Things You'd Like to See in Stories on Mibba

@ Vechs

I write romance, but I don't write the typical boy-meets-girl, insert obstacle/love triangle/affair/some other sort of drama. I love established relationships, I love the day-to-day stuff, and I enjoy writing about more realistic issues like balancing work and family, financial issues, raising a family, etc. I don't write the melodramatic stuff because it isn't what I personally enjoying reading or writing.

I write about adult characters because I'm an adult. I've already been through the whole high school and college thing, so I'm more intrigued by the subject matter that I have yet to go through in my own life.

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Getting back on topic, I wish more stories included a variety of aspects in a character's life instead of just focusing on the character's love life or just the career or just the family problems.

I know my life has never been that cut-and-dry.

@ i saw sparks
I'd read that. I don't like reading smut, really, because I don't think it's as fun to read if it's just about sex.

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I'd like to see more adult characters that aren't real people. Adult OCs or original-fiction characters. I'm tired of reading about scene teens and partygoers.

I want more variety in character appearances. I want realistic body descriptions , not perfection. It'd be nice to see plus sized girls as the main character, something to break up the typical female characters if you understand me,.

@ Vechs

I think you're getting smut confused with PWP. Not all smut lacks plot, it just contains explicit sex. The majority of the stuff I write is smut, but there's a decent amount of plot (generally more plot than sex itself) in it. I can have, say, a 10K-word oneshot and 30% of that may be sex while the other 70% is other stuff.

Unless it's two fandom characters that I'm familiar with, I'm not a huge fan of PWP myself.

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@ perf.

I absolutely agree. I'm not plus-sized, but I am thick, and it's very rarely that I come across characters that aren't 5'9" and 120 lbs or petite and 100 lbs.

The only stories that I've ever read that featured a female main character than wasn't super skinny were just focused on her struggles with her weight or made her weight the main aspect of the character

@ i saw sparks
I'm not getting it confused, I just genuinely don't like reading about sex. If there's more than, say, one or two sexual scenes in a story, I just skip them. 30% of a story is a lot to have to skip. Not saying it's because it's badly written. I'm sure it's written well, it's just not my thing.

@ Vechs

I'm just saying that not necessarily the entirety of a smut piece is just sex or that it's sex without substance, which was the impression I garnered from your initial post.

I write romances between adult characters, and unless there's a reason why they're not having sex, it's just not realistic to me to not include it because it's a pretty big part of a relationship and I believe that there are certain things about a character or about how two (or more) characters relate to one another that can only be learned through sex.

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I'd like to see more characters in stories that have careers that aren't necessarily glamorous. There are so many jobs out there besides waitressing, working in a coffee shop, photography, music, modeling, acting, etc (personally, I don't find being a waitress or barista that glamorous, but I see it constantly in stories).

I mean, I'm 23 with a B.S. in Biology and working on my M.S.W, and it was hard enough for me to find the job that I have, and it's not a glamorous job, so it's a little hard for me to believe when a character that's 19 has this amazing job. Unless his/her parents were wealthy and it opened more opportunities for them, there are a lot of characters with careers that I have a hard time finding realistic.

@ i saw sparks

Exactly! I'm the same. I have a small waist but thick hips. I never read about curvy girls, we want love too

@ perf.

Ikr? I'm only 5'3" and my weight tends to fluctuate around 130 lbs, but I have wide hips and big boobs. It's just sad that I've never once come across a character profile that had a female character over 120 lbs

War and crime fiction that isn't consumed by a romantic relationship. I'm so sick of finding what I think is a good story, only to realise that it veers off on a romantic angle and then forgets that it's the middle of WWII and the MC is more than likely going to die or be horribly injured and maybe, just maybe, they won't get back together once he comes back with PTSD.

Actually now that I've mentioned it, I'd like to see a relationship where it isn't a perfect happy ending to a war. I'd like to see a fic based around a war where the main character doesn't come back and how that affects the people he leaves behind.

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Gruesome crime fiction. I'm talking gory murders and crime scenes to turn the stomach, not the gang fiction that Mibba seems to thrive on. I mean, that stuff is alright but I like my crime in sordid, glorious HD. I also like it told from the detective's side of things and I like reading about psychopathic serial killers, things that the crime fiction tends to gloss over.

@ house of cards.
ugh yes everything you said, I want all of that

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I'd like to see stories where "strong female character" doesn't mean "sassy, foul-mouthed, sexy woman who is comfortable in her own skin". I think sometimes people mistake the 'strong' in that term for physical strength. It absolutely isn't that. Sure, a strong character CAN be physically strong, but it's more than that. It's about their actions, their traits, their beliefs, and I'm sick of seeing the same spunky no-nonsense rebel girls in stories. Ugh.

@ rust cohle

I agree. When I think of the strong women in my life, it's their physicality or their badass attitude that makes them strong. I consider them strong because of the things they've overcome and the accomplishments they've made.

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I'd love to see more diversity in ages in a story.

There are so many things I hate about the show The Young & the Restless (which happens to be my mom's favorite show), but I do admire how the characters range from age 7-80. There's a substantial amount of characters in their early 20s, early 40s, and early 60s, and that's something I wish I could find in a story.

Diversity in race for the main character!

° Longer chapters.
° More lesbians. Different kinds of lesbians. Weird lesbians.
° More POC.
° More eccentric shit (I mean crazy, out there, bizarre - without just being sick for the sake of it or cliche).
° More complex characters.
° More complex settings/situations/plots.
° Less stoic, vaguely "rebellious", stuck up, apathetic characters.
° More humor.

Stories set in the Victorian era that aren't romance-centric.

I'd like to see more stuff on disabilities and mental illnesses. Like, from the main character's point of view. I just want to learn about them while getting more inspiration as well. I haven't seen very many of them either, and if I have... they are unfinished and haven't been worked on in years. I know mental illnesses are quite common though, but not disability stories like what I write.

In general, I'd like to see more adult characters in stories, but going even further, I'd love it if there were more stories that portrayed adult characters trying to balance careers, families, financial struggles, etc.

It seems like whenever there is an "older" character in a story, they still very much behave like a teenager, have a lot of high-school-like drama going on in their lives, and work as a waitress or in retail. While there's nothing wrong with those jobs, I rarely ever see a character who has a non-Hollywood career.

Characters that live in countries other than the US or England, particularly the latter. The UK is made up of more than just London - there's other areas to England and there are also three other countries in the UK - Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and they need more love.

Stories with ensemble casts.

Stories with a cast of characters that are diverse in terms of race, gender, orientation, and culture. I can never get enough of those!

I'd love to read something with fat/chubby characters, a variety of genders, and sexualities. Maybe even throw in some diversity. I'm so tired of clicking on the character page for a story and seeing an all white, straight, thin cast. It's gotten to the point where I click away if that's the case.