Board Thread:Off Topic/@comment-4849011-20150305001912/@comment-25148755-20150311164716

Raidra wrote: Does anyone remember that episode of SpongeBob SquarePants in which Patrick wrote a really bad song? I'm ashamed to admit I haven't watched that much SpongeBob (it came slightly after my prime cartoon watching days) but geez...change the tone that story was delivered in from humorous to horrible, and it has creepypasta written all over it!

IMO, style is usually where most stories fall short. I have no idea how many good ideas I've seen ruined due to poor grammar, pacing, or the simple inability of the author to tell the story well. There have been stories that were deleted I've looked at and been like, "I wish I'd had this idea, because I could have probably made something out of this."

For me, the biggest substance issues come with folks trying to force OC down your throats. I'm going to generalize here, but some of the most egrigious violators of this I've seen have been halfway decent artists who came up with an awesome character design and then went and tried to write a story about it. The fact that a lot of those stories suffer from poor style doesn't help either, but the bottom line is that if you put character before story you'd better have some serious chops because otherwise it's gonna fall flat. (I'm not talking about character development, mind, I mean simply introducing a character which, cool as they may be designed, have the personality of a wet paper bag.  A wet paper bag....with a catch phrase.)

Well, that got a little longwinded, but that's what I think, lol.