Sex in YA books is ruining my generation: Part II

Tags

paranormal romance, sex, teen romance, writing, ya, young adult

Last week we talked about all the sex in YA and how I think it’s horrible and all that. Now let’s talk about why.

Nobody seems to bring this up…

Regardless of whether or not high school students should be having sex, whether or not people should embrace/explore their sexuality or what have you, no Young Adult book I’ve read accurately portrays how much young people give up for these early relationships. Boys and girls both.

Even when there wasn’t sex involved, I cannot tell you how many people I have watched sacrifice and compromise their own dreams for the sake of a boy/girlfriend. So many times, I have wanted to scream “he/she’s not worth it!” when people I cared about quit the sport they loved, ended friendships, turned down the chance to get paid to travel, or changed their college plans for the sake of the (invariably ungrateful) person they were dating. 

It has never once turned out well and those I’ve talked to have always ended up regretting those lost opportunities. Not even sex in the cases where it applied, just what it caused them to miss.

The unpopular opinion that might get me strung up.

We need better story lines in YA than this “cure the virgins” fad. Yes, yes, it’s true that sex is considered a part of the “coming of age” story that YA often follows and I know sex sells, but it wouldn’t kill anyone to write with more restraint, for lack of a better word. The target audience of YA are mostly still forming our opinions and beliefs about the world. We often don’t even know who we are until college or later and the things we read, watch, and hear influence us sometimes more than we realize.

Books, like any other form of art, shape tour perspective and too many YA books today are shaping my generation’s perspective on sex into something ugly. It’s not about shaming those who have had sex or choose to write about it, let me make that clear. The point is that publishing, like Hollywood and the music industry, are telling us that sex is free of consequences and fun and everyone should be doing it. Also, everyone wants to do it and if you don’t you are either lying or haven’t found the right partner.

But it’s okay to not have sex and there’s a hell of a lot more to it than I’ve seen in the media. YA authors need to stop and do a bit more research. Screwing around, especially during that phase, can quite easily ruin your life, especially if you let it divert you from what you should be focused on. People in the YA age range have a lot of things to learn and discover and romance is just one tiny piece of that huge puzzle. There’s your morality, what is important to you, what work makes you passionate, figuring out what you want to pursue in college, if you even want to go to college…LOTS OF THINGS BESIDES SEX, OKAY?

And then there are the stories about how the protagonist realizes that relationships aren’t all that necessary at his/her lifestage and moves on. But seriously, I can think of a grand total of ONE book where they didn’t have to have sex before the protagonist figured it out.

Apparently, writers and publishers think young adults just aren’t smart enough to recognize trouble before screwing it.

To be continued in Part III.

Part I

Things fantasy books (almost always) get wrong about hunting

Tags

am writing epic fantasy, fantasy books, hunting, writing

I think it is a safe assumption that many fantasy writers have never been hunting in real life. Really, why sit in a stuffy deer blind with no AC or toilet for hours on end when you could be reading books and sipping tea in your favorite armchair?

When it comes to hunt scenes, most people don’t notice the common inaccuracies because they are pretty consistently incorporated across TV and books. However, if someone is looking to appease the tiny demographic of fantasy-reading hunters, these are the things I’ve noticed books most frequently get wrong about hunting.

And why would you WANT to kill this magnificent giant? I mean, look at him. By the laws of natural selection, he should live a nice, long life and the chance to have lots of equally pretty babies.

Game regularly comes in the size of midsize automobiles.

In truth, wild animals tend to be on the small side. The average wild boar, for example, will probably more resemble the dimensions of a Golden Retriever versus his overfed, domesticated cousin. (Unless a petty Greek deity is involved.)

Rabbits, pheasants, and other game are also pretty small, so just one of these is most likely not going to feed your group of five daring adventurers—unless they’re omnivorous pixies.

Things get notoriously messy when it comes to bagging birds. It’s the feathers. Feathers everywhere.

Insta-death.

It is one of the more icky realities, but the clean, tidy kills we get on TV and in books are more than a little censored. In reality, animals pretty much never die straightaway, especially if you’re using a bow and arrow. Even if shot perfectly through the heart, animals are still capable of running several hundred yards before collapsing and in some cases can continue thrashing for several minutes.

More than a little disturbing, but true.

Stalking vs. Lying in Wait

Writers really like having their characters go gallivanting off into the woods to stalk their prey instead of setting up a perch and waiting for unsuspecting prey to come along. But moving through the forest “unseen and unheard” is hard. Very hard. Actual hunter-gatherer peoples spend years and years learning to stalk effectively and it’s still not easy. Even the best hunters come home empty-handed quite often.

Wild bacon seeds can be plentiful at the right time of year, especially in areas with few natural predators, but even these brazen little piggies can be hard to pinpoint.

The forest is a 24/7 buffet.

One thing that bothers me is characters going off on hunts at random times of day, but nature is not your neighborhood Walgreens. Most animals only come out at dawn or dusk and hide for the rest of the day. Sure, you could theoretically go track them down, but it would take a long time and you’d have to basically be a freaking ninja as mentioned earlier.

In short, hunting is not nearly as glamorous or easy as we fantasy writers tend to make it sound. It’s icky and laborious and you’re probably better off just packing lots of lembas bread.

Conflicted Loyalties: Villains vs. Heroes

Tags

fandom, reading, villains, writing

A soft spot for villains.

All too often, I find myself watching a movie or a series for the sake of the villain, because I care more about him/her than the “good guys.”  If you go on Tumblr or any other fan site, you’ll see that villains in pretty much every genre and media garner massive followings, sometimes even larger than those of their heroic counterparts.

This led me to the inevitable question—why? Are the heroes just too boring? Are the good guys too good? Is it that the villains are a means of expressing our frustrations and resentments by proxy? I’m sure there’s a psychology dissertation in that somewhere.

The double standard.

Firstly, I notice that villains get away with a lot more by virtue of being villains. If a hero abducted and poisoned children or slaughtered entire armies defending their homes, he would be condemned by the readership rather quickly. Yet the villain gets away with it because we expect that. After all, he/she is a villain and villains by their nature do villainous things, but if a hero has so much as one selfish moment and yells at the wrong character, suddenly we’re all over him/her with pitchforks and torches. (But if the protagonist is too perfect, we’re still not happy.)

When a hero monologues about traumatic events in their lives, they too quickly come off as whiny complainers. When a villain discusses past trauma, however,  people are generally more sympathetic. Villains also tend to talk about past traumas less often and I wonder if that has something to do with it as well—we don’t have to listen to many sympathy-garnering speeches.

The perspective factor.

Interestingly, there seems to be more villain-centric fans in films and television series. Personally, I find heroes more relatable and easier to empathize with in books and I believe other people do too. It probably has something to do with being thrown into the hero’s psyche, sometimes exclusively, leading us to develop more attachment to him/her.

Even in multi-POV books, the hero has the most “screen time” and the villains are usually secondary or tertiary if their perspective is there at all. This means a certain amount of distance from the villain and a buffer zone of attachment, if you will.

In the end, this subject could probably span a few more blog posts plus that dissertation I mentioned. I’m just trying to tap into what makes all characters—villains, heroes, and everything in between—lovable.

But in the end, it’s still an art, not a science.

Too Young to Save the World: Ages in Fantasy

Tags

ages in fantasy, despicable me, epic fantasy, historical fantasy, maturity, writing

I am an old maid by Roman standards. Nineteen and not even a suitor? What a tragedy. This realization struck me not so long ago and led me to consider ages in books (because everything leads back to books with me).

Lots of people seem prone to criticizing ages in fantasy. They say “he/she’s not old enough for that kind of responsibility/maturity/what have you.” It makes sense in our modern context, especially after hanging out in a high school cafeteria or even a college lounge for more than an hour, but it’s just that—context.

30 is the new 15.

People all the way until the last century didn’t live as long as we did. Most of them were dead by the time they hit forty or younger. That means twenty was about middle aged and you had best get to work building empires and fighting battles and making babies before then or the human race was going to go extinct.

When kids rule the world.

Queen Victoria was eighteen when the throne passed to her. The infamous Battle of Crecy provided Edward the Black Prince the chance to lead men and win his spurs at sixteen. Joan of Arc handed the English their backsides and saved her country even though she never reached twenty. Before he got to double digits, a certain Austrian boy was already hashing out melodies on his violin and Isabella the She-Wolf showed remarkable political maneuvering when she was just twelve—enough to get favorites of the king banished.

With this in mind, I see no reason a fantasy character can’t command armies or take a crown or become the most powerful mage their respective world has seen when they just hit mid-teens. When a writer wants to explore certain themes, audiences might cringe and be uncomfortable if the character is what they consider too young, but that does not mean someone younger couldn’t have the same reactions and experiences.

Just to clarify…

I don’t think it has to do with when a person was born, I think it has to do with how they were brought up. (Heck, crazy little me was able to raise a baby donkey by myself at eight. Yes, he survived and lives to bother me to this day.) When children have people around them who expect them to be a grown ups by a certain time, overall they tend to meet those cultural norms. Therefore, I see no reason that epic fantasy heroes/heroines can’t keep on being teenagers.

Because we tend to have much different standards in the Western World today doesn’t mean younger people couldn’t be capable of the grand and glorious deeds that are often attributed to them in fantasy. It depends on the person and it depends on what kind of setting they come from. So long as a writer sets it up properly, I see no reason a character can’t have a whole series in adventures before they’re out of their high school years.

Love and Villainy

Tags

love, star trek, the dark knight rises, villain motivation, villains, writing

The villain of any story is just as important as the hero. The villain is the one who tests and tries the hero, who gives purpose to the story. One can’t have a good story without a good villain. A more important trait of a villain is believable motivation for what they do. It doesn’t always have to be logical or moral from a normal person’s standpoint, but it does have to make sense. One if my favorite motivations for an antihero is love. There aren’t many of these antagonists out there, world domination and greed are much more popular, but I still find them every so often and thus far haven’t found one I didn’t like.

An example of a villain who is motivated by love would be Bane from The Dark Knight Rises. He murders, pillages, and plunders Gotham, but (spoiler) in the end we discover that it was all to help someone he cared about get vengeance. (spoiler over)

My favorite demonstration of an antagonist driven by love is probably Khan from Star Trek: Into Darkness. In the beginning, he believes that his people have been murdered and that is what sets off his interplanetary terrorism spree. When he learns that they are still alive, he surrenders to his enemies in order to find a way to save them.

King Gaius of Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes is the main baddie in the story, however I think some of the things Prince Magnus does would certainly makes him a villain from the other characters’ perspectives. While Magnus is largely seeking his father’s approval (because daddy will kill him otherwise), he is far more concerned with the wellbeing of his adoptive sister, Lucia. Hence his father often uses that to coerce Magnus into doing what he wants.

Villains incited by the best interests of someone else are not very common over all. It’s a far more popular for that to be the protagonist’s drive and the antagonist rather be after power, money, or just plain revenge. Personally, I think it’s fascinating when both hero and antihero are motivated by the same force. Albeit, the villain should still have a certain lack of morality that makes him willing to do anything for the one(s) he’s fighting for, but that doesn’t mean his core motives can’t be sympathetic or even admirable.

As I said, I haven’t encountered many villains motivated by love, but they do fascinate me. Despite being antagonists, both Khan and Magnus were my favorite characters in their respective stories and Bane was a close second. That cannot be a coincidence and judging by the opinions of the fandoms, most people share my stance. As far as I can tell, the only downside of an antihero motivated by love is that people might start rooting for him over the hero. I am guilty of doing this with Khan.

While the villains of my Argetallam Saga and Fanged Princess series have pretty straightforward motives—power, greed, racial purity—I am now writing an antagonist driven by his care for someone else. He is a side character, but still a cornerstone to the plot and I do enjoy when I get to write him.

Here’s your homework (yes, I’m giving out homework now): Tell me about a book where the villain is motivated by love

Fantasy Writing 101: Inventing Languages

Tags

elf, epic fantasy writing, fantasy, languages, true that, writer, writing

Artist: moth-eatn on deviantART.com

Writing Update: January 2014

Tags

argetallam, argetallam saga, daindreth's assassin, epic fantasy, Fanged outcast, fanged princess, fantasy, indie author, indies, novella, paranormal romance, series, summer 2015, Vampire, writing, writing plans, ya, young adult

The other day, I was getting mad because a few authors whose work I’ve enjoyed have failed to offer updates on sequels. Then I realized—I haven’t given updates in awhile and it was time to fix that!

 

2013 was a big year that began with Fanged Princess’ release, followed by The Chalice of Malvron, and ended with Fanged Outcast, the sequel to FP. I completed the first drafts of books 4 and 5 in the Argetallam Saga as well as the premier novel in a new Epic Fantasy Romance series that has been garnering some attention, but more on that later.

My goal for this year is to finish drafting the last two books in the Argetallam Saga and publish the fourth novel in the series before Christmas. Right now, I would say we are looking at a July/August release for The Temple of Tarkoth with Fanged Princess 3 to follow a month or two later. (But it might be sooner, we shall have to see.)

 

The first draft of the third novella in the Fanged Princess series is set to be done by this weekend and sometime after that it’s off to writing the sixth Argetallam book and editing my newest word baby, Daindreth’s Assassin. If you follow me on Pinterest, you have probably seen my board for this series and know that I am very, very much in love with it. It’s a true epic fantasy about an assassin who falls for the prince she was hired to kill and my goal is to get it beta-ready by July-ish and publish it sometime in 2015 around late spring/summer, but ONLY after I finish writing the Argetallam Saga. Janir’s story is one I want to tell right and I think she and her friends (and enemies) deserve to be taken care of first.

 

The prospect of coming to the end of Janir’s tale is more than a little daunting, as Janir has been with me for close to a decade now, but at the same time I can’t wait to see if everything unfolds as I envisioned years ago. However, there is a certain Argetallam mortahn and a pair of young lovers who just might get their own books. We shall have to see.

I am very excited to share with you all Haddie and Janir’s upcoming adventures and I am just giddy for you to meet Amira. But in the meantime, I have some wordsmithing to do. Catch you later!

It’s Black Friday!

Tags

black Friday, evil queen, my own little world, Wandering wizard, writing

Godspeed on your Black Friday quests! While you battle the hordes of maddened present seekers, I shall be here at home like a sensible person, battling an evil sorceress’ guards and freeing a prince from the clutches of a demon–er, I mean writing.

Vita Beata!

Photo credit theflickerees.deviantart.com

Hello from the Olympic Peninsula!

Tags

fanged princess, proofreading, pudget sound, reading, seattle, update, vacation, writing

Hey! I just thought I should explain my recent failure to post. I have not fallen through the rabbit hole (sadly), been chosen as a Dragon Rider (even more sadly), or carried off by flying monkeys (not so sadly). I have been somewhat bogged down with editing for the next Fanged Princess novella, but more of it is due to the busyness that tends to proceed the vacation of a household’s built-in nanny. Yes, you heard that right, I am on vacation, visiting my stupendous grandparents in the Olympic Peninsula, a short ways outside Seattle.

I do intend to be back more while I’m on vacation (it’s incredible to have WiFi without a pilgrimage to the library). I read a very fascinating book called Frost Fire by Olivia Rivers on my flight and you can expect a review of that and some of my backlog reads in the coming weeks! I also hope to do some writing, reading, not to mention proofreading of FP2!

I’ll be posting some Halloween stuff, too. But first, I must actually write it. Okay, enough procrastinating for me, time to get to work!

My Fight scene Playlist

Tags

epic fantasy, fight scene, playlist, writing, youtube

Here are some of my favorite songs to get in the mood to write fight scenes. After all, we need music for working on every scene, don’t we? Please feel free to comment with your own “fight tune” suggestions, I can always use more!

My songs know what you did in the dark—Fallout Boy

This is a popular one and with good reason.

Rebel Beat—The Goo Goo Dolls

The rhythm and befittingly rebellious tone of this song make an excellent addition to any fight scene playlist.

The Might of Rome—Hans Zimmer

From the Gladiator soundtrack, this is one of my top favorites, particularly the first half.

Seven Devils—Florence + The Machine

Though it may not have a very “up” beat, I think the words have a destructive flavor that make it perfect for writing conflicts.

Hall of Fame—The Script

There is an indomitable spirit to this song that brings to mind moving stars and leveling mountains.

Brave—Sara Bareilles

A good one about finding courage and facing your fears.

Breath of Life—Florence + The Machine

This song played at the end credits of Snow White and the Huntsman and is supposed to be an impression of Queen Ravenna and her internal suffering. I especially like the chorus and think it portrays a hard-fought struggle which makes it my last, but not least, addition to my fight scene playlist.