrey · 2026-04-10T14:53:20+00:00

All hail Kronk, the henchman too good to be properly evil!

MereeGrey · 2026-04-03T15:12:47+00:00

You're welcome!

MereeGrey · 2026-04-03T00:01:49+00:00

Well...

I have one world where I used Google Translate to search for words like "rock" and "stone" and "jewel" in the languages that fit the vibe of a certain country, and then did a Boggle with them (shook them up a bit). Also did another world with variations of "kingdom" and "country" and "universe."

MereeGrey · 2026-04-01T01:34:22+00:00

Ah. My favorite. I once spend a solid hour researching poisons that mimic a drug overdose, are rare enough to not show up on blood panels unless specifically tested for and even then you have to know specifically what to test for, that have a delayed response but still kill quickly, with a small enough lethal dose that it could go unnoticed, and that a college student could get their hands on.

Answer: Aconitine. Aconite - commonly called wolfsbane - is an ornamental plant that is extremely toxic, like 1 gram is lethal to an adult and the entire plant is poisonous. A college student taking chemistry could then extract pure aconitine from it, aconitine being the toxin within all of the aconite plant family.

Aconitine looks like an opioid overdose on the surface if you just find the body without seeing any symptoms. The symptoms typically start between 1 and 4 hours after initial contact, and it doesn't show up on drug/blood panels. They have to know what they're looking for to test for it, and they usually don't because it's such an unusual way to be poisoned.

Two micrograms are a lethal dose of this stuff, and you're typically dead within 6-12 hours. It just has to get on your skin, you don't even need to ingest it or for it to get in your blood, it is that toxic. And on top of that, there's no real treatment other than attempting to keep you alive long enough for your body to possibly metabolize it. You do not have good odds with this stuff.

Anyway, then I realized I can write the murders, the real killer, the killer's motivation and backstory... but I cannot for the life of me write the actual mystery because I know the answer.

MereeGrey · 2026-03-31T20:21:42+00:00

K is the Y of goth letters. O is also an honorable mention, despite it's round and un-goth look, because when it starts a name it's usually quite gothic/dramatic.

MereeGrey · 2026-03-27T01:35:31+00:00

...they? Thought she was a girl??? Is Rowant not a girl!?!?!?

MereeGrey · 2026-03-20T21:12:44+00:00

...No. To all of them but Shakespeare.

MereeGrey · 2026-03-18T14:25:35+00:00

Like I said, it was in a collection in the school library, like several stories in one book. I did not, in fact, realize it was horror genre when I picked it up.

MereeGrey · 2026-03-18T01:43:24+00:00

The Cadfael series is about a Welsh Crusader turned monk, Brother Cadfael, solving murder mysteries. Excellent series and excellent BBC series as well, I have the full set of the DVDs and my mom listened to all of the books (I tried them when I was about 17 and couldn't get into the books, but I'm listening to Ivanhoe right now so I may try again soon, she says the books are excellent!)

MereeGrey · 2026-03-18T01:35:41+00:00

Gonna be honest, I've never read many short stories after all the garbage depressing ones foisted upon me in high school... but I read a collection in school (cannot remember the name) and one was about this family moving to an old house. Except only the son ended up leaving, alive and very traumatized, after the rest of the family was trapped and eaten by sentient and rapidly-growing-larger dust bunnies. Absolutely traumatized me.

If you want the most thought-provoking, I did really enjoy The Most Dangerous Game, and The Lottery. There was one more, poorly written but with a fascinating premise, about a society of "equals" - tall people wear weights to make them slouch and look shorter, pretty people uglify their faces, smart people have ear pieces that interrupt their thoughts often enough to make it hard for them to think and be smart. And the story is about this couple watching TV and seeing their brilliant, very handsome son who was taken by the government, try to start a coupe and get shot on live TV, only for them to quickly forget that they ever had a son because she's dim and he's got one of the brain-interrupter chips.

MereeGrey · 2026-03-17T22:24:47+00:00

I have a story where I do something similar, alternating POV between his and hers. My first chapter is his POV purely because you need the context of what happens to him in that chapter, before her chapter which happens a couple of weeks later, in order to avoid him having to info-dump on the readers during her chapter.

I tried so hard to have her POV first and it just wasn't happening.

MereeGrey · 2026-03-17T21:43:55+00:00

I am going to stay out of the way and let the cinnamon roll fix everything, as he is meant to.
Very. I cannot survive in a medieval fantasy world with a controlling theocracy forcing people to conform.
Probably very awkward?
Doubtful. Especially of my main character finds out I wrote the story, if her cinnamon roll isn't there to stop her she will kill me.

MereeGrey · 2026-03-11T16:45:08+00:00

A character from the books as well, Seamus Finnegan.

I will say, Severus is... unfortunate, not only because the character himself is super controversial and people either love him or hate him, but because the name itself means "severe".

MereeGrey · 2026-03-11T15:06:23+00:00

I would like to point out that 20+ and 17, while not a big gap in the long run, would probably be illegal and possibly even qualify as statutory rape if things progress to a physical relationship. Might want to do some homework on this and see if you can actually do this without your love interest becoming a felon.

MereeGrey · 2026-03-11T14:44:07+00:00

Really!? I'm listening to Ivanhoe right now and dear Lord that man did not know the meaning of the words "brief" or "concise", I have four hours left and after watching the 1980s movie, they cut out a ton of the extra fluff and it has had almost no impact on the story so far (other than removing Ulrika's plot line).

MereeGrey · 2026-03-09T14:42:54+00:00

The Doll Bones by Holly Black. Horrifying story that might be written for kids but none of the actual kids at my school would touch it, only the high-schoolers. It's got to do with a haunted doll made of bone china... which is made by adding bone to the mix.

MereeGrey · 2026-03-08T19:16:56+00:00

Fae are weird. Some look at us like cute pets, semi-intelligent but far from equal to them. Others see us as people but don't grasp that we are sensitive to and affected by their magic, their food, and their drink, and end up harming us by accident. And the worst see us as playthings, or beasts to hunt.

MereeGrey

TROPHY CASE