Jan Talkmeme - tropes I wouldn't

[tielan]

beatrice_otter: Plot bunny/trope that you would never write, and why.

I was going to say that there's nothing I wouldn't write if I was given the right bunny, but I think that I can say, with reasonable safety, that mpreg probably qualifies. Never done it, and I won't say I never will, but I doubt it. For starters, taking something essentially female and giving it to a guy? Takes the focus away from the woman. Which is not my thing. It is, in fact, the anti-my-thing. And while I do occasionally find characters slashable, it's very specific characters and pairings, and I'm not usually that into writing them having a child.

Also: as a single woman with no urgent desire to be a mother (I'm not childfree, but I'm not missing something, the way 'childless' tends to imply) and a low likelihood that I even could if I found someone tomorrow, there's a part of me that rebels at the idea that having a child is SPESHUL. That the process of birth somehow elevates you and your partner's relationship to something better, more intimate, unbreakable. As so many people on and off my flist can attest from the example of their own parents; having children doesn't make you a better person - it just makes you a parent.

So no mpreg; if I was going to write about a same-sex couple having children, it would be adoption or surrogacy - the whole emotional ups and downs of such a process, the strains and struggles, the hanging questions and the unwanted answers. To me, that would be the interesting part of such a story, not the 'we gave birth it's the miracle of life and proof of our enduring everlasting love!' angle.