my fury at (some) characters in (some) literature

If you have no qualms about any characters in literature past and present, it might be a good idea to click the red X button on the top right hand corner of the screen instead of reading on.

Right! Where do I even begin?

Okay maybe I shall start here: There seems to be this current trend of having characters who are romantically obsessed with the male/female lead of the story. This trend has made me literally toss books back onto stores' bookshelf because I cannot ever be pulled into stories like that

Look, I know I've said that I'm not a huge lover of romance novels and therefore I may not be the right person to be commenting about what constitutes as romance and what doesn't, but come on! I do not think that obsessing over someone is romantic at all! In fact, I think it's downright creepy! I believe the term "stalker" applies.

Also, the way these characters are portrayed; as people who have two-dimensional personalities because they don't have a life other than just obsessing and fantasizing over their romantic interests, just infuriates me because every fibre of my being thinks that nobody on earth exists solely just to obsess over another person, everybody has a life and everybody has their own personalities, fears and goals!
 
On a side note, I hate female characters who do absolutely peanuts to improve their situation because they believe that their male romantic interest will come and save them. Give me any book that reads like that and I won't bother reading it; much less recommend it.
 
Look, I'm not someone who thinks males don't have the right to exist. I'm just someone who thinks that girls are strong enough to stand up for what they believe is worth fighting for; that girls don't need a "someday my prince will come and rescue me" reprise in the background because they can rescue themselves and kick some butts while they're at it, thank you very much! Give me a book with those kind of girls and I'd love it. Give me a book with a weak, insipid heroine (wait, is she even worthy to be called a heroine?!) and I'd chuck it in the bin.
 
Yes, I know, sometimes it is nice and romantic to sort of sit and think of a guy faraway who will come and rescue you from your humdrum life (only God knows how many times I'm guilty of this lol) but you know what? I'm going to fight whatever battles come my way regardless; I'm not going to put my life on hold for the dude!
 
Right! Now on to my next main gripe.
 
I do NOT understand why there seems to be this notion that close guy friends of a girl must either turn out to be a gay friend (who knows how to pick pretty dresses for said girl to impress her romantic interest *rolls eyes*) or be in love with the girl. Why can't guy friends just be a straight, guy friend? Personally, I love it when authors chuck a guy and a girl together as friends and just enjoy what's birthed out of that friendship. After all, a girl-girl friendship is a relationship with different dynamics as compared to a girl-guy friendship and I love seeing both types of relationships done well :)
 
Even if the guy friend has to fall in love with the girl, why can't authors explore it in more detail in other creative ways? Rather than just a: Ben had always been in love with Pauline but could never admit it type of thing? Why not something along the lines of: they had always been friends since kids, but now in adulthood, something changed; they had a new outlook on that person?
 
Okay, now that I've gotten that off my chest, I shall rally on with my thesis. I will again take my leave for the next two weeks ... by the end of which I would have officially finished my thesis wahoo!
 
P.S. - Sorry about the whole rant thing but these trends have really been getting on my nerves; particularly this week when I keep seeing reminders of them everywhere I look. -_-
 

a breather :)

So I'm back again after taking a month off to focus on my thesis and oh boy, what a ride it has been! I've never written non-stop for a full week straight, 12pm-2am like clockwork. On a side note, the Lipton tea company must've loved the fact that I avidly consumed their green tea product the whole time; there's nothing like cradling a warm mug of tea and deeply inhaling its comforting scent. I feel like I slip into 'zen' mode whenever that happens :)

Anyway, enough about my weird cravings for green tea, on to business for the day. Let's talk about my weird ways of getting inspiration instead :D

I was walking to work this morning, like I always do unless it's raining buckets or I'm sick in which case tram's the place to be in! It's winter in Melbourne, the sun had yet to show its face and so it was absolutely freezing even though I had two layers of woolen clothing and knee-high boots on. There was this moment where it started to drizzle lightly, so I put up my umbrella and then had to trawl through layers of fallen autumn leaves... and then inspiration whacked me so hard in the face that for a moment I failed to realize it for what it was.

In my yet unwritten Dark Lily, there's a scene about midway where Ashleigh walks in the rain... and until then I had NO idea why I planned to have that scene in there; all I knew was that it was supposed to be this turning-point for her.

When I was walking today however, it struck me as clear as a bell. I don't know how to explain it but I suddenly knew what Ash was supposed to feel because I started feeling it, I knew what she was supposed to think because I started thinking it. Then when I reached work, I snapped right out of it and went back to my normal, right frame of mind. I know, I know, it all sounds incredibly insane!

I don't know whether it's a writer thing but I can, on some days, just sit, stare into space, and let my brain wander away and become a totally different person. Sounds crazy? Wait, I forgot to say, I actually enjoy doing it. So if you think about it, I get all emo in two ways. The first scenario is when I get all emo because of my current life situation and the second scenario is when I get all emo because I've happily cast my brain out to go live in an imaginary character who is supposed to feel emo. Maybe that's why there's a little bit of me in every character that I write, if you look close enough O.o

Yes, I am a weird creature indeed.

Do you have any weird ways of getting inspiration? :D