queenie pops whatever u say goes now so whatever u say is canon 🥰
- Authors started using mental health as a shortcut for depth and complexity instead of actually writing layered characterization.
- People forget that complex characters are subjective, every character can feel complex depending on the reader's perspective, experiences, and psychology, sometimes a character everyone calls simple can feel deeply layered to someone else because of how they interpret motives and behavior.
- Romance books forgot the romance part, half of them are just trauma Olympics with a kissing scene every 200 pages.
- A lot of authors genuinely don't know how to write independence, ambition, intelligence, confidence or emotional maturity without turning the character insufferable or preachy.
- The normalization of female suffering as female empowerment went way too far. A woman surviving endless abuse, humiliation and pain is not automatically feminist writing or strong characterization (yes readers, rebbeca yarros and sjm I'm looking at u 😒)
- We desperately need more male characters written as individuals with dreams, fears, flaws, personalities and identities outside of being obsessed with the FMC.
- Strong characters are not automatically the smartest, most powerful, coldest, sweetest or most traumatized. Strength comes from narrative impact, consistency and how well they move the story and themes.
- As someone who studied psychology for three years, most mental health representation in books feels performative. Mental illness is not a Pinterest aesthetic mixed with one Google search. (Yes Chloe Walsh I'm side eyeing you)
- And if the book markets itself mainly with strong FMC as the selling point… there's a 78% chance I'm running.
- Authors need to stop treating characteristics traits like a personality label. Sarcastic, witty, sweet, grumpy, cold....etc are not full personalities, they're t.r.a.i.t.s. Human beings are contradictory. Someone can be sweet as an angel and sarcastic at the same time. A grumpy man can love pink, flowers, baking or cheesy romance movies. A quiet character can still be chaotic internally. Complexity comes from contradictions, habits, fears, values and reactions not from assigning one aesthetic trait and calling it depth.
- Slow burn only works if something is ACTUALLY burning.
- A lot of feminine FMC hate discourse ignores the fact that some authors genuinely write hyperfemininity in a male gaze way (let's be real almost all FMC newdays are male gaze badass or no)
- People started treating criticism of books like personal attacks instead of normal literary discussion.
- Authors need to stop treating healing like a reward given by romantic love alone.
- More books need platonic intimacy. Not every emotional connection has to become romantic.
- Chemistry is built through observation, understanding, tension and emotional rhythm, not just..... Whatever u guys are saying or reading
- The number of pages does not determine good writing. A well written 300 page slow burn can have more emotional depth, tension and development than an entire dragged out trilogy because what matters is how the plot, pacing and characters are carried, not how long the story is. Booktok turned long series into some kind of proof of quality, acting like ''this eight book enemies to lovers will ruin every other romance'' when half the time it's just repetition, filler, recycled conflict and marketing. More pages do not automatically mean better development and if readers start treating length as the standard for quality instead of actual storytelling, pacing, characterization and emotional impact, then genuinely good writing is doomed.
- An angsty, dramatic, tragic, complex relationship does not automatically have more depth or meaning than a soft, healthy, sweet relationship. Suffering is not the only form of emotional depth and love does not need constant pain, toxicity or emotional destruction to feel impactful. If people start believing that only chaotic relationships are meaningful, then we reduce romance to trauma instead of connection, growth, understanding, trust and emotional intimacy. Sometimes the quietest relationships carry the deepest emotions because real depth comes from the writing, the emotional layering and the characters themselves, not from how much they hurt each other before kissing.
- Authors are normalizing a lot of toxic traits in books and the issue is not just that these traits exist in fiction but how often they are framed!!!!
