What Ticks You Off?

[Demesnedenoir]

I can see this as a potential issue, but I've never encountered it myself.

I often take issue with characters, or group traveling together, that have no job or trade. They are just "adventurers." Some writers have done this well, but it's only because they provide proper backstory on the characters past, home, or reason for their nomadic way of life. Without it, you're really just reading an RPG.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

I often take issue with characters, or group traveling together, that have no job or trade. They are just "adventurers." Some writers have done this well, but it's only because they provide proper backstory on the characters past, home, or reason for their nomadic way of life. Without it, you're really just reading an RPG.

I think the idea behind this is that they're outlaws who make a living looting and stealing stuff...but yes, it would make you wonder if the author was just writing about he and his friends' RPG adventures...

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

Are any of you who don't see emotion in eyes perhaps autistic? I know my little brother is, and he struggles with reading peoples facial emotions due to the minuet details that can be seen in the muscles around the eyes, and not making the connection that those little details play into expression.

Try reading these expressions;

As for your eye's changing color. Normally what is meant is that the white of the eye may become pink/redish, when a person is being overly emotional. regardless if they are happy, sad or sacred.

(answers)

Surprise
Happyness
fear
anger

Funny you should ask...

I'm probably somewhere on the spectrum, although pretty high functioning. A couple years ago I was at a sleepover party and one of my friends decided to "diagnose" me with Aspergers...It hadn't even occurred to me before, but the more I read up on it the more I found I really identified with the experiences of people on the spectrum.

Never been diagnosed thus far. Not like there's a point in it.

As for the eye test, the first and last are pretty obvious what they're supposed to be, but the middle two I wouldn't be able to tell without the rest of the face.

Maybe the reason this bothers me is that I can't read eyes...

 

[La Volpe]

I actually just discovered this ticks me off as well. Hell, just having a character refer to themselves as an adventurer annoys me, even if it actually make sense.

In fact, anything that makes them sound like someone's unashamed D&D murderhobo.

I'd expect an "adventurer" is simply another word for drifter. I.e. someone who doesn't have a home and travels around doing odd jobs that may or may not include killing things.

 

[Ragnar]

I often take issue with characters, or group traveling together, that have no job or trade. They are just "adventurers." Some writers have done this well, but it's only because they provide proper backstory on the characters past, home, or reason for their nomadic way of life. Without it, you're really just reading an RPG.

I totally agree. It's fine if they allow the characters to fail when trying to do common survival tasks, like building a shelter, hunting etc... But when they are experts despite having no skills, it's annoying! Characters that become masters at combat without ever holding a sword or other weapon. Pretty much anything that stretches reality (without a basis for it in the story) is a turn off to me.

 

[Peat]

I'd expect an "adventurer" is simply another word for drifter. I.e. someone who doesn't have a home and travels around doing odd jobs that may or may not include killing things.

Regardless of why they use it, its a word choice that annoys me. I nearly put down a book yesterday because of it and tbh it might be part of why I'm not going to finish it.

 

[Lunaairis]

...I'm probably somewhere on the spectrum, although pretty high functioning...

As for the eye test, the first and last are pretty obvious what they're supposed to be, but the middle two I wouldn't be able to tell without the rest of the face. ...

My brother is on the lower end of the high functioning autistic spectrum. You can have a conversation with him, but if things get emotional he's clueless. He can't read expressions and has trouble knowing when to stop in a social environment. He's also really unfocused unless we are talking about computers. At which point he's brilliant.


Oh another thing I should have brought up with eyes, are a thing called micro expressions.
Micro expressions are very brief facial expressions, lasting only a fraction of a second. They occur when a person either deliberately or unconsciously conceals a feeling. Often seen in the way the eyelids close around the eye as well as brow's and lip twitches.

Lets say someone is angry that you didn't like their cooking, but then you bring up that it tastes like socks. Turns out that person doesn't want you to know that they made a broth from socks for it.

The person expressions might go from:
Anger, flash to realization (which is a mix of surprise and fear for most people. For this example, realization is a quick widening of the eyelids so that more white of the eye can be seen), then go full stop into disgust ( Squinting of the eyes, furrowed brow, upper lip rises. All because you learned their secret).


This becomes very important for a perceptive character, as they should be reading/ picking this up. Its why lines like "...a smile the eyes forgot." reveals that the person isn't happy at all but just faking it.

 

[skip.knox]

Some small defense for the word adventurer: the word adventure merely means to attempt. For this reason, ad hoc merchant companies sometimes called themselves an Adventure, or simply Venture. We still use "venture capitalist" as a term. The phrase "knight errant" is actually quite close to saying "knight adventurer."

So, while I readily grant that in poorly-done fantasies the word "adventurer" means little more than "a character I rolled up last night," going back to the historical roots of the term, and explaining it deftly, could provide the reader an interesting perspective on both the character and the vocation.

 

[Reaver]

Some small defense for the word adventurer: the word adventure merely means to attempt. For this reason, ad hoc merchant companies sometimes called themselves an Adventure, or simply Venture. We still use "venture capitalist" as a term. The phrase "knight errant" is actually quite close to saying "knight adventurer."

So, while I readily grant that in poorly-done fantasies the word "adventurer" means little more than "a character I rolled up last night," going back to the historical roots of the term, and explaining it deftly, could provide the reader an interesting perspective on both the character and the vocation.

Thank you! I couldn't agree more. I'm a fan of the whole knight errant/wandering paladin/traveling hero archetype going around slaying monsters and righting wrongs.

Yes it's a total trope and has been done since before the days of Homer ( I love The Iliad and The Odyssey) but damned if I don't enjoy writing those kinds of stories.

 

[FifthView]

Or a story about venture capitalists sucked through a portal into a world where they'll have to get their hands dirty—I mean literally dirty?

 

[Reaver]

I would love to see a story about fantasy adventurers who are bankrolled by someone. Just once. The way that modern-day archaeologists or treasure-hunters are. So many opportunities for overlapping storylines, double-crosses, intrigue . . .

How about mercenaries? Certainly they could be considered adventurers and depending on the context, they could even be considered as the good guys.

 

[Malik]

How about mercenaries? Certainly they could be considered adventurers and depending on the context, they could even be considered as the good guys.

I have a place for this in a subplot. I went exactly where you did with it, and I'm already hammering out the flowchart.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

Mercenaries, criminals, treasure hunters...all could be "adventurers." "Adventuring" could have a lot of definitions and contexts. Would a wandering explorer and scientist documenting magical creatures be considered an adventurer? What about an unemployed wizard that goes about doing odd jobs like killing goblins and dragons to make a living?

 

[FifthView]

Mercenaries, criminals, treasure hunters...all could be "adventurers." "Adventuring" could have a lot of definitions and contexts. Would a wandering explorer and scientist documenting magical creatures be considered an adventurer? What about an unemployed wizard that goes about doing odd jobs like killing goblins and dragons to make a living?

I think the idea, "Nothing ventured, nothing gained" could apply to many activities and describe the motives and personalities for a wide range of characters.

 

[Reaver]

I think the idea, "Nothing ventured, nothing gained" could apply to many activities and describe the motives and personalities for a wide range of characters.

Exactly. That's why I don't understand why some people don't like the term adventurer. But hey, every opinion is subjective.

 

[skip.knox]

Or a story about venture capitalists sucked through a portal into a world where they'll have to get their hands dirty—I mean literally dirty?

Well, medieval merchants were sometimes called pied-poudre--literally, dusty foot.

 

[skip.knox]

*heh* I love the image of a wizard--perhaps disgraced and expelled from his order, perhaps just down on his luck--going around doing stuff that's beneath him just to make ends meet.

Actually, come to think of it, that was exactly Schmendrick. Curse you Peter S. Beagle!

 

[Xitra_Blud]

I'm a rather picky reader, I must admit, but I think that if there is anything that makes me put a book down the fastest is uninteresting characters. I always say this in my writers group, "If I don't care about the character, I don't care about the story." That's not to say that characters have to be over the top, lots of quirks, and all that, but I don't like boring, uninteresting characters. That's not even to say it has to be a character that I can relate to or even root for. Of course it depends on what you are trying to achieve with the story, but the character can be someone whose motives I don't really agree with. I just want a character that makes me want to keep reading about them and their journey, whatever that journey may be. Characters I'm having a hard time getting to know or I don't have the desire to get to know. Characterization is really important to me.

 

[Heliotrope]

Have I posted the single tear here yet?

I hate the god damned single tear. I don't care if the single tear pricks, stings or drips, get it out if your manuscript.

"A single tear (insert verb here) down her cheek" and Helio threw the book across the room.

 

[Ireth]

Have I posted the single tear here yet?

I hate the god damned single tear. I don't care if the single tear pricks, stings or drips, get it out if your manuscript.

"A single tear (insert verb here) down her cheek" and Helio threw the book across the room.

What if it was something like, "A single tear fell down her cheek, but it was only the first of many"? (Hypothetical example, I have not to my knowledge ever used this cliche in fiction.)