: Re: I have a habit of subverting certain tropes out of hatred. How can I overcome its negatives without losing the benefits? I have a deep-seated hatred for certain tropes and a special way to

Confusing the real-world and in story reason.

In the real world these things exist because you hate the trope and wish to subvert it. This is fine but it cannot substitute for the in story reasons for those things because tropes generally do not really exist in story. So you must check that the in story reasons exist, make sense and are discernible by readers.

It is fine if the reader notices you are subverting a trope. It is not fine if the reader thinks you are just messing around out of spite. You must have an actual rationale for things being the way they are and it must be compelling enough for the reader to buy it.

Basically when you use a trope and subvert it you are imposing a non-trivial cognitive cost on the reader. That cost must have a payback; it must make the story better in some way. Otherwise the added cost simply makes the story worse and less enjoyable to read.

The Luke Skywalker example is a different version of the same issue. The cost there is not cognitive, it is emotional. If you alter a beloved character people have an emotional attachment to, you need to give something in return. There must be some gain beyond "wouldn't it be cool".

From what you told your serpent people should be fine IMHO. It actually makes more sense than the original trope, so it should be easy to justify in story. Only specific issue is that if you make the trope more realistic, the same more realistic tone should be consistent for the rest of the story.

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: Re: I have a habit of subverting certain tropes out of hatred. How can I overcome its negatives without losing the benefits? I have a deep-seated hatred for certain tropes and a special way to

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: Structuring a book? So I am attempting to write a book, the first I have attempted yet. My current method has been to just write scenes that come into my mind and I have over 40 pages of

: Limited 3rd Person: How to reveal character's black skin? I have a scene that I'm working on. The character in the scene is an actor who's black wearing a black face. At the end of the scene

: Publishing other peoples anecdotes I have asked friend and relations a question and want to publish the answers with their name by the answer. If I ask them if they mind it being publishes

: How to refer to a crowd of many different species? How could I say the equivalent of "A pouring wave of humanity," when there are more than one species in the scene being described?

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