Scribbled Fiction

Ancient Greece called. They want their statues back. I hate to burst your beautiful little bubble of reality, but not everyone in the world is a supermodel. Not everyone can have the clear skin, the perfect body type, the delicate hands and perfect hair. We can't all be the flawless image of beauty that our society has set up for us. And you know what? That's good. Because if everyone matched that flawless image, I wouldn't be able to find anyone in a crowd. We talk about having diversity in books, but there's more than one type of diversity. What about having some diversity of appearance? Why has culture corrupted us so much that if we see a protagonist that isn't Hollywood-golden-girl status on appearances, we like her less? It feels wrong. The first example of this problem that comes to mind is the Never Ending Story. In the book, Sebastian was described as being a fat little boy. Don't judge me on the description. It's what the book said...

I've already done a post about things writers love. Now for the anti-version of that post: Things writers hate. All the things I'm about to talk about are all things every writer hates. With all of their soul. No one else can truly understand how aggravating these things are, but together, we are strong. Meaning, we can all rant about them until the cows come home. So let's begin with #1. 1. Losing your work. Nooooo!        I hate losing the paper I had my work on. I get so mad so mad because I can't remember the exact wording from before.  This also applies to when you close out the Word document and you accidentally hit don't save instead of save ?????? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO 2. The mean characters.        I mean, they're our faults, because, um, we created them, but still... They're jerks, and they must be dealt with. Go sit in a corner, you turd. 3. Those stupid erasers.        You know the ones I...

C'mere for just a second. Sit down. I have a little trope to tell you about. It's called the Black Best Friend. It's not just for when the MC's best friend is black, but oho, let me tell you: every word of the trope's name is selected oh-so-carefully. The term Black Best Friend refers to when the white protagonist has a best friend that is Asian, black,  Hispanic, Phillipino, any of the minorities. Here are a few examples: Ella Enchanted Whichever Cinderella Story this is Yes, even Percy Jackson. Crucify me now. Doesn't mean I don't like these movies. I love 'em. But they have committed a crime here. But it's only ever the best friend who is the minority. Very seldom is it the main character. Let's talk for a second, my writer friends. I think white people are well  represented in books. Very well represented. One could even say overly  represented. I think a lot of this is just because it's what we tend to see, so ...

I hate cliches. Everyone here knows I hate cliches. So allow me to vent about one of the biggest, the most grating, the most disliked and yet the most common cliche in YA fiction. The jerk boyfriend. Boyfriends in YA suck. I could name a few names, but then most of you would probably haul me off to the chopping block before I finished my coffee, so we'll have to go without any examples. But I'll tell you one thing: all these guys mistreat the girls before they're in a relationship, and the abuse doesn't go away after they're in the relationship. Excuse me, if my boyfriend treats me like that, he's getting kicked to the curb. Ash had the right idea. She kicked him out. Being a jerk isn't attractive. Being abusive isn't attractive. A little banter is fun, I don't mind banter, but if he's pushing her around (figuratively or literally) and just being mean because he feels like it, I have one question for you: What the heck? What girl...

There are just some things that writers do or know that other people just don't get . The trials of trying to get the draft done, terms like MC and word sprint, the constant craving for coffee, the deep-seated desire to just murder all those characters and just abandon their broken bodies to be eaten by the carnivorous unicorns of the cosmos .  I don't know about that last one, though. It might just be me. Anyone else ever feel like that? No? I figured. But if you don't mind, I'll just talk about some of the other things that writers get that other people just don't. Getting ideas in the middle of the night. This is why I keep a whiteboard and a whiteboard pen near my bed at night. If I have a random idea, I can just scribble it down and keep trying to sleep. Emphasis on 'trying.' Night is my brain's active time. Once I start figuring stuff out and the ideas start arriving, they don't tend to stop for a good half an hour. Sometimes even lon...