Dreary post for a dreary day

[opera142]

I'm just a bundle of lashing out, today.

It's sad how many people lack back-up for the most basic stuff. And it's shameful how many people with essentially free rides in life can bitch about insignificant shit. (yes, I'm including myself in the latter)

New fan fic pet peeve: I Lived in a Hole All These Years.

Being a newcomer to WWE or TNA does not equal new to life. Some aspects, yes. The majority of life experiences, NO.

Stories that feature Charlie Haas (for example,)as this wide-eyed innocent creature bug the heck out me. He's 32 years old. He's attended college, participated in orginized sports, been a stockbroker. Since he's healthy and mobile and hasn't publically expressed any religious or moral based reasons for abstaining from things, I think it's safe to assume he's been online, seen R rated movies, heard swear words in the locker room. Since he's an athlete, I think it's also safe assume he knows his body well. Even if he's waited to have sex until meeting that special someone, he knows where's he's ticklish, how his body reacts to things (including arousal) where he likes being touched, what and where a prostate gland is. At the very least, in the twenty years between 12 and 32, he's probably been horny. He's probably *gasp* jerked off. Virgin doesn't not equal sexless.

And virgin (sex or anything-wise) doesn't equal nitwit, no matter how many fan fics to the contrary. Someone who has struggled, suffered and worked his or her butt off to get to WWE or TNA is not going to stand around, wide-eyed and naive, once they get there. Yes, if the dirt sheets are to be believed there's hazing and and other crap to be wary of. But there's a difference between watching your step and wanting someone to carry you over the mudpuddles.

Any job has hazing (though, thankfully most don't involve Bradshaw and threats of finding crap in your luggage). Most wrestlers had bills to pay before any promoter felt like giving them money. Kidman was a bank teller, Lance Storm was a bouncer, Lita was stripper. None of those jobs would have tolerated gullibility. Why would those people suddenly forget every life skill they aquired?

Even wrestlers who have expressed religious/moral reasons for avoiding certain things are aware of those things exsisting. Again, there's a difference between choosing to look elsewhere and sticking one's head in the sand.

Ranting aside, it's possible to write a believable version of the newbie story. Going off of my own tastes, I would happily indulge in reading (with the proper backstory)Kurt Angle as a little wide-eyed. Key word, little. He spent a good chunk of his life intensely training for the Olympics, other pursuits had to take the backseat. Given a convincing backstory, I could believe anyone as a wide-eyed innocent. Even Charlie Haas. But, I need believable motivation and reasons. Wide-eyed innocent (or any protrayal)because an author is too lazy look beyond her own situation is tedious storytelling.

Comments

[devilswolf.livejournal.com]

I think it's really a case of living through one's character. Most of the writers in the fandom are massively inexperienced in all areas of life because they're not even out of high school yet. On one hand, they're putting their own reactions into the character (and they're too inexperienced to know that it's not plausible); on the other hand, they're trying to show that they are NOT so unworldly because obviously they know about these experiences because they write about them.

I don't know the current shape of the fandom, but when I participated in it, the vast majority of the writers hadn't even experienced sex, but still wrote about it. Poorly.

[angstbunny.livejournal.com]

I agree with Merc. More and more, I think a person's writing reflect who they are as a person. Granted, the more you think about writing and the more you practice at it, you end up hiding the personal aspects well or even weave them in in a manner that contributes rather than takes away from the story and/or characters. One of the most oft given advice about writing is "write what you know" -- except, of course, a lot of people take that to mean a direct translation of one's life experiences into fiction, or grafting their own emotions onto their characters.

I will freely admit that I've totally done the same when I first started writing -- my own inexperience in life was grafted directly onto my characters. And as much as I would like to think I've gotten better at NOT doing that, my own continued inexperience in a lot of other matters still make their way into my fics. And I think it's the same for a lot of writers in this, or any other, fandom. There's a lot of vicarious living going on. I do agree that it's annoying to read sometimes. Just like any characterization taken to an extreme -- twinking, for example -- it becomes irritating and jarring to read. But I think -- and as you said yourself -- it always comes back to execution. I can perfectly well believe in a naive and gullible stripper whose life experiences haven't taught her a single thing if it's written well.

tangent, then back to the original point

[opera142.livejournal.com]

--More and more, I think a person's writing reflect who they are as a person.--

I've been working on an opposite theory; an author's writing reflects how they want to be perceived by others. MarySue stuff is only the most obvisous example. Slash often times is MarySue dressed up in a canon character's clothing.

In F/F, there is -never- a bad part of either character. One may have "a problem" drinking or something minor--but it's only because she's hurting.

In M/M, it's like some authors indulge in all the cliche'd drama that they don't dare write themselves into because THEY ARE LIBERATED, GO GIRL POWER. Most tops are nothing more than subsititue daddies. They nuture and coddle and don't get more than a child-like "I love you" in return.

Why isn't the top ever the one who gets the comfort in H/C? Why doesn't the virgin want to top? Because most authors are writing themselves as the pampered, adored, pretty one.

As far as gullibility and the rest, their crime isn't that they appear in the story, but that they appear for such lame reasons. I'd love to read some stories about vulnerability, fear and feeling like outclassed. Being over 30, a college graduate or an Olympic gold medalist doesn't exempt you from those feelings.

And going waaay out on a personal taste limb, naive/gullible characterization is creepily sadistic. Like what kind of control or self esteem issues does Daddyrescuertop have that he needs to date the dumb and helpless? Why isn't sucessful, dynamic Wrestler A looking for someone equally dynamic? There's no accounting for love sometimes, yeah, yeah, yeah. But there is in the kind of partner one seeks.

Re: the tangent

[redfiona99.livejournal.com]

Other than OMG is Charlie Haas really 32?! What little F/F I write it tends to be pure smut so characterisation doesn't always get pushed to the fore, but a lot of the problem is that there isn't a lot to work with. For instance, lets take the heel divas who tend to be more interesting to work with to begin with:

Jazz - is a heel because, well it's never been explained, but mainly because she beat up Trish.
Molly - is a heel because she's a little prudish and not "hot" (inverted commas because she's smoking).
Trish - is a heel because she's kissing a different guy and helping him out.

That's really not a lot to work with. Jazz and especially Molly lend themselves more to gen fic and Trish, Trish isn't even involved with another woman in her angle.

Out of those three the only f/f fic I can even think where one of them is bad would be Trish with a girlfriend she's only using to guard her from everyone else that's out to get her. The trouble being is who do you use as the girlfriend?

If fanfic writers aren't presented with little quirks, ticks and chinks in the armour it's very difficult to write f/f fic where one of the characters isn't nice.