Shiny

My latest favorite way to avoid writing is a disgustingly addictive website called tvtropes (www.tvtropes.org). The common belief is that there are no new stories. Well this site looks at just how much our stories have in common with one another by listing themes or elements that a particular story involves (and giving them cute names to make it more fun). Despites its name, tvtropes analyzes books, movies, comics, and even advertisements in addition to television programs. It’s incredibly comprehensive – they’ve got everything. You know when characters scream NOOOOO when something bad happens? Yeah, they’ve got that listed as “the big NO.” And when something that might be awesome, but just ends up being over the top and melodramatic happens, it’s called a “NARM.”
The point of all this is that if you haven’t heard of tvtropes, you should really go waste a few hours there.

And all of my writing could be classified as a NARM.

-Melissa