What's Something You Like to Write, But Not Read?
What's Something You Like to Write, But Not Read?
Or the other way around: something you like to read, but don't like to write? (Not that you struggle to write, but hate doing it at all. Even if you are good at it.)
I was pondering this question myself and hadn't come up with too many answers. Vague ideas, like how I don't like describing the environment, but I can enjoy a good descriptive passage in someone else's work. On the other hand, everything I like to write I like to read.
However, I know some people don't like reading other people's renditions of certain tropes. I'm interested in hearing about it.
I can't think of any genres or tropes off the top of my head which count for me, but I know there are some of those too!
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I am very picky about my romances and for hyper-specific genres I looove reading them. Heck, I'll happily read pairings that aren't my OTPs. But I hate writing them unless there is something there to make me laugh.
I'm generally very open to reading all kinds of endings. However I cannot stand writing endings that are closed. To me that immediately makes the story too unrealistic.
One genre I have a very mixed relationship with is horror. Years of getting into unfortunate conversations with others who would be, "why wasn't this tagged for horror" or refer to me as a horror artist made me veeeery upset and it still kind of stings.
The issue with this comes from the fact that certain subject matter that are popular in the horror genre brings me a lot of comfort (most common example: existentialism dripping in voidpunk) however for a lot of people that is terrifying regardless of the goal of the work. To me, it feels like lying if I tag something as horror when the last thing I am interested in is spooking people. I also have a deep, deep hatred for the body horror tag. It's massively depressing and enraging as fuck that people who were born with or end up in a situation where they now have unconventional parts are suppose to be defaulted to the "your existence is now tragedy" genre.
Heck, in general I find the horror genre very annoying. There are works I get into but it was because of some other element. I'm not here to be scared, I'm here because that monster design was beautiful or the worldbuilding did something cool.
These days I do my best to tag warnings for elements so no one comes unprepared. However, I still don't call my work horror because that isn't the goal.
Hard agree. The thing I like the most about a lot of horror is the worldbuilding. It's the ones that make me think I enjoy. Then again, I think there is a large difference between scary and startling. A lot of people consolidate the two. I'm easily startled, but I'm not always easily scared.
Like where genres blur out into other genres but it doesn't always go two ways! "A rectangle is a square but a square is never a rectangle."
I'm sorry you've experienced that level of mislabeling of your work. Not everything that someone finds scary is necessarily horror and sometimes I think people misunderstand the point of tagging.
Thank you. I like to think I've gotten better over the years but sometimes I get comments that make me flail my arms for an hour.
Entirely fair. I think that is, unfortunately, just part of the experience. That said, I imagine your work really resonates with others who find comfort in similar things. Part of the joy of writing niche is fulfilling something that others seeking it can't easily find elsewhere.