Horrible Advice Writers Hear All the Time - or - In which I May or May Not Rant

Advice: Once your work is on submission to agents/editors, work on your next book. That way, you won't obsess about your submission because you will be focused on your WIP.

Truth: This is a lie. NOTHING will EVER take your mind off your queries/submissions. Ever. Period. Just accept it. Yes, it can help to have distractions like other hobbies, or a new WIP. However, trying to dilute yourself into thinking you will somehow forget that there is someone out there who currently holds, not only your dreams, but potentially your entire future in their hands, and may or may not be deciding your fate right now at this very second, is not only impossible, it's ludicrous. Furthermore, the people who tell you that you should be able to 'distract' yourself are really doing nothing more than making your stress worse. It makes you think that something is wrong with you; as in , "Everyone else seems to be able to work on other things and not obsess, why can't I? Is something wrong with me? Maybe I'm not cut out for this." And that, my friends, is bullshit.

Querying/submitting will take over your mind. You will think about it countless times, every day. Embrace it. If you don't find yourself obsessing over the agents you query, and the publishers who have your work, going to their websites and looking up their stats, and 'about us' sections, and doing pointless searches on Google trying to find out how long it will take to hear back, even though you know that no matter what you find it won't make you feel any better, then YOU are the one who is not normal. The normal people spend most of their days wearing out the refresh button on their e-mail user face. In the world of the aspiring writer--that IS normal.

Advice: Show, Don't Tell

Truth: Now, before you point your fingers at me and screech blasphemer!, let me explain. Yes, 'show, don't tell' is excellent advice for many writers on many occasions. I have gotten many a comment bubble on my MS from my agent during revisions that said exactly that. However, too many writers lately have taken the phrase 'show, don't tell', and translated it to mean that 'telling' is this horrible, terrible thing that should never be done ever--which couldn't be less true. Tell is extremely important in writing. You can't possibly show every little thing that happens in a story, or your book would be the size of a cinder block. I recently read a story where there was a scene in which the main character was meeting her friend for coffee. The author described the MC's arrival at the coffee shop, getting in line, standing in line, looking at the menu, deciding what to order, arriving at the register, placing her order, taking the money out of her purse (I kid you not), paying for the order, walking over to pick up her drink, looking over the open tables, choosing a seat, and sitting down. THEN her friend arrived and the scene actually started. And no, there was no symbolism, or deeper meaning behind the process, and the book was filled with other pointless wordy descriptions that addend nothing to the story but word count. Instead of showing us everything, she could have said, "Mandy arrived at the corner coffee shop, ordered a caramel latte--her favorite--and took a seat by the window and waited for Sarah to arrive. There; in one sentence we've summed up what was literally three and a half pages of writing.

Some writers, like the above author, seem to believe that all you have to do is 'show' everything, and you will be good. What is rarely explained is that the idea of 'showing, not telling' usually applies more to emotional content, as in, 'don't tell me Sally loves Greg, show me', or 'don't tell me that brothers Matt and Bill have a tense relationship, show me.' Show me what should be seen, but it's okay to tell me the rest. A good book is about balance. Finding the right combination of showing AND telling that allowes your story to come to life.

Last, here is a little advice from me: Do what works for you.

If Nora Robbers, or JK Rowling, or Stephen King, or (insert wildly successful author here) gave you advice about writing, would you take it? Why? Because they are successful, or because it's good advice? What it it wasn't good advice, would you try to do it anyway? How many of you out there have tried to force yourselves to 'write everyday', because it's what everyone says you should do? What about social media, how many of you have joined sites you never would have simply because you 'should'?

Well I say to hell with that. I am taking a stand.

Twitter is one of the social media avenues I 'forced' myself to join, but now very much enjoy, and in the spirit of writers everywhere who are tired of being told what to do, I am starting the hashtag #DoWhatWorksForYou. I invite all of you and anyone else you would like to share it with to join me and stop taking crap from all the writing world's know-it-alls. I am sick of reading tweets where people do nothing but post their word count for the day (because come on, we all know you are just bragging, and want us all to say, 'wow, good job!' Well I say screw you!), or the people who say I need a 'special writing space', or that I should schedule my writing time and allow for to no interruptions (yeah, tell that to my kids' diapers!), or anything else that people 'in the know' say I need to do if I want to be 'successful'. I write on my couch, whenever I have time, sometimes not at all, can't write past 8 or 9 o'clock on most days because I am too tired, and that's what works for me. So there.

#DoWhatWorksForYou  Join the uprising.

*End Crabby Rant*

Why?

Why 
A Free-form poem by Marian Lee Vere

*Ahem*

Why is the shortest line in the grocery store always the slowest?
Why do the important emails come when you have no way to check for them?
Why--knowing the above--do I stare at my screen waiting for them anyway?
Why will my daughter eat everything off of the floor, but nothing off of her highchair tray?
Why do I buy health food I know I will never eat?
Why do I lie to myself week after week, insisting the cookies in the shopping cart are "for the kids"?
Why must every TV show I like get canceled or loose half their cast right when I decide to like it?
Why do I keep trying to force myself to like the 'classics'? (Sorry Mr. Poe, Mr. Verne, and Mr. Homer, you are not for me.)
Why must the Cadbury Eggs get smaller every year? (I can't be the only one noticing this!)
Why can't I count writing a blog post as writing, so when hubby asks me, "Did you get any writing done today?" I can say, "Yes. Yes, I did."

Fun ways to waste time...

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First off, let me say sorry to my peeps for the neglect lately. A combination of my WIP and Blogger issues have made my posts scarce. (My computer was actually the one at fault, not blogger, but for some reason, Blogger was the only site affected.)

I don't have a full post today, but I figured in the mean time I'd share a few fun things I've found/been shown over the past few days.

First, if you are a follower of Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, you'll already have seen this, but it is so cool it's worth seeing again. Just in time for Halloween, decaying and condemned Victorian homes... made completely of Legos.

http://freshome.com/2011/10/04/decaying-victorian-houses-made-of-lego-pieces-by-mike-doyle/

Next we have Wordie, shown to me by my agent. All you do is copy and paste a bunch of text and it will automatically create a word cloud. You can choose the colors, and style, then save, or print. It's really cool!

http://www.wordle.net/create

Last but not least, we have Ben and Jerry's special Holloween website. Really cute site with fun stuff like build your own scarecrow and the 'Flavor Graveyard'--a special graveyard dedicated to all the flavors Ben and Jerry's has discontinued over the years! (Tip: Click on the mortuary in the cartoon graveyard to see the full list of 'dead' flavors.)

http://www.benjerry.com/halloween/


Yeah yeah, I know, as if we don't waste enough time online as it is, right? Well if I'm going to get sucked into internet randomness, then darned if I'm not going to take a few of you down with me! So, enjoy my randomness, and I'll be back soon!

Does this genre make my butt look big?

o
Chick Lit.

What is it? Well, that's hard to say. It depends on who you talk to. There didn't use to be an argument. Chick Lit used to be any book which centered around a twenty something woman who liked high fashion, had man problems, had/wanted a glamorous job, liked to shop, had a gay best friend, was the 'girl about town' that we all wanted to be, or any combination there of. But that was back when everyone loved it. There was a huge surge of Chick-Lit in the 90's after the first ever Chick Lit novel took off which was Bridget Jones' Diary, but that has since died off. Lately, you have undoubtedly heard that 'Chick-Lit is dead'. No one wants to by it, or sell, it or read it, and if you label your work as Chick Lit you are dead in the water.

But my question is: How can that be, when publishers, authors, and the media continue to change the definition of what Chick-Lit actually is? Sophie Kinsella, Emily Giffin, Jennifer Crusie, Jodie Picoult, Sarah Strohmeyer, Meg Cabot, and Candace Bushnell all have been considered Chick-Lit at one time or another. Yes, they all write stories about 20-30 something women, but that's pretty much where the similarities end, yet they have all been considered Chick Lit. Most of them have even been asked about the label and how they feel about it. (Sophie Kinsella loves it--as she should being one of the queens of the genre, Emily Giffin is fine with it, Jodie Picoult was confused by it (as am I, in her case), and Jennifer Crusie didn't necessarily agree but also had no problem with it.)


A few days ago, author Polly Courtney actually left her publisher, an imprint of HarperCollins, because she was tired of them branding her books as Chick Lit when she feels they are women's fiction.
Yeah... left her publisher. That's big doins', folks. Was it that serious? She says yes.

So where does that leave people like me, who are actually writing in this genre? I've always considered my stuff Quirky Women's Fiction, but isn't that really just another way to say Chick Lit? I've never been ashamed of it, look, there it is right there at the top of my blog under my name. I've never though tit was a horrible thing, after all, that's not only what I write, it's also what I read. Am I dead in the water?

Here's how I see it: Women's Fiction and Chick Lit are very much like Paranormal and Fantasy. These days, there's a lot of gray area. Yes, both paranormal and fantasy have specific definitions, but sometimes it's hard to tell. Some books are absolutely Paranormal, while others are absolutely Fantasy. But look at The Sookie Stackhouse books (True Blood)--they are set in our world with vampires and shape shifters (Paranormal), but we also have Fairies, magic, and alternate universes (Fantasy) So which is it? Does it matter? No.

The moral of my very long winded, slightly ranty story: Don't let your genre define you; define your genre. In the end, if you have a great story, labels don't matter. If someone handed you a book and said, "It's a middle grade fantasy.", are you super excited? Probably not. Did you read Harry Potter? Probably. While reading it, did you care that it was a middle grade fantasy? Probably not.

The Frumpy Country Cousin

Let me start this post by saying: I love my book. My agent and I have spent months reviewing, editing, polishing, and perfecting it, and it really is a thing of beauty--high heals, makeup, designer gown--the works.

However, I am not here to talk about the shiny beautiful manuscript, I am here to talk about her frumpy country cousin, otherwise know as my current work in progress. She's dirty and disheveled, with frizzy hair, chipped nail polish, mismatched shoes--and, dare I say it--needs to loose a few pounds. Basically a hot mess. If you put the two projects next to each other, you can tell they are related; voice, tone and style all being very similar, but that's about all they have in common. They would not be friends or even hang out together. Finished MS would probably steal WIP's boyfriend, throw punch on her hand-me-down dress, and leave her crying alone in the corner. And the worst part is, I would be right there next to Finished MS, laughing and pointing at the frumpy wall flower.

Why would I be joining Finished MS and not punishing her for her horrible behavior? Because, as much as I hate to admit it, I have as big a problem with WIP as she does. I just can't accept the fact that that sloppy mess actually came out of me. I have grown so accustomed to the beauty and shine of Finished MS, that I expect everything I write to be as polished right out of the gate. It's hard to remember that Finished MS used to be as buck-toothed and dumpy as WIP is now. It took me months to clean her up and teach her some manners, and even that wasn't enough. I had to take her to a professional beautician (who moonlights as a literary agent) to get her to where she is now. So naturally, I should know that there is no reason to be upset with WIP, as she just needs a little time.

Like I said... I should know that.

I do know that. But that doesn't mean it isn't hard to remember.

So now if you'll excuse me, I have an Extreme Makeover: Manuscript Edition to get started on.

Remember Me?

o
Hey look a new post! Ala-bit a short one, but hey, it's something!

Thanks so much for the patients everyone, I really appreciate it! Also, I want to give a huge thanks to Anita, who gave me a blog award last week! I'll get to officially accepting and posting is in a day or two, but in the mean time, thanks Anita!

Now on to business...

It's a short one today, but it's something I have been thinking about a lot lately. Romance novels.

Did you know that romance outsells every other genre every year? Like, by a lot... a whole lot. Why is that not common knowledge? Because most romance readers don't admit to being one. Romance readers like me. There is a lot of romance I enjoy--Mary Balogh being my all time favorite--but do I wear a 'Romance Novel Reader' shirt to the super market? No. Why? The same reason everyone else is embarrassed to admit they love romance. We all know that when the average person hears 'romance novel' they picture this:

...and this...

...and of course...

The Cover! Seriously? The cover, which 90% of the time has absolutely nothing to do with the actual book!  Seems really stupid, but that's all it takes. When people see a horribly cheesy cover, they assume the story inside is equally as lame and cheese-filled. Okay, yes, sometimes that is the case (we all know there are terribly corny bodice-rippers out there), but more often than not, the cover has nothing to do with the actual story. Hell, sometimes the characters aren't even described correctly! The blond bombshell on the cover is actually supposed to be a mousy brunette school teacher, etc.

*Sigh*

When the overly cheesy, Fabio-style covers came into popularity, I'm not sure, but I'm thinking it was 80s early 90s. What I have noticed lately however, is that publishers are starting to realize just how horrid those old covers are, and have begun to give some of their older titles face lifts. For instance,

This...

...is now this.

Dancing dreamily...

...to pretty bow.

And my personal favorite...

...oh yeah, much better.

So, in conclusion, I would like to thank all the publishers who are giving readers like me more to enjoy, with no reason to hide my book behind a magazine or roll the cover back so no one can see it! ;)

Long live romance!

5 Things not to do at your court appearance...

o
1.) Do not leave your flip -flops in the car saying, "Oh, I won't need them, these shoes aren't that bad, I'm sure I'll be fine until I get back to the car," only to leave the courthouse two and a half hours later limping, cursing, and bleeding.

2.) Do not arrive an hour before your scheduled time thinking you will be the first one there and will thereby be one of the first called. You will be the first one there, however you will not be able to check in until ten minutes before your scheduled time, at which point everyone who arrived after you will rush the door forcing you to the back of the line. Then, when you are finally checked in, you discover that it didn't matter an any case, because they are calling cases in alphabetical order!

3.) Do not offer your seat on the only bench in the hall to the pregnant lady who just walked in, because she will graciously decline, and while you are up asking her if she would like the seat, some thirty something year old jerk-wad, who wears ripped jeans and a dirty baseball cap to court, will steal it for himself.

4.) Do not tell the Judge that something is "None of your business," or you will get thrown out of court and fined. (That one wasn't me.)


5.) If you are driving a car and the seat belt is cutting painfully into your neck because the seat isn't adjusted properly, do not loop the belt under your left elbow, or you will get a ticket and have to spend half your day in court. Meh.

And what happened, you ask, when the big moment rolled around and I was finally called up before the Judge? Well I'll tell you. It went like this...

Clerk: Marian Vere
I walk to the podium.
Judge: (to me)Ms. Vere, this is a seat belt charge. (to the prosecutor)Any priors?
Prosecutor: No.
Judge: Wear your seat belt. Charges dismissed.
I leave.


Sigh.

When you are a best-selling author...

o
Back online! (again...) After the crazy storms of the past weekend, my entire street has been without internet now for almost three days, but we are back up! Why it always seems they have to create problems to fix problems is beyond me, but that's a whole different matter...

So, nothing major on my mind today, but I do have a question for all my lovely readers. Most of you are as-of-yet unpublished writers, and I know I am not the only on who sits on the couch and dreams of all the great things I am going to do/buy when I become a best-selling author. Come on, we all do it. We all picture ourselves on the best sellers list, seeing a line out the door at our book signings, speaking and sitting on panels at writers conferences, and so on. Don't be ashamed, hell, what else do we have to keep us going if not our dreams--pie in the sky or otherwise. So my question to you is just that--what will you do with all your money? Now, yes, we are all going to pay off debt, send the kids to college, etc, etc, but what I mean is the fun stuff. The sort of stuff you think about at night before you fall asleep? Here, I'll give you mine:

• I want to build us a big house where I can have an office/library where built-in bookshelves will be a must. Not too big mind you--not a full out mansion--I would have no idea what to do with all that space. Big, but not intimidating. It will also have an awesome kitchen where I can bake and cook without running out of counter space five minutes in. My hubby want's a running track going around the perimeter of the basement, but we'll see.
• I will finally buy some make-up that isn't super cheap. You know the kind, the stuff that is actually embarrassing to pay for because it's the stuff that middle schoolers wear (I don't buy the middle school colors, mind you, just the brands), but it's cheap and does the job.
• I will buy my husband a convertible. He had to get rid of the one he had just after we were married for something more practical, and I've always felt bad about that.
• I will finally buy my underwear from Victoria's Secret, and get rid of the worn out, thread-bare, hope-to-God-I-never-have-an-accident-and-get-caught-dead-or-other-wise-in-these-things undies that currently fill that particular drawer in my dresser. (Side note: the panty thieving goat is more than welcome to visit my house anytime. I'll even leave the window open for him. Fair warning to him, it'll probably scare him straight!)
• I will throw an awesome Christmas party every year for family and friends. The kind of Christmas party you see on TV and always want to go to, but never do because no one you know ever throws them.
• Last, Hubby and I will renew our vows at Disney World (which is where we were married the first time), and this time we will fly all out guests down and pay for their rooms so they can enjoy without it costing them anything.

So there it is! Now it's your turn. Castle by the sea? Harley Davidson? House in the Hamptons? Don't be shy, let's hear them!

Life is short, stop reading!

I have been super busy the past few days and haven't had much time to post, but I had to throw out this little tidbit I have been thinking about since my book club meeting last Thursday...

So often I hear:
"I hated the book, but I had to finish it because I can never leave a book unfinished."

WHY?!


Of all the things that drive me nuts when I read a book review, or ask someone about a book they didn't like, that has to be one of the worst. And it happens all the time! Why do people have this obsession with finishing books? If you like it--great. Even if it's just okay, but you care enough to see what happens--fine. But to force yourself to read the entirety of a book that you hate from beginning to end, makes no sense to me. Furthermore, the people who do this, do it all the time! 


They say - "But I have to know what happenes..."


I say - "Read the last chapter."


They say - "But I spent money on this book, and should at least finish it..."


I say - "So, let me get this right, not only have you already wasted money on a book you hate, but now you also want to waste your time in finishing said book?..."


They say - "It will drive me crazy not to finish..."


I say - "This will be a useful lesson for you. Quitting can be a good thing. Go find yourself a good book to get lost in and I promise, you will forget all about it."


I mean seriously people, how much of your lives have you wasted reading material you can't stand, just for the sake of saying you've done it?! How many hours of time will you never see and again and have only horrible characters and boring plot lines to show for it?


Life is short, stop reading!

Lazy, lazy, repost, lazy...

Marian: "Hello, my name is Marian Vere, and I am a bump on a log."

Fellow bump meeting attendees: "Hello Marian."

Marian: "It has been seven days since I have done anything constructive at all."

Attendees: Supportive applause

Yeah... so I have been basically worthless the past few days, but don't like to go too long without a post, so I thought I would repost one of my older post from the old blog (the original one, not wordpress) that a lot of my readers liked - particularly my YA fans.

Enjoy... again...

*repost*

So I'm in the process of reading the Vampire Academy series by Mead, and I have to say I really like it - and I really didn't think I would. I'm not sure why that was, but it got me to thinking about YA as a genre. It gets a horrible rap that is truly doesn't deserve. Almost every YA review I read goes on and on about how the characters are underdeveloped, and how it's shameful that the heroine thinks about nothing besides he love interest, and how the plot is mind numbing, blah, blah, blah... When the hell did the world start expecting YA literature to be thought provoking and deep?

Take the Twilight series. Yeah, yeah, I know, but the eye roll you probably just gave me is exactly why I chose Twilight. I mean lets face it, that series is the quintessential example of YA for this decade, and it gets ragged on constantly. People seem to expect so much of it simply because it has been such a phenomenon. Is Twilight an intellectually earth shattering gem of the literary universe that has rocked the foundation of the modern world? No. Is it supposed to be? NO! It's supposed to be a story about high schoolers in love. Period. That's all. And considering that, it's pretty damn good. Are the characters deeply developed personalities with thought provoking dreams and aspirations? No. Should they be? NO! These books are about teenagers, who are - for the most part - underdeveloped human beings! They are suppose to be! We all were! Sure, they can be smart, and have dreams and aspirations, but as for life experience, they don't have much. Have you ever seen a teenager in love? That IS all they think about! Young adults want to read about the girl who falls in love with a vampire and lives happily ever after. They don't want the story of the girl who dates a vampire, breaks up with him , dates some more guys, get cheated on, goes to college, get average grades, goes out with a few more guys, graduates, gets married, and lives in middle class suburbia with her husband, kids and dog ever after. That's real life folks, and I don't know about you, but I live my own real life every day! I read to get away form real life! 

My second favorite is when older women complain about the female leads and how all these sort of book do is teach young women that their lives should be all about boys, and nothing else, no goals, blah, blah, blah... All I have to say to that is  - if you are so piss poor at raising your kids that you can't teach them the ways of the world and leave it all up to the books they read and the shows and movies they watch, then that's your fault - not the book's.(or show's or movie's etc.) Kids are not that clueless unless you let them be!

Sure adults may want to read complex novels about real life, focusing on vastly deep characters, and yes, there is a lot of YA out there that has that, but there is also a lot of YA out there like Twilight which is not always going to appeal to the older readers. But lets face it - it's not supposed to appeal to them! It's supposed to appeal to young adults who want to dream about their very own hot vampire swooping in to carry them off to a land of romance, and to anyone else, who enjoys a little easy, entertaining reading.

So all you YA writers out there, keep doing what you do, cuz I'll keep reading!

Ode to the Card Catalog

Yale University's Sterling Memorial Library

Remember those huge cabinets full of tiny drawers that held thousands of cards each representing a book? Remember Dewey and his decimal system? Remember every year in school your whole class would go to the library and the librarian would teach everyone how to look up books whether you needed a refresher course or not? Remember about that same time, you would also go to computer class once a week and the teacher would tell you that one day everyone would have a computer in their homes and that we would use them to do everything from sending mail, to getting the news, to shopping, and we all said, "Yeah right, not me!"?

Ah, the good old days...

I received an email from my library thins morning, and in it they talked about the book sale that will be going on next week. There was a line at the bottom of the section that said in addition to books and  multi-media, they would also be having a silent auction for the old card catalogs, and it made me sad. (Well, happy in that I have always wanted one, but sad in representation.) We are in an electronic age, which is by no means a bad thing, but it makes me wonder what is next. How long until the books are gone from the libraries too? I'm sure that eventually, most if not all books will be in electronic form only. We may be a good while of from that, but it makes you think.

There may not be many of them left out there, but I am determined to get my hinds on a card catalog one of these days come hell or high water! I will go to the sale at the library, but silent auctions are never good news for someone like me. There is always someone there who can pay more than me, and more often than not, it is someone who is going to turn around and sell it on line(...anyone else see the subtle irony there?) for even more money and not even really appreciate it! Bah!

Now this guy is awesome, and can out-bid me any day! His name is George Brooks-Hutton and he is a woodworker who has done wonders with the catalogs he got from the University of California at Berkeley.

If anyone knows where I can find one - not the huge monsters that take up a wall, but one of the smaller variety - please let me know!

10 Things I Leaned On My Vacation...

1. If you poke a starfish, it will bite.

2. There is such a thing as too much Mickey Mouse.

3. Sea-Sick patches make you dizzy.

4. If you are playing a round of Logo trivia, it helps to be from Texas.

5. Cruise ship food is bad.

6. You can paint a coconut to look like a football, and tourists will buy it.

7. Cruise ship food is really bad.

8. There is no amount of heat makes that makes a Speedo on a 70+ year old man acceptable in public.

9. Apparently, people who frequent cruise ships enjoy purchasing gaudy jewelry and enormous bottles of alcohol.

10. I am not built to cruise.

Bring On The Death!

Ah, the good old days... Where no one was safe, and people liked it that way.

I was slumped over on the couch this afternoon, starring at my bookshelf, when I got to thinking about death. Not real death mind you - character death. How'd ya get thinkin' on that, you ask? It starts and ends with The Vampire Diaries. The books - not the show, as the two are very different. L.J. Smith is a fabulous author, and The Vampire diaries are some of her best work.
(side bar)
Now - just to qualify this - I am referring to the original three novels, not the new ones, as they are the very essence of suck. The fourth one is good, but it is not apart of my argument for two reasons - one, it was published several years later as the request of the fans and was not originally intended to be a part of the series, and two, it makes my point moot.
(end side bar)
I've been with The Vampire Diaries since back in the day. Like circa 1994ish. All my friends were. It was basically the Twilight of our era. And my favorite thing about the original series... Elena dies.

I. LOVE. IT!

Don't get me wrong, I had no problem with her, nor do I get off on pain and suffering. What I love, is the fact that Smith had the balls to do it! She basically gave 'happily ever after' the finger, and that's okay - because it WORKED. Not every story has to work out perfectly. Not every couple has to ride off into the sunset. The only thing required of the ending of a story is that it by SATISFYING. Satisfying does not have to equal happy. Take The Vampire Diaries - Elena dies saving the town. Stefen (Elena's love interest) is devastated obviously, but he is given a purpose with is to look after Damon (his brother). Bonnie and Meredeth (Elena's friends) are sad, but they are once again safe because of her sacrifice. It all works out. Satisfying.
Okay yeah, Smith went on to write a fourth book in which Elena comes back, but like I said, that wasn't until later, and my point still stands.

Anyway, all I'm saying is it would be nice for authors to keep us on our toes. Kill off some people who we would have otherwise considered un-killable.

~ Mar

Why does YA have such a bad rep?

So I'm in the process of reading the Vampire Academy series by Mead, and I have to say I really like it - and I really didn't think I would. I'm not sure why that was, but it got me to thinking about YA as a genre. It gets a horrible rap, and it pisses me off! Every YA review I read goes on and on about how the characters are underdeveloped, and how it's shameful that the heroine thinks about nothing besides he love interest, and how the plot is mind numbing, blah, blah, blah... When the hell did the world start expecting YA literature to be thought provoking and deep?


Take the Twilight series. Yeah, yeah, I know, but the eye roll you probably just gave me is exactly why I chose Twilight. I mean lets face it, love it hate it or in between, that series is the quintessential example of YA for this decade, and it gets put down constantly. People seem to expect so much of it simply because it has been such a phenomenon. Is Twilight an intellectually earth shattering gem of the literary universe that has rocked the foundation of the modern world? No. Is it supposed to be? NO. It's supposed to be a story about high schoolers in love. Period. That's all. And considering that, it's pretty damn good. Are the characters deeply developed personalities with thought provoking dreams and aspirations? No. Should they be? NO. These books are about teenagers, who are - for the most part - underdeveloped human beings! They are suppose to be! We all were! Sure, they can be smart, and have dreams and aspirations, but as for life experience, they don't have much. Have you ever seen a teenager in love? That IS all they think about! Young adults want to read about the girl who falls in love with a vampire and lives happily ever after. They don't want the story of the girl who dates a vampire, breaks up with him , dates some more guys, get cheated on, goes to college, get average grades, goes out with a few more guys, graduates, gets married, and lives in middle class suburbia with her husband, kids and dog ever after. That's real life folks, and I don't know about you, but I live my own real life every day. I read to get away form real life! 


My second favorite is when older women complain about the female leads and how all these sort of book do is teach young women that their lives should be all about boys, and nothing else, no goals, blah, blah, blah... All I have to say to that is  - if you are so piss poor at raising your kids that you can't teach them the ways of the world and leave it all up to the books they read and the shows and movies they watch, then that's your fault - not the book's.(or show's or movie's etc.) Kids are not that clueless unless you let them be!


Sure adults may want to read complex novels about real life, focusing on vastly deep characters, and sure, a YA book like Twilight, or what-have-you, may not appeal to them, but lets face it - it's not supposed to appeal to them! It's supposed to appeal to young adults who want to dream about their very own hot vampire swooping in to carry them off to a land of romance, and to anyone else, who enjoys a little easy, entertaining reading.