The publishing world was aghast in recent years at the rise of “sick-lit” (literature about dying and death) aimed at teenagers. As the vampire trend died down, the world began to see such titles Going Bovine, The Fault in Our Stars, Saving Daisy, and Me and Earl and the Dying Girl pop up for sale. Ironically, we went from immortality to death over a period of months.
A lot of people have been in an uproar because some say that teens shouldn’t have a morbid fascination with death and self-harm, while others say that these books glorify death, suicide, and self-harm in ways that make kids want to act as their favorite characters do. While I am all for the responsibility of the author (I’ve talked about it before), I realize that there are a lot of uncomfortable topics that parents don’t want to discuss with their children. However, shielding them from truth and reality does nothing more than hinder their lives instead of preparing them for inevitable issues. People die. People commit suicide. They cut themselves. They deal with anorexia, bulimia, cancer, depression, anxiety, guilt, shame, and self-blame. When I was in high school, we had two students die. One passed away during the school year. The other passed away over the summer. One was a writer, a poet to be exact, and that was what he wanted to do with his life. I have copies of his writing still. It was a gift from his parents to all of his friends. Though I’m sad to say I never actually knew him in life, I knew him through his poetry. I knew he was like me in more ways than I could imagine because we were both writers, and his unexpected death struck a nerve in me that I still feel when I think back to the first days of school afterward. The hush, the tears, the fights that broke out because emotions were raw, the teachers trying to comfort us in ways that they didn’t really know how, and how much they hurt too. It leaves an imprint on you that you can’t shake. The second boy had been a friend of mine before, though we had drifted apart. I don’t know what he wanted to do with his life, but I remembered him to be a kind friend I could turn to when I needed to, and we often goofed off in study hall with our little group of friends and got yelled at by the teacher. His death affected me a bit more deeply. I think because I had memories with him, it made it harder to detach from. I had my best friend over for my sixteenth birthday that year, and my mother mentioned his death. I broke down on what should have been a fun day with my best friend, the pain cutting deeply as I thought about how he would never have another birthday himself. His promising life was cut too short. I couldn’t talk to people about it. It was hard to put those things into words. I wrote letters, poetry, journal entries, and essays. I wrote because that was what I could do. I understand that not everyone has an outlet. I understand that it’s easy as a teenager to want to keep things locked away because you don’t think anyone will understand, or that you’ll be judged, or maybe you’re afraid of your own thoughts about it. I know what the mind can do to you. I know depression and anxiety and wanting to self-harm. People can brand these books as sick-lit, either because they are about sick teens or because the subject matter is sick (or both), but I think it can be healing and uplifting literature. I wished I would have known about books such as these when I was teen so that maybe I could find a piece of myself in some of the characters, see the situation I endured in the plot, and maybe come away feeling a little better that I wasn’t alone in my pain and confusion. In the end, that’s what good writing does, no matter the content.
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In talking about young adult literature, I think that a lot of people are confused as to what actually constitutes a young adult novel. Just because the protagonist is a sixteen-year-old girl, that doesn’t necessarily make the book a young adult book. So, what are the elements of a young adult book?
First of all, the main character must be a teenager. If he or she is too young, it’ll fall into middle-grade fiction, too old, and it will fall into the rising category of new adult fiction. Generally, the age range of readers is between 13 and 18. That being said, most young adult audiences read about protagonists who are their age or up to around two years older. If you have a protagonist who is 14 to 18 years of age, you should fall easily into the category. Second, the protagonist should deal with teen topics. This can be a tricky area because not only do teens deal with school issues, getting their license, first dates, bullying, peer pressure and similar topics, but they also deal with adult topics like sex, pregnancy, drug and alcohol abuse or dependency, physical, emotional and mental abuse, secrets (their own, friends’, and adults’), and other heavy topics. A mixture of both is the most realistic way to approach it. Third, their maturity level should be that of a teen. It’s hard enough as an adult to make the right decisions and know the difference between right and wrong in those gray areas of life. It’s even harder for teens who are stuck somewhere between childhood and adulthood, trying to find their own way, and break away from their parents a bit more. It’s right to assume that they are going to experiment with drugs and alcohol, rebel and push boundaries, and make bad decisions along the way. Life is one big learning experience at this point, and it’s also a great time for them to question everything that they’ve been taught to believe or have just accepted as how things are up until that point their lives. Religion was a big one for me as a teen, and I had heated debates with a close friend about it, and we both learned from one another. In fact, we are still friends, and we still debate the topic from time to time. I think another big factor that plays into most young adult books is the lack of parental guidance. That doesn’t mean that all young adult characters have bad parents who neglect or ignore them (though some do), but it means that the parents aren’t ever-present. Parents have jobs, bills, worries all their own. Sometimes they are workaholics, other times they’re home but rather oblivious to what’s happening with their child. Maybe they are a bit of both. Single parents generally have more to distract them than a household where there are two parents. In any event, the parents generally don’t play a huge role in the main plot of the story, and if they do, it’s probably as a hindrance (keeping the main character from being able to sneak around, for example). The last point I want to make is that the protagonist should solve his or her own dilemma. Depending on what you write, there may be adults involved, maybe police, and friends will likely play a role in the greater scheme of things, but ultimately, the final struggle should be the main character’s alone. You can’t have Mom and Dad or the kindly, older neighbor stepping in to keep the main character from going through the hell that he or she should have to go through in order for the book to reach its climax. That defeats the entire purpose of the book being about the teen. These are the elements that I feel a young adult novel should have. Do you have any to add to the list? Feel free to comment! I love to write and read YA fiction, and from the writer standpoint, I am always analyzing characters for how they handle the situations they get themselves into. As the aunt of two young women who devoured teen lit when they were still in school (and still do love YA), I am very conscientious of the overall message that YA heroines send to readers. The teen years are impressionable, mostly because you are still in the process of developing your beliefs, feelings, morals, and thoughts about pretty much everything in the world around you. It’s a pivotal time that shapes your life and probably doesn’t change too much until you hit your thirties (and realize that you don’t know anything, really). So, what makes a compelling heroine that you can be happy to have a young woman look up to? Should she be perfect? A straight-A student? Celibate? Should she go to church and never use swear words and volunteer at the local homeless shelter? Well… if an alien inhabited her body and you were writing the teen version of The Stepford Wives, then maybe. But if you want to create a great character, she has to be real. Here are some great attributes that a YA heroine should have: 1. Keep it real. There is no such thing as the perfect teen. (Hell, there’s no such thing as the perfect person of any age.) Teens are going to get into trouble, lie to their parents, push boundaries, keep secrets, experiment with drugs and alcohol, have sex (or at least come close), and are going to deal with adult situations. Your characters should deal with some of these things. They can’t live inside a perfect bubble of sunshine and roses, oblivious to the world around them. So let them get into some trouble. 2. Give them a moral compass. While they’re getting into trouble, allow them to realize that what they are doing is wrong. Let them feel guilt, shame, sadness. Let them get beat up, fight back, or turn and run. No matter what they do, let them feel the weight of it. “I should have stood up for myself. I’m such a coward.” “I shouldn’t have drank that alcohol. Mom’s going to notice it’s missing. I’m sure she knows I’m hungover.” For every action there is a consequence, and figuring that out is important. 3. Let them make mistakes again. After all, do we ever really learn the first time? 4. Make them strong. By this, I mean that they don’t need to depend on others for every single thing. It’s good to have friends to come to, but your heroine should be making her own decisions, standing by them (even when they go wrong), and solving her own problems when they arise. Don’t make her the damsel in distress who needs to be saved by the hot guy on the motorcycle. Don’t make her dependent on someone else’s approval. Yes, teens do care what others think of them, but to make her self-worth revolve around what the hot guy thinks is depriving her of growth needed. If you must make her self-worth revolve around what someone thinks in the beginning, make sure this changes by the end of the book. 5. Make them changeable. Most books cause characters to walk through the fiery pits of hell to make it to the end. If people in real life go through such harrowing acts, they are forever changed. The same should be said for your character. Growth is essential to a believable plot. 6. Give them a support system. When the proverbial shit hits the fan, teens turn to their friends before they turn to anyone else. So give her some people she can turn to for comfort, help, a reality check, or a swift kick in the ass. I try to make my supporting characters be the opposite of my main character. This person will look at things in a different way and offer up some different insight or solutions. 7. Give them determination. Stubbornness is always a great personality trait because it makes the main character move forward, but it can also add tension in areas where she may need to let go of things but refuses to. Determination, no matter what the motivation behind it, is always needed. 8. Make that personality explosive. In many cases, the person who has the gumption to get things done is the person who is a bit reckless at times, is maybe quick to anger, has a lot of sarcasm, and doesn’t care much what others think or say. While the main character doesn’t need all of these traits, a little bit of quirkiness can go a long way. Nobody wants to read a book with a boring, perfect main character. I’m sure I missed a few points along the way that other writers may depend on in their writing, but I think these traits can help build a character that you can be proud to have YA fans look up to. So, I read The Twilight Saga when it was popular for a couple of reasons. I wanted to know what the hype was, and my nieces were reading it, and I wanted to know why it was such a big deal for them personally. All in all, the books weren’t as horrible as some describe them to be. While the plot had issues, and Bella never really grew or changed much in the entire series, and there was a cop out where battle scenes were concerned so that we didn’t get to see the main action or there was no “final battle” to tie the whole thing together, nor did any of the main characters get sacrificed for the greater good, it wasn’t a terrible read.
My main issue, however, is with Bella and how she is portrayed. I thought the days of romanticizing the damsel in distress were over. Apparently, I was wrong. Bella seemed like a middle-aged housewife with no job skills who was afraid to leave her husband because she couldn’t live on her own or care for herself. Her dependence on these guys and how they felt for her were so crippling that she couldn’t function without them. In all honesty, getting your heart ripped out by the person you love is one of the worst feelings you can ever have. It’s harder as a teenager. I remember that awkward time and how crushing a rejection could be. I’m not saying that the take on Bella isn’t somewhat realistic, but I wonder if that’s the type of emotional attachment we should be teaching our teenage girls. Let’s face it, they probably picked up the book because friends were reading it, and then they fell in love with Edward Cullen (for reasons beyond me) right along with Bella. They probably discussed the books with their friends, visited fan sites on the internet, immersed themselves in the Twilight world in as many ways as they could. Do we really think that this kind of attention to these books didn’t somehow shape (or fog) their perspective on how relationships might go? Let’s forget the vampire and werewolf factors for a minute and look at the relationships. Bella and Edward have this insane connection and just like that, they are seeing one another, but he’s always sneaking into her room to watch her sleep, controls where she goes and what she does, follows her around without her consent to do so. He acts as if she can’t survive or do anything without him by her side. He even cuts her off from the only friends she has at school and takes her into his family. She is so in love with him that she accepts all these things as his adoration for her… until he leaves her like she’s nothing- in the middle of the woods, no less. Then she falls to pieces. And she doesn’t just fall apart for a week or two then pick herself up and move on. She falls apart and stays in a depressed state for months on end, even having night terrors because of the trauma losing him has caused. Uuuuummm… can you say overkill? I wanted to slap her across the face and tell her to get over it. Maybe that’s because I’m older now and I understand that these things happen. In your lifetime, love will come and go. Some will leave you busted wide open and hurting for a while. Others will just make you angry and leave you glad it’s over. Either way, you get past it, and you’re skin is a little thicker for the next time. Bella does what a lot of people might do. She eventually (after months and months) finds someone else to fill the void she has. And poor Jacob! She ultimately drags him along for a ride to satisfy her own selfish needs because she just has to have someone there to keep her from doing something reckless to harm herself, and then she rips his heart out to go save the asshole who dumped her in the first place. Not only that, but she sort of pits them against each other as they vie for her affections, and being the selfish person she is, she refuses to let either of them go for the other because someone as helpless as she is needs two crutches, not just one. I’m being a bit facetious here, but as popular as these books were, I’m hoping that the majority of teen readers were just in it for the cool vampires and hot werewolves because if they idolize Bella, there is something wrong in their thinking processes. I had this discussion with my nieces, and ultimately, I did get my point across. You have to be strong, independent, and not allow others to be your main reason for existing. If you lose someone, you can’t lose yourself in the process because we always lose people. It’s how life goes, but the only person we have to live with 24/7/365 is ourselves. My advice: Read what your kids read and discuss it with them. It can forge bonds and open up areas of discussion that can be important for emotional and intellectual growth- for both of you. ;-) There are many misconceptions about the tarot that people believe simply because of their connection to divination, which is a popular practice among those of a Pagan faith. These misconceptions may have to do with fear or bigotry or simply a misunderstanding. I want to clear up a few of the most common ones. 1. The tarot is evil. This is an ignorant statement at best because evil is a state of being, and doesn’t apply to nonliving objects. There is nothing evil about a deck of cards. They may have strong imagery that you don’t understand or represent something you don’t believe in or agree with, but they aren’t anymore evil than a glass of water sitting on the table. Though a gun is used to shoot, it’s not evil. Only the person’s intent who uses the gun can be evil. 2. If you get the Death card, you’ll die. The Death card, like any other card in the deck is an archetype. It’s symbolism. The Death card is actually about cycles in our lives. Where one cycle ends, another begins, thus it is a card of transformation. Imagine the butterfly emerging from the chrysalis. It went in as a caterpillar, suffering a “death” of sorts within its cocoon, only to emerge as a completely new insect. That’s what the Death card is about. 3. The tarot is for devil worshipers. The tarot is actually for anyone of any faith who wants to use them. In fact, with all of the different decks available today, there is probably one out there for people of all ages, religious beliefs, and interests. Because the tarot is a spiritual tool, it’s generally considered non-denominational unless you buy a Pagan or Druidic deck, or a deck that is catered to those of any other specific faith. A large majority of the people who use the tarot don’t believe in the Devil. 4. People who use the tarot talk to the Devil. Again, this would imply that most of us believe in the Devil, when a large majority don’t. Also, the cards are meant to be a spiritual conduit between the reader and the Divine (God, Goddess, Universe, Spirit Guide… insert your deity here. I use Divine to encompass all.) You ask for the information, and you receive it. You aren’t communing with demons, devils, or any other negative entities. 5. People who get tarot readings in movies always die. As with almost everything else, Hollywood gets it wrong. Their job is to glorify the darkest cards of the tarot in order to build suspense and foreshadow future events. It has absolutely nothing to do with real tarot readings. In fact, a good tarot reader may have to deliver bad news to a client, but he or she should be able to give some insight in how to cope with this bad news and when and how things should improve. If you are headed for a difficult time, he or she may be able to give you pointers on a course of action that will allow you to avoid your downfall. Mostly, a tarot reader will be able to give you some Divine insight into a difficult situation that may be plaguing you and help you sort it out so that you can come away feeling ready and able to deal with whatever comes into play. 6. What the tarot reader said didn’t happen at all, so she’s a fake. There are fakes out there. Generally, these people are swindlers out to get money, and will tell you that you’re cursed or they can do a spell to remove bad luck, etc. It’s an attempt to bleed as much money as they can from you. But there are good tarot readers who get it wrong. The most common way is because they don’t explain to clients that nothing is ever set in stone. Unforeseen events can change the paths of those involved, making it hard for any reader to be 100% accurate. Your future is always changing based on whatever decisions you make on a daily basis. Just as the weather shifts on a daily basis based on developments outside of your viewing area that directly affect your town, decisions you and others around you make will affect the outcome of any and all situations. A good tarot reader will be upfront about this information from the start. Tarot readers are, in fact, spiritual counselors, not the Hollywood version of a fortuneteller. Anyone who writes Young Adult fiction of any genre has probably asked him or herself how do I go about handling sexual situations? How far is too far? This question has shown up in my own writing, and after a bit of research and thought, I’ve came to some conclusions.
First of all, let’s assume that you are being true to who your characters are, and a sex scene is something that will happen to further your story along and not just thrown in because teenagers have sex. Being true to your characters and your story are the most important thing in writing. Always. So, because the sex must take place, you are now struggling with how to make that happen tastefully. Here are a few things to consider:
With these things taken into consideration, ask yourself if the characters can just have heavy make-out sessions or if they must go all the way. Can your reader be satisfied with just kissing and the affection shown between the two characters? Can this move your story along in the appropriate direction? If the answer is no, do take cues from Twilight in this instance (yes, you heard me right). Eluding to the actual act without going into graphic details is probably the best way to go. You can give enough details to lead the reader in the right direction without going into the raunchy play-by-play. All in all, this approach won’t take away from your story, it can satisfy the reader and author, and it can make parents, libraries, and schools happy to purchase and carry to your book. |
Samantha Buttrick
Author of "The Beast of Yorkshire Place" and "The Wasteland" Archives
October 2015
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