ok so recently i wanted to read a book to my niece, who just turned 7, that I thought sheâd like. but it had some scary parts in it, that might be too much for her. sheâs tough, but sheâs sensitive too, like any kid her age.
so what did i do? I spoilered it. I said âhey this kid runs into some monsters that are gonna try to eat him, and then they chase him and itâs very suspenseful. You think that would be too scary?â
She considered it. âDo they eat him in the end?â she asked.
âThen no,â she said. And then, when we were about to hit the Big Reveal that this person who had helped him was secretly actually a man-eating monster, she lit up and was like âIS THIS WHEN IT HAPPENSâ and I was like âSHH yes!â and she was like âAHH YEAHâ and loved it.
I donât think spoilers are just for kids, though. Iâm now so Tired of conventional mediaâs endless race for The More Shocking Ending that I refuse to watch shit when I donât know how itâs going to end. Itâs not that I donât have the emotional resilience to handle unexpected things (well, sometimes I donât, honestly, and have no shame about that), itâs that if the unexpected thing is the âfuck you if you liked these characters ha ha ha!â plot twist, I just donât have the time to invest in your fictional world. If you canât respect me as an audience then I have other shit to do with my time.
Even my own writingâ I dithered a bit in my latest series, which was going to hinge on a dead character being revealed to really be alive. I did my best to avoid spoilers as I was writing the thing, but now Iâve posted it and I figured, the thing to do is just toâ tag it for the reveal. Itâs not worth trying to be coy or people wonât know whether they want to read your shit.
stormborns
vaporwave
romaincrisis
pixelskylines
titsay
