Gold Vanguard Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 (edited) What makes a bad story line in your opinion? Edited July 3, 2012 by Defender of the light Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZemZem Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 Plot holes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a.f.k.a. Howard Hughes Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 (edited) Not giving a damn about narrative structure Lack of waifus i bad too Edited July 3, 2012 by Kore wa Sho desu ka? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nova Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 Predictability and clichés. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Polaris Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 Not exploring its themes and ideas with consistency and depth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightmare Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 Not being good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aura Wolf Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 Ests Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popo Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 Weak characters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NTNP Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 In games, the number one answer is usually using the story, characters and setting as a 'justification' for the game play. As far as other literary works, the derailment of character(s) in order for the author(s) to make their idea work. While it is sometimes worth while to throw in a mild out of character event or two in order to write in a gag or something like that, you should never have a plot where the main reason WHY it exists is because all of the people involved are behaving too stupidly to use the obvious solution. Especially when those character(s) have previously been shown not to be a complete idiots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aizenberg Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 fire emblem 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uguu Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 fire emblem Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snapdragon Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 When nothing happens. .... Seriously, having the plot show up to the party for the last ten minutes because it decided to get drunk beforehand and got pulled over by a cop after stopping at a McDonald's for some chow is pathetic. (Twilight!) And drudging through 600+ pages only to find that nothing happened and it was all just one big introspective character study about boring characters is just painful. (I'm looking at you Poison!) Characters acting as plot devices/ having inconsistent characterization which changes when the plot demands, instead of being 3 dimensional characters. Oh and a lack of character growth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darros Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 Mary-Sues Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blazing Samurai8905 Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 A lack of Character Motivation, why are they doing what they are doing and why should we care? If you can't immerse yourself in the plot then you might is well not tell the story Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Original Alear Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 Not being good. This. While all the other things can be importnat elements of a bad plot, none of them are essential, IMO, and NTNPs is probably the only one I can think of that I feel can't be done while still having a good plot. Well, more the initial then his actual explanation of it (which seemed to focus more on the plot existing in spite of the characters' intelligence, rather than their personalities overall). Generally, I would say a lack of good things is more important than the presence of bad things...and most of these posts focus on the lack of one kind of good thing. Well, maybe more specifically, I'm just talking about the more general "story." If we're talking about plot, then Not giving a damn about narrative structure Lack of waifus i bad too This is probably an/the important consideration. Not so much not giving a damn about it, as examining in a work that seems to show the author/creator didn't give a damn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agile Tit-Tyrant Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 clichés. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki Laufeyson Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 Lack of character development: If a character doesnt grow and remains static throughout the entire story, it makes for bad writing. People change and grow through experiences. Especially big ones. Mary Sues: A Character who can do no wrong breaks the willing suspension of disbelief really hard. People in the story constantly pointing out how a specific character is special in some way, or saying he/she is perfect and awesome all the time especially without evidence to back it up is bad. Mary Sues are very bad. Not tying up loose ends/Plot holes: Unless one is making a series, tying up loose ends is necessary. Even if someone is creating a series, the plot must be solid enough that readers/audience arent going "wtf. What happened with Alice? How did Bob get to Castle Carlton?" etc. It also must be cohesive. Bad Narrative: If the prose (especially in a written work) is rather dull or inconsistent, its gonna turn people off. If the prose is overly descriptive (Purple), the same with happen. A balance is needed. If one is writing a serious story but using rather Lemony narrative (meaning overly comical or using inherently silly words), it looks kinda gnarly. If one is writing a story and including far too much about mundane actions, yeah thats bad too. Twilight is a good example of what not to do with your narrative. (and vast amounts of fanfiction.) Character Interaction and Lack Thereof: Characters have to have a good reason to interact with each other. Its pointless to create a story especially with a large cast, that eventually never interact. Having Alice say something to Bob like "Oh its over there.." and leaving it at that, is not character interaction. If Alice and Bob never meet over the course of the story despite both of them getting equal page/screen time, the audience is gonna wonder why Alice or Bob is even in the story to begin with. Point of View: This kinda goes with the Narrative thing but POV itself can ruin an otherwise really good story. Even if the narrative is nicely done, the POV can dork things up. First Person is not the best way to go about a story unless the narrator themselves are involved with everything. (and even then, the risk of Mary Sue exists.) Third Person or Omniscient Narrator needs to be well constructed and cover all bases. Fluctuating POV (See A Song of Ice and Fire for a good example) has to be well timed. Say a POV chapter has Alice storming the castle. Then we switch to Bob's POV and its three months later. Yeah that will not make sense to the reader/viewer. Conflict: Character motivation is usually due to this. The conflict must be viable and giving good reason for characters, villains and whatever to be doing what they are doing. Again, see Twilight for a really good example of a shitass conflict situation. Cliches: Let's face it, if yer writing something, chances are theres someone else out there that did the same thing or something very similar. Originality is nigh impossible. There are loads of stories out there about a Knight slaying the Dragon and then moving on to confront the Big Bad for the sake of the realm. Its how you go about telling the story that matters. If the Knight is a wonderfully pure guy and gets the princess in the end, yeah thats one fat cliche. If the Knight is a man without much honor, slays the dragon due to chance but not before it ate the princess, thats a bit better. Cuz its just not everyday you see that happen. :B Being overly predictable can destroy a good story. All of these things done right is what makes a plot good. All of it done wrong makes a plot terrible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ein Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 Anything and everything because we have all seen it before and nothing is original anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NinjaMonkey Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 People care about plot? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Envoy of the Beginning Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 People care about plot? They're not just talking about plots in video games you know.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ein Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 (edited) They're not just talking about plots in video games you know.... Which are also bad. In fact... Everything is bad. There is no such thing as something "good", only bad. Edited July 3, 2012 by Ein Silver Rose Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NinjaMonkey Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 They're not just talking about plots in video games you know.... Yes, thank you Captain Obvious, but I was able to figure that out just from the title alone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Envoy of the Beginning Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 Yes, thank you Captain Obvious, but I was able to figure that out just from the title alone. You don't have to lie you know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NinjaMonkey Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 I'm not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rehab Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 (edited) But if so, then it becomes unclear to what you're referring- people don't care about plot ever, as in they don't care about the story? Story-telling is a big part of how people understand and relate to things, so the idea that nobody cares about plot ever is simply a nonstarter, joke or no. Unless you mean nobody cares about that other kind of plot. Personally, my pet peeve in a story is when tons of shit happens, and continues to happen, to somebody/some people to whom I haven't been introduced and never seem to get to know. Edited July 3, 2012 by Rehab Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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