So I don't know you guys know, but I'm writing a story.
Btw you guys should check it out. It'll be up in a couple days to a couple weeks depending on how much time I have to write. (Shameless self promo)
I was writing out my plot line, making up a fake society, and drawing up characters when I got stuck. I wanted to make my male characters story have some more meaning than "Oh I'm a secretive douche who's actually really nice."
That's when I realized.
9/10 stories have a character that's physically, emotionally, and/or mentally abused.
Now, please don't take this the wrong way - abuse is horrible. It's sick and wrong and there is no justification that will make it okay.
But because writers have written it into their books/stories so many times when it was honestly unnecessary, it's become a cliche.
Not only is it now annoying because we see it in every single book, but it takes away from the seriousness of the issue.
I'm not saying it's a bad idea to write about it. What I'm saying is that it's been written about so many times, that it's no longer a real issue - it's a cliche.
People like Kiera Cass (The Selection Series - if you haven't already, read it. Next and last book comes/came out May 3rd) wrote it into their plot line because it was relevant. It added to their plotline. They showed a character with real reaction to the abuse.
A lot of authors on Wattpad write it in just as a sob story. It's not important. They just want their character to have a reason to be upset about their life.
Real abuse is horrible - written in abuse that doesn't add to the plotline is annoying, attention-hogging, and offensive.
Again, please don't think that I'm saying that real abuse is annoying. I'm simply talking about written abuse towards a character.
