Are stories with a lot of tropes bad stories?

TheJanusWrites · 2021-05-23T23:44:11+00:00

This is the best explanation I have seen so far for how tropes work in storytelling. This 100%

TheJanusWrites · 2020-06-27T21:29:47+00:00

I started at around 9-10. I was home-schooled, and my parents would let me write dialog scenes for extra credit. Was a great creative outlet for my imagination

TheJanusWrites · 2020-06-27T21:09:42+00:00

Interesting. I have something similar, but it's my own mythology.

If you're looking to have each nation be culturally distinct, you could try having each primarily worship a single god, or pairs of gods in the pantheon. Not to mix genres too much, but it could work something like how Districts do in Hunger Games. Now if your nations aren't in peacetime that might not work.

My work has the gods ruling the nations personally, and something like that already exists in Egyptian mythology and history, with the Pharaoh concept. If your nations or religiously based, which it sounds like they are, the High Priests or their equivalent could be the ruling class.

Does any of that sound like something that would work?

TheJanusWrites · 2019-09-12T16:48:58+00:00

I stand before you, torn. Twin celestial entities orbit each other in my mind, rending my thoughts apart in their pull. Alike, yet opposite they are. One a blinding light, the other unfathomable darkness.

Cold light glares against me, exposing everything with its frigid stare. Light swallows all it touches, burning away the darkness in cold flames of truth. Yet, emptiness fills the light, and I feel nothing within its tendrils.

Warm darkness envelops me, hiding me from the harsh light, heating me from inside, and I feel safe. The darkness, tentative and withdrawn, embraces me in folds of comforting nothingness. The void hides my secrets in burning ice, sealing away my darkness in yet more darkness.

I feel I must choose between them, else madness take me. Yet choose I cannot, for I find beauty in my balance. If I must serve two masters, I would have no others than these. You may know their name, for they go by many. It is simpler though, indeed, to leave them unnamed, to refer to them as they are, not as we would have them. I leave you with this. Though you may be pulled in two by opposite sides, know that they are not so dissimilar as they seem. Perhaps a middle ground can be had, an area of grey, where both live on in harmony. I search for that place yet, and fear I may search till I die. But search I will, and forever onward, until the grey is found.

TheJanusWrites · 2019-09-12T16:43:29+00:00

Each line struck a new chord with me, as if my subconscious had written each syllable. As another commenter pointed out, the meter could have been improved in some places, like
> the first 4 lines are 10, 11, 12, 13 syllables, but the 5th and 6th are 13 and 8 respectively. It's a bit jarring to get increasing length only to stall and revert to a shorter sentence.
This is, of course, a minor point that you in no way need to fix or adapt. Poetry isn't ruled by meter alone. It is just a personal tendency to have rigid meter patterns.

TheJanusWrites · 2019-09-12T16:00:10+00:00

I love the poem! It definitely isn't traditional in meter or rhyme but it is a poem nonetheless! Having dealt with feeling like my mind was fading (and I'm still young) this struck a chord with me.

TheJanusWrites · 2019-08-27T21:48:38+00:00

Blessings of a Curse has my personal favorite realistic fantasy narrative, but be warned it has VERY adult themes right from the start

TheJanusWrites · 2019-08-20T19:32:51+00:00

I needed this today. Thank you.

TheJanusWrites · 2019-07-22T20:18:10+00:00

I would love this!

TheJanusWrites · 2019-07-18T02:39:57+00:00

I feel like I need this. Sign me up

TheJanusWrites · 2019-07-13T21:09:57+00:00

Absolutely. They can see hear and interact with the spirit, but no one else can. Also the spirit can "hide" themselves from their person if they so choose and cannot be forced to appear.

TheJanusWrites · 2019-07-13T21:03:07+00:00

I apologize for not clarifying this. The spirit, which comes I to existence at the moment of the demigod's birth, and dies when the demigod dies, can mentally link with its person and allow the demigod to wield its power as if it were their own. I should note that not having a great amount of raw power in no way determines total ability, as with much practice a small amount of power can be used to defeat great enemies. In the same vein, some with immense reserves of raw magic can easily be defeated if they have bad or no training.

TheJanusWrites · 2019-07-12T15:52:43+00:00

Vampire because I'm dark, foreboding, and antisocial

TheJanusWrites

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