Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Who Are You Writing That Book For Anyway?

I’ve been known to insert an expletive here and there when I am critiquing YA manuscripts.  Not because their manuscripts have me slamming my head into the desk with the perpetual comma splice or flowerily prose. Nope, rather it because there are certain scenes, certain characters that call for a bit of edginess and their manuscripts fail to deliver.  And God knows I love me some edge!  This usually incites a conversation about why they have purposefully avoided the edge. The most common response:

“I am not opposed to it, but what if my mother, or my neighbor, or the PTO board at my preschooler’s school reads it?”

My usual response:  “Who the hell are you writing your book for anyway?”

Now, please, don’t get me wrong.  I have no issue with writers who, because of their own convictions and/or feelings about the edginess of some current YA books, purposefully, with masterfully crafted intent, avoid this type of content.  Fantastic, ten points for you!  What drives me insane is writers who hold back their characters emotions, tailor character responses out of fear of what some random parent, most who are not even in your target market, will think. 

If your character needs edge, then give it too him.  If he is stuck in the bowels of the earth, surrounded by ash, facing down his knife wielding, demonized best friend, then I doubt an “oh golly gee” is going to work.  So write the book you want to write.  Give your characters the personality they demand.  And the hell with worrying what the apron-wearing mom who sells cupcakes at the school bake sale thinks about your occasionally use of the f word.

17 comments:

  1. Totally agree. I risked being disowned by my family, but I wrote an edgy YA, anyway.

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  2. Well said, Trisha! One of my favorite writing quotes fits this post perfectly:

    "A writer’s life is not designed to reassure your mother." ~Rita Mae Brown

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  3. Yeah...right now I'm asking myself that same question but for a totally different reason.

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  4. Yes! I can't stand it when it seems like something is held back. YA is all about emotion.

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  5. I completely agree. Besides, sometimes people - teens included - swear. Cripes, even my own mother swears once in a while!

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  6. Great post - although swearing? So not a problem for my YA characters. They are very comfortable with the f-word.

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  7. I couldn't agree more. Let the characters be authentic and lead the way.

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  8. Hehe, yeah not a problem for my characters or for my writing partner...she swears like a sailor:)

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  9. I only have a couple of f's in mine but used as intended by our anglo saxon forebears - they live in a different time now and have substituted other oaths! Oh I know I great big cope out!

    Hi am doing the rounds of the dystopian group dropped in to say hi fellow campaigner

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  11. Great post, and very well said! I concur heartily!

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  12. I've found myself cringing as I write, thinking 'what will people think' but then I remind myself that I'm writing first and foremost for me. I don't even have to show it to anyone if I don't want to! BTW, you've been invited over for friday morning bloffee:)

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  13. I just recently published my YA contemporary. A friend of a friend started and wrote me, "I love this book! I am buying it for all of my cousins this Christmas!" She wrote back (and I know exactly what scene she got to!) and said, "Okay, maybe just my 17 and older cousins!" My former pastor, co-workers at the school I worked at, and family have bought my book, and my stomach knotted at every new purchase...but the reviews have supported the fact that I did the right thing, because I keep hearing that the characters feel real. Great advice!

    I found your site at Creepy Query Girl's bloffee blutch!

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  14. One has to be true to the characters; I understand those who want to avoid "bad" words--so don't put the characters in the position of wanting to say them!

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  15. So right, if you're not being true to your characters then you're not being true to yourself.

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