Anyone can be a Writer

Recently I had a talk with one of my friends who was nervous about posting her story online. She loves to write but always gets nervous whenever someone asks to read it. Her, and I quote, words were “what if they don’t like it?”. My response was that you can’t please everyone, and that the most important thing was that she enjoyed it. However, she was still nervous, so I let her know about those entry level story contests on Wattpad. A couple days later she called me saying that she joined and that she had a lot of fun. Gone was her nervousness and in its place was a little more confidence.

I had a similar experience. I didn’t have any of that nervousness, but I got told in the comment section of my story about a story contest going on and that I should join. “Why not?” I thought and entered in my story. Of course, I snooped around and voted for stories I liked that were also listed in the same contest as me. I didn’t win but I had a lot of fun. Not only that, I also got to talk to an author I followed/adored.

That’s the beauty of writing. There are no witch hunts, only constructive criticism. No matter what your job or age is you can create a story and most of us that love to write welcome that with open arms. Your story doesn’t have to be a novel (or a series of novels) to be enjoyed.

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Web Novels Vs Novels

Maybe you’ve heard of these, but there are these things called web novels. I’ve noticed that many people don’t know the difference between the two.

A novel generally has an average word count of 90,000 – 100,000 words to about 320 – 350 pages while web novels generally don’t have a fixed length of chapters or word count unless defined by the author. Novels are usually in digital and physical format, but a web novel is a story that only exists online. If you want to get technical, web novels are the groundwork or detailed plan of a to be published novel (if they ever will). Not only that, novels also usually go through a whole process before they are published.

They have editors while web novels have variable editing since the only one editing the story is the author (instead of the publisher’s team). Novels also are completed stories that are published while web novels tend to have weekly/monthly releases online. Web novels are also more casual in form, grammar, and tone compared to a novel.

And the most important difference is that web novels are usually from overseas while novels come from the west and overseas. For example, if you go to novel updates and try to look up a web novel, under the translated name will be the original name in Japanese, Chinese, and/or Korean.

Personally, I like web novels because they are like novels with no price tag but a nice physical book is nice once n’ while.

Problematic Tropes

When you read a story, you might notice a trope that is being used in the story. A trope is a theme or action that pushes the scene in a story (or the plot) that is recognizable and widely used. The easiest example of this is when a character in a reincarnation story gets hit by a truck and wakes up in someone else’s body. Some tropes are very good, and I enjoy many of them but there are also some problematic ones.

One of the most problematic tropes that I see is “loves fixes everything” theme and “female lead falls in love with person that treated them like crap”. Now, the first trope isn’t that big of deal normally. The only time it becomes a problem is when the trope is applied to a character in the story has a mental illness or disorder (or sensitive theme). This trope can be problematic because it could undermine the seriousness of a mental illness or what a mental illness even is.

The second one is the one that bothers me the most. Used in a proper way it can really point out how far-fetched it is to fall in love with someone that treats you horribly or how manipulative someone can be. But the problematic part comes from the fact that sometimes the author tries to whitewash the manipulator (usually the ML).

What do you guys think? Do you think these tropes are problematic? What are some tropes you’ve noticed that are problematic?