Tell me I'm wrong. · 9:24am Dec 12th, 2013
I recently read a story here that was fairly well praised by most of the people that also read it. I, however, didn't. I was left less than impressed by the end and the more I think about it the more I'm sure that I'm right in disliking the story.
The writing itself was of decent enough quality. By that I mean that there were few grammar mistakes and it was pleasing enough to the eye. There were no large sections of text, nor drawn out descriptions. At no time did I feel as though I were slogging through a miasma of words, struggling to make it to the next sentence.
That this is the only praise that I can find for the story is my problem. The story itself was not only unoriginal, it was blatanly so, to the point that by the end of it I had not seen even one remotely new idea. It completelty lacked for even a modicum of flare or attempt to make the story anything more than a beat for beat retread of every trope that one would apply to it. Every action and development was so boringly exicuted along the stereotipical lines of the genre that I knew exactly what was going to happen long before it did. This might seem like a none issue, there are presidences for stories that work and work well because the reader knows what is going to happen. This was not one of those cases. There was no tension, no drama, nothing. Even in the dullest of Slice-of-Life stories there is something to be learned, some deeper meaning to something. This story had nothing.
It took me a bit to figure out the reason I hate it so much is because it didn't even try.
I've read some incredibaly poorly constructed stories that never had a chance of reach the heights for which they strived, but at least they tried. I've read stories that so lacked in a basic understanding of the english language that it hurt to read, but at least they tried.
This story angers me because it took the most clinical, white washed, mathmatical approach to telling a story and didn't put any effort into adding even the bearest hint of anything more. It was a checklist, faithfully marked until it was finished.
What I want is your opinion on whether or not I am right for feeling this way. Am I right for hating a story that is well written but holds no value, or should I be praising it for being a well crafted but useless pile of words?
-Honey Mead
p.s. I won't reveal what story it is. That would be wrong and unfair.
Just because everyone else loves something doesn't mean you have to and vice versia. If you didn't like it that's alright. But overall I say you're right for not liking something that in the end does nothing for anyone yet everybody loves it (looking at you CoD and PewDiePie
). Just don't hate on those who enjoy it they're just as free to their opinions as you are. But that's just my opinion.
I would agree with you. Just cloning a story is lazy and unimaginative. It how I feel about a lot of films and TV at the moment. Its like we are running out of ideas.
Its a hard thing to accept that people just trot out the same thing over and over when you yourself, yes you, put so much effort into trying to make your stories stand out in what is already a very busy and over though area of fandom,
That said, some people need a confidence boost. If by writing something easy that lots of people like it may encourage them to push further and be more adventurous... or just do more clones, depends on the person.
But I still agree that it is amazing how people can have no imagination at all.
I heartily disagree, I'm afraid. Perhaps your points are valid and the story is everything you say -- unoriginal, boring, lacking in any flare. But see, everything has an essence, everything has a color to it; some things may have colors so similar they may be almost the same. But stories are meant to convey something, evoke something -- feelings. There is no limit to what literature can be meant to convey or represent, for it is the human mind in words. Therefore, I believe the story, whatever it is, is simply the product of another human mind, however 'copied' it may be. Perhaps the author was not trying to convey a lesson, but provide insight: his life is very boring, he feels like a copy. Perhaps he was simply writing it down to capture how he felt at that exact moment, and by chance he struck all the notes of 'unoriginal'.
For me, all that matters is that some people liked it, for some reason. All things are like gears, and any gears that can fit together may do so. You, you may dislike it, but it could mean something else to someone. Perhaps they liked it because it was their first time on the net, and the story was a nice introduction to it? You never know. Unless you know all there is to know about something, you cannot judge. Even then, you should not. Nothing is bad, only another way doing or thinking things.
1598984
If that had been what it was trying to do, you would be right. Unfortunately, I can say with certainty that it was not. if it was, I could forgive it, even though it failure miserably.
This statement...
is almost as wrong as this one...
There are bad stories. There are wrong ways to do things. The rules of literature were not drawn from a hat. They exist as a collective conscious of what works and what doesn't. Sometimes a story can break the bounds, but those are the exceptions that prove the rule. If those statements hold even a glimmer of truth, then there is no reason to put forth any effort in any creation. There is no reason to spend the ten thousand hours honing a skill to become an expert because your work would hold no more value than those of someone who picked up a brush for the first time and painted a squiggly line.
No, I can't accept that. Stories that lack meaning and purpose, that recycle old played out ideas without even a semblance of nuance, are trash and should be treated as such. Stories are important. Stories have meaning. Stories change lives. A story that doesn't even make the most meager attempt to be more than the words on a page is bad.
1599451
I'm sorry! I'm trying to get better, honest!
Putting on my serious face for a bit, I agree. There have been praised stories that just... I don't know. I don't "get" them. Ah, well. To each their own. The wonderful thing is that I don't have to "get" every story that rolls around and onto my screen. Whether I like something Joe Public likes, or dislikes something they like doesn't effect anything in even the small scale of things. So I don't worry about it.
I have bigger concerns than why something is popular when it is a clear knock-off. Like getting Chapter X done... finally...
Today is th day! I swear!!! I've only said that every day for the past two months... 
1599451 Believe what you will, but don't say I'm wrong. You cannot know I am wrong, just as I cannot know youare wrong. We cannot judge. You know very well that nothing's ever black and white, only gray, no matter how dark or light. All things are a means to achieve an end.
Nothing is ever wrong. Only another way of doing things.