Boring, Extinguishing, or Frightening

As a companion to the challenge to list things that I found exciting, inspiring, or intriguing, I decided to flip things around and explore the things that I dislike, the things that leaving me uneasy and at worse destroy my enjoyment of a story.

Because this challenge is the opposite of the other, I picked three words that I thought were good opposites to the ones in the original challenge: boring instead of exciting, extinguishing instead of inspiring, and frightening instead of intriguing. If I wasn't trying to mirror the other challenge, I would probably have added "annoying" to the title.

Of the three, I consider 'extinguishing' to represent the worst of the concepts, the types of things that drain imagination and enjoyment instead of set them on fire.

THE LIST (under construction)

• Unreasonable people
• Illogically dense people
• Fictional character who act out of character
• Unrealized potential
• Distant relationships
• Avoidable drama
• Uncontrolled emotions
• Embarrassing/awkward social situations 
• Serial killers
• Heights/sheer drops/falling
• Physical restriction (i.e. being stuck in an underground tunnel unable to move)
• Crude/sexual humor

Note: There is a disclaimer on this list, that doesn't exist on the other list. Many of these things can be used effectively to make a good story, one that I enjoy, but it all depends on how they are used (with the exception of characters acting out of character, which I don't think is ever okay).

Exciting, Inspiring, or Intriguing

There is a writing challenge I came across that encourages the writer to make a list of things they find exciting, inspiring, or intriguing. After I started thinking about it, I came to find the challenge itself intriguing. It seemed to me to be a starting point for understanding quite a lot, not only what I wanted to write about, but why I liked certain books best.

This is the first part of the challenge: a list of things that excite, inspire, or intrigue me.

THE LIST (in no particular order or categories)

• Good vs. evil conflicts
• Spoken words as binding and/or authoritative
• World War II
• Jerusalem
• Turn of the century Egypt (early 1900s)
• Archeology
• Fictional 1920/30s detectives
• Folk dancing
• Redemption stories (related to realized potential)
• Realized potential (related to redemption stories)
• Apprenticeships
• Strong friendships / complementary relationships
• Strong parent/child relationships
• Adoption
• Planes / flying
• Engineering (electrical/mechanical)
• Mountains
• Mountain fortresses
• Exploration
• Space / Nebulas / Stars
• Swimming
• Other cultures
• Solving puzzles / mysteries
• Space ships / fighters / stations
• Rebellions against oppression
• Weight of history
• Hidden communities
• Layered cities (i.e. Coruscant)
• Secret identities
• Being undercover
• Shadow wars
• Shadow antagonists
• Autumn
• Christmas
• Underground / cave cities
• Cities w/ waterfalls and/or lakes
• Epic sword-fights / battles
• Archery
• Monarchies
• Liege relationships
• Divine providence
• Kings as priests
• Wild West
• Tight knit communities
• Holiness of God