History Webanimation / TerribleWritingAdvice

* TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers: His ideas on how to make a Grimdark story overly sinister:
-->Everything powered by Contrivium? It's made out of '''ground-up widows'''!\\
MacGuffin everyone's fighting over? Turns out it is actually powered by '''pure evil'''!\\
Magic? That's energy harvested from '''the souls of the damned'''!\\
Hyperspace? You have to travel through '''Cthulhu's back lawn'''!\\
Crude oil? That's made from '''ancient dead creatures'''!

** "Giant Monsters" says that if you can't be bothered to come up with a giant animal, you can just make your giant monster a copy of Franchise/{{Godzilla}} with a slight modification to evade UsefulNotes/{{Copyright}} infringement.

* InactionSequence: Encourages using exposition scenes in the middle of an animated fight scene as it pads the runtime and saves on animation budget. Bonus points if your characters [[ExplainingYourPowerToTheEnemy outline how their powers work]] instead of actually using it!

* MoodDissonance: "Giant Monsters" says that a scene with countless innocents dying of radiation poisoning is a perfect time for the comic relief character to start spouting snappy one-liners. It's also mentioned with regards to adding AnAesop that "this serious issue will be taken even more seriously in a story featuring giant monsters suplexing each other."

** He wraps up "[=LitRPG=]" by answering a driving question of why his characters are in a death game to begin with: [[Literature/SwordArtOnline "It's been so long I've forgotten the reason."]] To drive the reference home, the slide also resembles the final scenes of the Aincrad arc.

** Discussed in ''Leader Characters''. The episode recommends using evil advisors to make sure that every bad decision is not king's fault. After all, a person born into royal genetics cannot be a bad leader.

** That Guy: A filthy, dumb, and obnoxious nerd whose behavior is basically the combination of all the drawbacks of the previous ones without their saving graces. Their typical character is a overweight man dressed like JP, with a neckbeard and a fedora, standing on top of a mountain of Cheetos while raising a sword toward the sky. This character doesn't reappear latter. In rabletop RPG terminology, "That Guy" refers to a player whose behavior (both in the game itself, and their non-RP interaction with the rest of the group) ruins the fun of the other players. Here, in true ''Terrible Writing Advice'' fashion, JP describes That Guy as the most desirable player profile.

** That Guy: A filthy, dumb, and obnoxious nerd whose behavior is basically the combination of all the drawbacks of the previous ones without their saving graces. Their typical character is a overweight man dressed like JP, with a neckbeard and a fedora, standing on top of a mountain of Cheetos while raising a sword toward the sky. This character doesn't reappear latter. In Tabletop RPG terminology, "That Guy" refers to a player whose behavior (both in the game itself, and their non-RP interaction with the rest of the group) ruins the fun of the other players. Here, in true ''Terrible Writing Advice'' fashion, JP describes That Guy as the most desirable player profile.

** He wraps up "Lit RPG" by answering a driving question of why his characters are in a death game to begin with: [[Literature/SwordArtOnline "It's been so long I've forgotten the reason."]] To drive the reference home, the slide also resembles the final scenes of the Aincrad arc.

** A common gag is to take a common cliche or plot device, then point out that with a little thought, you could come up with an interesting story to justify that cliche or play it in a new fashion, revealing that it actually has a lot of mileage and is just often used poorly... and then he tells you to not do that, and instead play all its worst aspects straight (sometimes he goes further saying that even that could be used cleverly, only to, once again, choose the worst way to execute that variation of the trope). For instance, in his video on comic relief characters, he notes that despite the archetype's habit of being loathsome, they can easily justify their presence with a solid development arc, show off that they're actually vital members of the cast, or contrast with the protagonist in a meaningful way... or they can just say the same annoying catchphrase over and over again, which is much easier.

** In "Lit RPG" he adds a couple of side notes that express that he doesn't take issue with using fanservice or harem tropes in general, but rather how they break immersion or lack characterization respectively.

** "Post Apocalyptic" opens with "[[VideoGame/{{Fallout}} Writing. Writing never changes.]]"

* CommanderContrarian: In "Leader characters", JP recommends to use this character archetype for the sole reason to make the leader look smart and to slow down the plot. He also says that Commander Contrarian is great at causing contrived conflicts.

* CommanderContrarian: Discussed in the "Leader Character" episode, where it's stated that the role of such a character is to provide a strawman who opposes the protagonist no matter how nonsensical they come off as in order to prove the protagonist right and thus fulfill the power fantasy of winning an argument. He also states that there is no point in making this character someone who is there to provide an actual counterpoint or as an HonestAdvisor actually attempting to help.
* {{Conflict}}: Discussed in more general terms in "Scene writing". J.P. states that amateur writers often have scenes without a conflict, intermediate writers often have scenes with forced conflicts and professional writers have scenes with well-written conflicts that add nothing in the wider context of the story.

** The "Mentors" video has JP realizing that, as he's [[TheObiWannabe passing on advice]] to the viewer, that makes ''him'' a mentor, and thus susceptible to this trope. He spends the rest of the video trying to pad it out and avoid this trope. [[spoiler:He fails... but he remembers the "[[SpiritAdvisor bring the mentor back as a ghost]]" trope, allowing him to finish out the video]].

* AttackAttackAttack: In "Action Scenes", this is recommended. JP states that opponents should never consider retreat as an option.

** In "Character Development", the "Mary Sue" character sheet shows the [[InformedFlaw "flaws"]] as "[[SoBeautifulItsACurse too beautiful]]", as "[[TheKlutz kind of clumsy]]" is being erased. Her BackStory is "TheChosenOne" as a "[[TooManyHalves half-dragon, half-human, half-elf]], third angel, [[MagicalNativeAmerican fourth Cherokee]]." "Powers and abilities" include SuperStrength, [[BeautyIsNeverTarnished Super Beauty]], Master of {{Love Triangle}}s, [[TheArchmage Ultra Magic]], and [-[[Franchise/{{Batman}} Super Tech]],-] [--[[Franchise/{{Superman}} Super Speed, Laser Vision]],--] [---[[ElementalPowers Elemental Control]]...---]

-->'''Beaubien:''' After all, with great power come great references to that one ''Franchise/{{SpiderMan}}'' [[Film/SpiderManTrilogy movie]].

*** One player archetype is referred to as "the Joker". The Joker's player character basically looks like Creator/HeathLedger's [[Film/TheDarkKnight Joker]] reimagined as a fantasy character. JP ends the scene by telling the best way to deal with those players is to call Franchise/{{Batman}}.

** "Deconstruction" shows the edgy author giving a speech mirroring [[Comicbook/{{Watchmen}} Rorschach]]'s.

** "How To Not Write A Mary Sue," on the other hand, focuses on the pitfalls of the AntiSue, the opposite extreme of the Mary Sue's ultraperfection being ultraimperfection, which means nobody can accuse your character of being a Mary Sue even if the story still revolves around them.

* BlackHoleSue: [[invoked]]Discussed in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4sy_kEt5sI "How not to write a Mary Sue"]] . By teaching about how to be Anti-Sue, J.P. still forgets to remove the most defining Mary Sue trait: The plot and the universe bending for the said character.

** Invoked. The MarySueClassic was a common target of mockery in earlier videos, and was even the focus of the very first one. But she very rarely appears anymore. J.P. even takes a moment in "Fanfiction Original Characters" to point out how "MarySue" has become [[Administrivia/TropeDecay a diluted, wildly inconsistent, and overall utterly meaningless accusation that tends to be shorthand for "character I don't like"]].

** In "Revenge Plots", one of the the protaganist's companions realizes the protaganist is going to needlessly get everone killed, so he leaves.

* AntiSue: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4sy_kEt5sI "How not to write a Mary Sue"]] discusses the problem in depth.[[in-universe]]

* AntiSue: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4sy_kEt5sI "How not to write a Mary Sue"]] discusses the problem in depth.