I don't want to hear about the F@#$ing Royal Baby!
Made this one for it12707 aka Ginger. She likes chubby girls and/or pregnancy captions .. and I wanted to try to do something special for her since she made me like a 20 panel MOVING caption!! Quite an incredible thing to view! Unfortunately for me, she's not been on the Haven since July 18, so I have no idea if she likes this caption or not. You can never really tell, and sometimes people are just being nice to your face and wouldn't tell you anything honest.
Here is what I said about the caption when I posted it to the Haven:
As someone that has seen so many captions, I tend to spot tropes and tendencies that are often overworked. For awhile now, I've tried to avoid, and sometimes cringe when I see, "(male name) or should I say, (female name)" in a TG caption or story. I know its a product of trying to squeeze someones male and female name into a caption to make it more specialized, but we really need to come up with more subtle and refined ways of integrating names into the caption. I almost feel like I'm reading something crafted by He-Man writers, and all that is missing is : "You are a submissive female now!" ... "I THINK NOT!"I think that does cover it pretty well. I don't think the model in the photo is pregnant, but that little pooch in the front could be the start! Figured I would post this to see if the BBW and Pregnancy people would come out and look this time. The last chubby girl caption STILL hasn't reached 1k hits yet so lets get clicking! LOL
Anyway, I think the best way to conquer these idiosyncrasies is to battle them head on, and turn them on their ear.
Hope you enjoy this one anyway, even though I am probably being a pedantic douche!
Dee
PS. Of course, the first paragraph has given me a idea for another caption that is perhaps even more over the top!
Good luck to Alectra, who is also probably giving up doing TG Captions. Been a very busy week!
DISCUSSION QUESTION: Any new overused TG caption elements you've come across recently? Anything in a TG caption or story that just sticks in your craw (whatever the hell THAT is!) and takes away the enjoyment you hoped to get from viewing it?
I have PLENTY of overused elements and I try my best to avoid. You named one of my BIGGEST ones in this post.
ReplyDelete-Can we please get past "image with white background on the side?" it's 2013 and people still make captions like 2002.
-Can we stop with "Cartoon Villian" Mistress/domme/sister/girlfriend/wife/mother/goth girl figures? Look, I like the trope of them as agents of change, but just write them more believable? Transforming someone just because they left the toilet seat up is getting silly.
-Please use paragraphs to break up your writing. Giant blocks of text are not easy to read - especially if you use dialogue and quotations.
I'm forgetting some right now and I bet we could have this talk for HOURS. I've been thinking of making a list of these and posting them to my blog . . . just to see if I can come up with a way to avoid these.
I think we HAVE had this discussion for hours ... I often think of our talks when I do captions like this, that hopefully blow up the previous worn-out conventions.
DeleteI will disagree with you on the toilet seat thing though. WOMEN ARE ABOSOLUTELY vehement about that case. I love bringing it up at parties, "why can't women just LOOK where they are putting their ass before sitting down? They are just too lazy to check and put the seat down if need be, and you are asking MEN to do two actions (life the seat to pee then put it back down again) so you never have to do ONE movement?" You'd think I kidnapped their children and pets and pissed in their wine coolers! I think if 90 percent of the women HAD that power to change men that did that, there would be like maybe 30 men left in the country!
The great shift caps have run their course. I think the chubby girls are not so popular because most of the readers want the change to happen to them but they want to look sexy.
ReplyDeletePS I am pretty sure the planet would topple over if every toilet seat was left up at the same time. oh the evil what men do.
Well, I had mostly mentioned the BBW thing again because over the years, I've gotten the "why can't you post more of the BBW styled captions?" but whenever I do, I don't see to get many comments. I don't mind making them, but you'd think those that like them would be a little more vocal.
DeleteI thought the same thing about the anime and pregnant caps I've made. i figured that those that enjoyed them would speak up so they would let me know they liked it, or would like to see more. I got one or two, but not as many you might think, judging by all of the people who actually look for that sort of cap.
DeleteBut, I will say that the anime caps did get quite a few views. I'm not sure if thats because some of my readers prefer them, or if it's because they stick out among the rest. Or maybe they just draw in some views from people who normally wouldn't read my stuff, I don't know.
That's the tough part about judging it from views alone. Is it my normal readers and this is what they want to see? Do they actually like what they see? Maybe it's just a fluke? No idea, because not many people speak up and let me know.
yes if people have asked for them it would not hurt to show a little appreciation,
ReplyDeleteHilarious caption.
ReplyDeleteI always tried not to let the overused themes get in the way of my fun, if the story is well written otherwise. And now that I wrote a few captions myself, I realise all the better how hard it is to avoid them (I probably don't).
Simone, I love your remark about the cartoon villain, but what would be a believable reason to transform someone?
To help someone transition would, but for punishment or revenge? I don't think a story would be fun to read if it would be to believable for me. I do agree that a bit more motivation than the "leaving the toilet seat up" category is in order. I don't want to question the mental health of the agent of change too much.
Of course when used in an ironic way like in the above it's a whole different ball game.
While I like the version of "God save the Queen" from the Sex Pistols better, Lemmy is doing a great job as well.
And I just saw a very justifiable reason to transform someone. At the end of Motörhead, YouTube gave the suggestion of a cover by Deep Purple and Kiss from Metallica's "Nothing else matters". So far so good.
But using clips from "Twilight"? Yep that's a good enough reason for me.
I suppose there is not so much a right reason but I often feel things look pretty silly from time to time.
DeleteAre all tropes wrong? Nope. I love many of them, I just feel they are misused and written poorly. I just want a bit more care than "OMG i'm a girl!".
I've gotten into the habit of NOT adding in people's names, because I think in a natural conversation between two people who know one another, it just sounds out of place.
ReplyDeleteBut I also feel like, by skipping the name, I'm making it seem like It wasn't tailor made for this person or that person. Which is why I also try to hit two or three of their prefs in one go.
Over used tropes? Well, I think one of the most over used is the TF that ends with a happy ending so quick, you kind of wonder why the Transformation ever took place.
I mean, five minutes ago they had to stand to pee, now they are excited to go shopping and know all about the cute hunks at the mall? Sounds like All you did was make the outside match the inside. Which usually goes against the reasons for WHY the person changed them in the first place.
I also don't care much for a one note TF. what I mean by that is, "boom, your a girl" and that's it. Where's the story? Why did you change them? How did you get that potion to change them? or that spell? Or the money for that surgery, etc.
I don't need to hear ALL of the details, but I do enjoy an actual story. A good example of this is when people use the great shift or the medallion of zulo. Almost 90% of the stories I've read involving those universes start and end the same way.
Guy finds medallion, winds up changed, guy loses it. Or, great shift takes place and now the guy is stuck as a girl. I would like to know how these events changed things for them, how they deal with it, etc. Something that makes him seem a little more lively, then the cookie cutter example he currently is.
Anyway, I know a lot of people like that sort of thing and that's Great. But I always enjoy it when there's more to it then just the change it self. Even if it's Only the change that's the focus, then a little extra detail would go a Looong way with me.
As far as new tropes? Not really. I haven't noticed any my self. i've always had the same dislikes over the years.
Sorry Dee! I've been hit by a huge bout of laziness. There's not a really good excuse for it: just damn slothy lately, and I've been avoiding the Haven because I have cap debt and obligations. This is a delightful caption, and I resonated really strongly with it. I love the model; because this caption was written for me, I made an extra effort to imagine myself in her body, and it really works.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing that bothers me is that I don't really consider this woman a "BBW." She's just a little thick, with a bit of a pooch to her stomach. Given her apparent size, she probably charts overweight or barely at obese on the American BMI. I guess I just associate the word BBW with quite obviously obese women (and SSBBW with morbidly obese women). I say all this because I'm decidedly NOT attracted to BBWs, but I find this women attractive. I interact with women often about the same size as this model, and I doubt any of them would ever self-identify as a BBW. Just, y'know, "average." Blah blah blah, it's semantics, a difference of designation, probably not even worth talking about because she's very pretty and I liked the story next to the picture. :-)
"DISCUSSION QUESTION: Any new overused TG caption elements you've come across recently? Anything in a TG caption or story that just sticks in your craw (whatever the hell THAT is!) and takes away the enjoyment you hoped to get from viewing it?"
Personally, I kind of think that basically all of the "major" TG universes have run their courses. I know that stuff like Spells R Us, Medallion of Zulo & Bikini Beach were first popularized amongst a smaller, more collaborative group of authors over a decade ago. But to be honest, for the most part I find the various story universes distracting and kind of off-putting. I read an excellent Spells R Us story on Fictionmania last night (Plan Ahead by Jordan Hoelder), and it was great because SRU was barely there, just to get the ball rolling. All of these universes seemed to have waned in popularity (only 21 new SRU stories on Fictionmania since January 2012), and I think that's for the best. Modern TG universes I really like are Barabbas' Rosestead (from The Masculine Mystique) and The Role Exchanger (who made that universe? Kaitlyn at Rachel's Haven?), but I definitely don't want several dozen stories set in those universes. Just a few, and from authors I like please.
The big exception is the Great Shift universe: it persists, and will likely continue persisting. "Mass, uncontrolled body swaps" are a really easy thing to connect with as a writer.