Webanimation Comically bad advice and great sponsors to watch
- This is for the the normal Terrible Writing Advice videos:
- Its main villains are nothing, but flat characters that they have made my face constantly cringe of their motive decay. The running gags of the Love Triangle are go overused, I now believe that writers must always use them. The Mary Sue is so horribly written, that this show is nothing, but filled with... dun dun DUN!!! Terrible Writing Advice. Every bad comment I have said in this show, is about Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad. This show is so bad, that I must never praise this in any time of my life. Its advice is so terrible, that I am unable to see the true greatness and entertainment of the ugliest shows of the internet.
- This is for the Terrible Writing Advice Expanded Universe:
- Upon learning that an expanded universe existed, I was shocked, because I initially viewed the character skits at the end of each video as a boring side-video to promote advertisement. Now that I know of what the Terrible Writing Advice Cinematic Universe is, I can now say that I absolutely enjoy the advertisement promotions. The skits started off pretty comical that had made me find it enjoyable. However, a majority of the comical moments were primarily present in Season 1 and Season 2. Any references to Greed made the show unusually serious and it is what hooked me even more.
- I slowly started to feel the effects of the cerebus syndrome and I began to view the characters as real people, rather than just comical flat character archetypes. I will say that the dark tone really convinced me to watch the ads because they are integral to creating a surprisingly serious story conflict. The dramatic mood has really helped to characters grow because they now take the conflict more seriously and I really want to see how the Knights of Integrity are able to truly show their competency to fight against advertisements. Overall, the transformation of what the Terrible Writing Advice Cinematic Universe became, really feels like a 10/10 series to watch for me.
Webanimation I love this show (rewritten)
I have tried and failed many times to write this review, simply because I cannot describe my emotions towards this show. Focusing on the plot segments for a second, I love the voice-acting, how the lore is presented (even though it is often presented as a long monologue) and don't get me started on the characters. I loved how they built up the mystery of Project IG (even though I got spoiled for the reveal) and despite how convoluted the plot is, I just think it's great.
Moving on to the actual advice—I think it's pretty good, although there are some things I disagree with. I think it does a good job of showing that Tropes Are Tools and giving nuanced advice. While I dislike referential humour and the show relies heavily on it, I still adore it and there are lines that I will just think about and find funny.
Overall, despite its flaws, Terrible Writing Advice is a funny show that is surprisingly well-written, considering it is about advertisements and sarcastic writing advice. Although it will sometimes skim over important plot points (likely due to the time between episodes and the fact that the story might not be completely planned out), it's still a silly show that has a special place in my heart. 7/10.
Webanimation This series changed me and it sucks.
I am fully obsessed with this absolute mid-tier You Tube channel, and I cannot stop thinking about it. I've genuinely been obsessed for soon to be 2 years straight, and nearly all that time I've spent thinking, writing, drawing fanart and talking about this series, with a few small obsessions in-between.
This series starts off horrid, and its a miracle I even got through watching the channel chronologically! JP's voice acting, editing, and to be honest, writing style, absolutely suck at the start (and actually, his voice acting and editing can still be pretty bad! The sponsorship wars' characters' voices change frequently, sometimes even in the same episode).
One of the best parts of watching TWA is seeing how JP's writing has improved, the worst is everything else. The visuals are charming most of the time, but when they aren't, god are they fucking ugly, even if you've gotten used to TWA's style. The jokes can be nice, but rarely are, as most are just references, which, as a person not well versed in western pop culture, gets tiring.
And yet how does my completely chronological binge-watch of Terrible Writing Advice end? I am completely and absolutely obsessed about the series.
How does this man do it? I can't decide if he's ruined or improved my life ten-fold by making this channel.
Don't get me wrong, I love this channel, it makes me incredibly happy, but oh god if that just doesn't make the things I hate and can see are awful about the channel more obvious.
I am insane about this channel, and that's about it. Hard to find a lot of positive things to say about this series if it does not already mean a lot to a person.
Webanimation It's funny that most of these reviews are negative, since I like the series
Although I can see why the other reviewers don't like this series, I've always enjoyed it for the insights it gives into storytelling. Given that I don't read many books, or consume much media in many of the genres JP mentions, it's helpful to gain insight into these genres that I otherwise wouldn't have. And if you're familiar with the genre, it can be just as fun to go "Ohh, that does happen a lot!"
While I'm sure that many viewers find the show's nonstop irony and sarcasm irritating, I think it makes the commentary funnier. It makes the show less of a "don't do this" and more of a satire of the genre in question, poking fun at the absurdity of tropes, which lets JP get away with not explaining in detail why he personally dislikes a trope and makes the analysis seem less subjective. He certainly has moments where it's clear that he's being sarcastic out of contempt, such as when talking about comic relief, which I think slightly undermines his point, but it can be nice to get some edge occasionally.
I think it's pretty clear he doesn't just go Tropes Are Bad, he explains why some common tropes make the storytelling worse for the reader or are unrealistic in general, even though there are certainly instances where he dislikes tropes because they make the story predictable. His points on realism/research might be a bit much for some, since plenty of good stories don't have to be realistic, but as someone who admires the effort of research I think that avoiding clearly unrealistic elements makes it much easier to avoid having to Hand Wave away why things don't work the way they do in real life, and following methods employed in real life can give an air of authenticity even when the reader has no idea how things actually work, if the writer explains said methods well enough. Using realistic elements that are usually left out (like accounting for biochemical barriers) can create complications which most stories ignore.
It's also pretty easy to get good advice from the show in my opinion, given that it seems like almost half of JP's comments are ironic dismissals of actually good advice, and if you can't pick up on this always he uses the green question marks to clearly telegraph ideas he actually likes. Many of the ideas are much more than "avoid this trope," with many being clever subversions or whole new story concepts (like a vampire dictatorship).
Another plus is the advice to writers in general, even if said advice isn't as useful to people who don't have serious plans to write novels. JP's also expanded recently into things like analyzing comedy and propaganda, and while these analyses aren't always as strong, it's good to see his approach.
Webanimation It lives up to its name
As you're probably aware, informational videos on YouTube and other sites should be informative but also entertaining, since the former helps the video do its job, while the latter keeps readers' interest. In practice, since the name of the game is getting hits and monetizing your videos, you should focus on the latter. In order to accomplish this, you should amp up the snark as high as possible, making sure to mock prevalent tropes and well-known series as much as possible. Don't worry about people finding this annoying, because as long as the likes vastly outnumber the dislikes, and your comment section is full of sycophants parroting your lines and gushing over your video, then it's all good.
If you found the above paragraph obnoxious, you probably won't like this series, since it is my approximation of the style. The series is a long stream of "how not to write" guides for various characters, settings, plots or genres, mocking various cliches and the people who use them.
This wouldn't be that much of a problem if not for the video failing to draw distinctions between the worst and most exaggerated forms of the tropes and the ones most often found in people's writing, which may be handled in a better or more nuanced manner. Any actual advice is usually buried beneath layers of sarcasm, Take Thats and dismissal of tropes as crutches for lazy or incompetent writers, thus giving the impression that the author is much better at making fun of what he considers bad writing than giving advice for how to write well.
In short, How NOT to Write a Novel does a better job on what this series sets out to do, since not only does it make fun of bad writing decisions, it also puts more effort into helping avoid those pitfalls. It doesn't have as much genre-specific advice, but there are probably better places to find that information than the aptly-named "Terrible Writing Advice."
Webanimation Eh. It's alright.
If you can stomach the faux-confident do-the-exact-opposite-of-this-thing delivery (I can, for the record) you might be able to get a chuckle out of a visual joke or a fleeting moment of self-awareness on the narrator's part, or get some inspiration from one of those "accidental" moments of honest suggestion. It's not exactly the most entertaining thing on Youtube, but it's good enough to watch on a slow day at work.
Webanimation Tropes are Bad: The Series
Let me get something straight here. Tropes are neither good nor bad; like science, Tropes Are Tools that can be used, misused, abused, perused, etc. with varying results. It annoys me to no end when people say they hate a trope, call one cliche/unoriginal, or think that a work having a certain trope they dislike is a sign of bad writing. I'm sure these people are not necessarily stupid, but they are still fundamentally misunderstanding what a trope is and how it works. And that is why I dislike Terrible Writing Advice.
I know the creator of this series is a professional author with a critical eye towards storytelling, but the way he talks about tropes and other storytelling tools makes it clear he doesn't understand the true nature of tropes. I don't care if you hate love triangles or not, but guess what? It is totally possible to write a good love triangle as much as it is to write a bad love triangle! GASP! I know, shocking, right? Well guess what, that's real life, and like a lot of things IRL, no storytelling techniques are objectively good or objectively bad, rather they can only be subjectively labelled as such depending on their execution and the audience. The real quality of a storytelling technique should lie in not what kind is being used, but how it is being used - and even then, it's still all dependent on others' opinions. Terrible Writing Advice fails to understand that tropes are fundamentally subjective and thus comes off as a snob, which is strange because you think the creator, who is legitimately a good writer, would understand the non-objective nature of tropes better than some doofus ranting on TV Tropes like me.
Furthermore, I really despise his style of presenting his discussions on storytelling techniques. There are countless Youtubers who try to earn subscribers by using this snarky, edgy, cynical style when critically analyzing film, literature, etc. because apparently they believe the average person thinks that being mean and snide towards the things you review is comedy gold (the sad thing is that it works because many of these guys have thousands of subscribers). Well, it isn't! It's obnoxious, boring, and repetitive. The ONLY channel I've seen do this well is Overly Sarcastic Productions, and that's because their usage of it is minimal and doesn't get in the way of the meat of its content and the actually good stuff (see their video on the Rule of Three for example). Unfortunately, Terrible Writing Advice does not succeed at this, because sarcastic and cynical smartassery is the basis for the series' style. As a result, it actually makes the series look annoyingly smug, and not actually intelligent. Cynicism and sarcasm do not equate intelligence despite what everyone seems to believe; in fact, in my experience, those who are most arrogant and in-your-face about their intelligence are often not intelligent at all (it's like that "I am so smart! S-M-R-T!" scene on The Simpsons).
Overall, Terrible Writing Advice is absolutely nothing special, and really only enjoyable for those who think tropes can be bad (which of course means they don't understand how storytelling techniques works). Sure, the series' creator is a professional writer, but that makes his series' view of tropes all the more unusual - unless he's deliberately pandering towards people who don't understand the first thing about using tropes.
Webanimation A Dark Examination on Advertisements
In my previous review, I reviewed about what I thought about J.P. Beaubien's Terrible Writing Advice that he gives to people. The review was filled with many Blatant Lies to show how I enjoyed the advice he brings. Now I plan on reviewing the Terrible Writing Advice Cinematic Universe.
Upon learning that an expanded universe existed, I was shocked, because I initially viewed the character skits at the end of each video as a boring side-video to promote advertisement. Now that I know of what the Terrible Writing Advice Cinematic Universe is, I can now say that I absolutely enjoy the advertisement promotions. The skits started off pretty comical that had made me find it enjoyable. However, a majority of the comical moments were primarily present in Season 1 and Season 2. Any references to Greed made the show unusually serious and it is what hooked me even more.
I slowly started to feel the effects of the Cerebus Syndrome and I began to view the characters as real people, rather than just comical Flat Character archetypes. I will say that the Cerebus Syndrome really convinced me to watch the ads because they are integral to creating a surprisingly serious story conflict. The Darker and Edgier mood has really helped to characters grow because they now take the conflict more seriously and I really want to see how the Knights of Integrity are able to truly show their competency to fight against advertisements. Overall, the transformation of what the Terrible Writing Advice Cinematic Universe became, really feels like a 10/10 series to watch.