Writing Angst

I saw this entry and I had to reply.

Agreeing with ghettoe and mrsnott here.

I like good angst. But somehow, very rarely do I actually read good angst? Why?

Because some (mostly amateur) authors use what is known as the Deus-Angst-Machina--taking the angst overboard.

I mean...wtf. How sh*tty can one's life get, really? It gets so unrealistic that I even start to laugh at how the MC (usually a very annoying and wangsty emo kid) is suffering and crying pathetically. This is a plot device. And a very, very annoying plot device. IRL no one likes to listen to whining when it's a monologue. There's no interaction in fiction, so we are less inclined to relate to these events the main characters go through. Not to mention, I am sick, so sick of using sh*tty, abusive, rapist fathers as a plot device.

Come on, there are other ways to make someone's life miserable! I know that having sh*tty parents is always going to mean having a sh*tty life, and most sh*tty lives in IRL result from sh*tty parents--but F*CK. I am sick of seeing this proliferate in almost EVERY fic in the angst genre, where the parents are just so inhumane it's impossible. While I can read one or two angst fics (per year) that have bad parents, too much of the same formula is sickening. It makes me wonder if it's just some stupid, immature, i-hate-my-parents-they-don't-understand-me-at-all! emo teenager writing or something. The only excuse I can give is to people who know others who experience tragic lives and social workers, both whom really want the people to be saved and are using writing as a way to cope with all the negative. Oh yeah, and actual experiences. But if the actual experiences are based on a female's actual experience, I don't want to read it as slash. It just does not work.

Anyhow, what really pisses me of is that those MC's normally don't do anything to help themselves--all they do is cry and wangst and whine. I actually would want them to die, because life just ain't easy. You either kill yourself or get over it. It's not going to miraculously become better if you do jack sh*t.

Unfortunately, it does in these fics that use the Deus-Angst-Machina. Prince Charming will soon come strolling along and being nice and everything just to coax the 'suffering' wangsting MC. At this point, the angst turns into a full-blown, disgusting fluff story. Okay, I know most women have this motherly instinct in them and love h/c fics. BUT. F*ck, as though life is like that! And SEX DOES NOT CURE MENTAL ILLNESS!

In the first place, they are all ignoring the FACT that depressed people have a hard time getting aroused in the first place!

Continuing. No Prince Charming is going to save anyone's ass IRL if one doesn't even try saving oneself! (Ignoring the fact that the existence of a Prince Charming is debatable by itself--we work to find our Prince Charming, not the other way around. And sometimes we are wrong about our supposed princes). These authors are putting a bad message into girls' minds. It's just as bad as the badboy craze, the illusion that we can change these playboy bastards into better people. NO, if they haven't changed after all their other delusional girlfriends , they won't change for you! (I only say girlfriends. But I also meant girl-in-boy's-body-friends...I don't think guys would be as delusional because they're guys and they know what these bastards are like.)

Lot's of more ranting but yeah. I think I've ranted enough. Conclusion? For those intending to write angst, please don't over-do it. Angsty events in moderation!