Your Most Hated Tropes

[lovecraft68]

The girl always has to be the less experienced lover.

In first time its the girl who should be the virgin.

I bitched about that to someone once and they said, well do one where the young guy is the virgin and watch it tank.

Hmm...I thought to myself, would it tank? Maybe but it would be fun to upset the CMI crowd.

Oops.

 

[SavannaT]

The husband knew all along or set it up

 

[iwatchus]

The girl always has to be the less experienced lover.

In first time its the girl who should be the virgin.

I bitched about that to someone once and they said, well do one where the young guy is the virgin and watch it tank.

Hmm...I thought to myself, would it tank? Maybe but it would be fun to upset the CMI crowd.

Oops.

View attachment 2570549

Virgin male being coached by semi-experienced woman is what won me a W in this year's nude day contest. They definitely can work and be well received.

 

[Biglibido99]

Well I wrote it - the true story of me losing my virginity - the girl was definitely the experienced one. My first time - is in my sig

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Something tells me dropping the square footage stat might be one of the smallest issues in this story.

Young Realtors in Love!
She was selling a 1400sq foot Craftsman, he was a 6ft 2in fixer upper....

 

[DEFCOM5]

@TheWritingGroup
I love how 1840 s.f. is a "modest" size home

So fucking clueless

 

[DEFCOM5]

Most girls want to feel wanted. Make the guy jump through at least some hoops.

But that would require work and understand female psychology and having to show respect.

Much easier to treat the woman as a wanton whore.

Yep, another fucking trope I cannot stand

 

[iwatchus]

@TheWritingGroup
I love how 1840 s.f. is a "modest" size home

So fucking clueless

Another example where, by and large, the stories do not reflect the socio-economics of the world around us. But neither do the sizes of the cock; this is all dream land.

 

[DEFCOM5]

Another example where, by and large, the stories do not reflect the socio-economics of the world around us. But neither do the sizes of the cock; this is all dream land.

I know.

However, I am sick of starting read a story about insane breasts/dicks sizes, rich to very rich people, beautiful to super model characters and other stupid stuff before hitting the back button.

It is fantasy but fantasy are stronger when they are grounded into reality. Which means VARIETY!!!!!

Anyway, I think that I am preaching to the choir here.

 

[iwatchus]

I'm certainly guilty of writing almost exclusively moderately to very wealthy characters. I try to be more inclusive but the reality is I have been moderately wealthy since shortly after getting out of college. I spent a lot of my early years below the poverty line, but my adult experience limits my real world senses. That's one where I have mostly settled for what I know.

On the other hand, I was just pushing an inexperienced writer I am reading for to tamp down the supermodel descriptions of some of the characters in his story.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

@TheWritingGroup
I love how 1840 s.f. is a "modest" size home

So fucking clueless

In my part of the country it is. 2k square feet is average around here.

 

[DEFCOM5]

I'm certainly guilty of writing almost exclusively moderately to very wealthy characters. I try to be more inclusive but the reality is I have been moderately wealthy since shortly after getting out of college. I spent a lot of my early years below the poverty line, but my adult experience limits my real world senses. That's one where I have mostly settled for what I know.

May be you can remember where you came from?

 

[DEFCOM5]

In my part of the country it is. 2k square feet is average around here.

Glad for you that you live in a nice/wealthy part of the country

 

[dirk2024]

The girl always has to be the less experienced lover.

In first time its the girl who should be the virgin.

I bitched about that to someone once and they said, well do one where the young guy is the virgin and watch it tank.

Hmm...I thought to myself, would it tank? Maybe but it would be fun to upset the CMI crowd.

Oops.

View attachment 2570549

One would think the "Mature" category would prove that guy wrong.

But I look forward to you accepting the challenge!

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Glad for you that you live in a nice/wealthy part of the country

That's the thing, I don't.

From the Census Bureau:

Of the 1,019,000 single-family homes completed in 2024:​

• 14% of owner-built homes were in a homeowners’ association.
• 31% had three bathrooms or more.
• 42% had four or more bedrooms.

The median size of a completed single-family home was 2,146 square feet.



Building a small house doesn't save much money over building a larger house. A significant portion of your expenses are tied up in site work, and HVAC/Plumbing/Electrical that don't appreciably change in cost from an 1500 to a 2000 ft home.
You won't find a single new construction development anywhere in Central Florida where the SMALLEST plan available isn't around 1800 sq feet. It just isn't cost effective to build them smaller.

 

[iwatchus]

May be you can remember where you came from?

I try to. I have had some important supporting characters who were not and one love interest who was working class. My current WIP has small farm farmers, who are not poor *they have their own farms) but are certainly not wealthy. But I will need to run that one by a former student who grew up in a farming family to sanity check everything.

I also tend to have my main characters be very successful/talented at something, usually math or tech, for much the same reasons, which also ends up with people well off financially.

 

[Erozetta]

In my part of the country it is. 2k square feet is average around here.

Average and modest are not the same thing. Modest typically denotes something below the norm or smaller/less than average.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

I try to. I have had some important supporting characters who were not and one love interest who was working class. My current WIP has small farm farmers, who are not poor *they have their own farms) but are certainly not wealthy. But I will need to run that one by a former student who grew up in a farming family to sanity check everything.

I also tend to have my main characters be very successful/talented at something, usually math or tech, for much the same reasons, which also ends up with people well off financially.

Farmers who own their own land are "wealthy" in absolute terms, because good farming land is incredibly expensive. However they are typically cash poor. It's a very capital intensive business, and the returns aren't great.
If you want your mind blown sometime look at how much tractors and things cost these days.

I want down a rabbit hole on that topic writing a paper about the "right to repair" stuff with John Deere a few years ago.
"Here, buy our million dollar tractor!"
"Ohh... you want to take it just anywhere you want to fix it? Fuck you! Pay us!"

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Average and modest are not the same thing. Modest typically denotes something below the norm or smaller/less than average.

Yes, and the average is 2k, the house in the story was 1800, thus smaller than average, otherwise known as modest.

 

[DEFCOM5]

That's the thing, I don't.

From the Census Bureau:

Of the 1,019,000 single-family homes completed in 2024:​

• 14% of owner-built homes were in a homeowners’ association.
• 31% had three bathrooms or more.
• 42% had four or more bedrooms.

The median size of a completed single-family home was 2,146 square feet.



Building a small house doesn't save much money over building a larger house. A significant portion of your expenses are tied up in site work, and HVAC/Plumbing/Electrical that don't appreciably change in cost from an 1500 to a 2000 ft home.
You won't find a single new construction development anywhere in Central Florida where the SMALLEST plan available isn't around 1800 sq feet. It just isn't cost effective to build them smaller.

You are talking new constructions versus existing housing.

You are talking a less developed area versus urban area.

In my part of the US where I live which is wealthy, the burbs have the 2k minimum houses. Majority of apartments / condo are 1000-1500 and these are not considered modest.

It is a term modest which irked me. Again I have a tip in my shoulder on how the majority of the people I know have not clue how lucky/privileged/wealthy/pick your own they are.

 

[iwatchus]

I want down a rabbit hole on that topic writing a paper about the "right to repair" stuff with John Deere a few years ago.

I will teach an ethics course this spring where this subject is guaranteed to come up. (The students pick most of the topics to debate the ethics of, but right to repair is a perennial favorite)

 

[fakingadulthood]

Farmers who own their own land are "wealthy" in absolute terms, because good farming land is incredibly expensive. However they are typically cash poor. It's a very capital intensive business, and the returns aren't great.
If you want your mind blown sometime look at how much tractors and things cost these days.

I want down a rabbit hole on that topic writing a paper about the "right to repair" stuff with John Deere a few years ago.
"Here, buy our million dollar tractor!"
"Ohh... you want to take it just anywhere you want to fix it? Fuck you! Pay us!"

Late stage capitalism would be hysterical if it weren’t happening to us all. ‘Thanks for taking out a loan to purchase this tractor! Now you can pay us monthly for the machine (with interest of course because we finance our own stuff to get that sweet interest) and pay us even more every month so the machine you’re already paying for will work!”

Everything can be sold as a service if you’re greedy enough!

 

[Kelliezgirl]

You are talking new constructions versus existing housing.

You are talking a less developed area versus urban area.

In my part of the US where I live which is wealthy, the burbs have the 2k minimum houses. Majority of apartments / condo are 1000-1500 and these are not considered modest.

It is a term modest which irked me. Again I have a tip in my shoulder on how the majority of the people I know have not clue how lucky/privileged/wealthy/pick your own they are.

A modest sized condo and a modest sized home are two entirely different things.
I have a large apartment, but the same sq feet would make for a tiny house.

You're applying your standards from your area to judge the author. Vast swaths of the country an 1800 sq foot house IS modest. It will be the smallest house in the neighborhood/subdivision. That includes subdivisions that are tract homes built as starter homes by budget builders. It isn't a "wealthy/privileged" thing.

 

[DEFCOM5]

I try to. I have had some important supporting characters who were not and one love interest who was working class. My current WIP has small farm farmers, who are not poor *they have their own farms) but are certainly not wealthy. But I will need to run that one by a former student who grew up in a farming family to sanity check everything.

I also tend to have my main characters be very successful/talented at something, usually math or tech, for much the same reasons, which also ends up with people well off financially.

I hear you. I am in the same boat. Grew up blue collar (father worked for the utility company, mother was a cleaning lady) and got lucky as they pushed education on me and I got into the investing world because I was good at math and money flows in that toxic industry. So I know that I am a lucky bastard.

In the only story I ever wrote (rather than the scenes, again very small sample), one character has money and one does not. Same thing in my Halloween story (to be published tomorrow, so sue me for plugging it. It will be in SF/F so 3K reader top if I am lucky). So I get the one has $, one does not trope.

One day, I will feel confident enough to write a story about people from the lower end of the economic spectrum.

 

[Erozetta]

Yes, and the average is 2k, the house in the story was 1800, thus smaller than average, otherwise known as modest.

Oh, right, yeah, totally modest and not at all within the average range.


Realistically, most people are going to see "modest" and 1800 sq ft and think "that's a 3-4 bedroom house with at least two bathrooms." Modest would be 2 bedrooms or less with one bathroom, which would typically fall in the 800-1500 range. While an average house would fall in the 1500-2200 range and anything above 3k sq ft is ostentatious.

There's nothing wrong with calling an 1800 sq ft house average, but modest it ain't.