Oh, so very very mad

OK. This may not be a well-written post. It may not make a lot of sense, being that it's 2AM, I'm exhausted, and I just want to curl into a ball and sleep.

But you see, my loves, I'm angry. I really need to just stop reading things on the internet, but for some reason I keep going. And as a result, found this article: http://ideas.time.com/2011/11/21/the-harsh-bigotry-of-twilight-haters/?xid=gonewsedit&google_editors_picks=true

Yes, you can see it in the title of the article. This isn't a diatribe about how much I dislike Twilight. I think most of you are well aware of that by now. One of the issues I have with the article isn't even in the article itself; it's in the comments.

In defense of the writing (which I've bitched about almost as much as I've bitched about Bella), someone had the ovaries to suggest that it's okay for the writing to be awful because it's "for teens."

I will wait for you to stop throwing things. Don't throw your computer. I have more to say.

I've read a LOT of YA in the last year or so. Some of my close friends write YA. Brilliant YA. Fun YA. Romantic YA.

And they write it well. Incredibly well. There are twists and turns that keep readers guessing. There are love triangles that are fabulously well done (Aiden/Alexandra/Seth from Half-Blood is one of my faves, the other being Zenn/Vi/Jag from Possession). One of my favorite recent romances is Alexi and Percy from The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker. There's fabulous writing. There's wit. There's lots of fantabulous goodness that rivals any adult book on the shelves.

So no. It's not okay to think Twlight's poorly-written prose is passable because it's written for teens. That's not okay at all. YA books should TRY HARDER because of their target audience. Teens are learning not only about themselves but about writing. Granted, I read adult-targeted books when I was a teenager. I actually wasn't aware of the YA section of the bookstore until a while back. I read the classics, and I read Anne Rice. That's actually part of where I learned to write and how I chose what I wanted my voice to be like. In the same vein, teens reading YA now (and there are a LOT of them) who look to start writing or enjoy writing are still developing their voices. They will read and absorb the authors' voices and prose and styles. Reading is how people learn to write. I personally think Tolkien was not a good writer. LOTR drags. But the characters and story are compelling enough to keep going. I hated Stoker's Dracula. To me, it was horrendously boring and a perfectly good waste of an ending.

But Divergent? Half-Blood? Percy? Oh yes. Give me those books. They're thought-out, clever, romantic (no stalking involved), and involve female MCs who actually push the action. Not every heroine has to be a clever, witty, kick-ass heroine. Percy Parker is not any of those things. She's shy and she's quiet and I love her. I identify with her. I don't require a sassy heroine. However, I do require a main character--male or female--who tries to change things. Who pushes the action. Who doesn't just sit around and mope when something goes wrong. Who is tofu. I promise I'll post on tofu characters soon.

Regardless of your genre, regardless of your target audience, regardless of your intent, there is NO reason for your book to be poorly written. None. You are not allowed to cop out.

writing a strong female protagonist, part deux

all right, peeps. time for me to do an informational post comprised entirely of my opinion. some of you might agree, some of you might not. that's fine. we're all adults, right? we can have disagreements.

tonight's topic of discussion:

Bella Swan.

in all honesty, i've been dying for a forum in which to pinpoint the exact ways that ms bella does us a disservice as womenfolk. even when we were lovestruck teenagers, we eventually figured out, either through our own experiences or the commonsense advice of close friends, that mr awesome wasn't all he was cracked up to be. and we moved on.

here's what bothers me about bella (and yeah, i read all four of those books).

1) Bella never progresses. the same silly girl who fell in luvst with edward in the beginning is the exact same girl who births renesme in the last book. there's no indication that she has grown as a human being, you know, like normal people. there's no sense of maturity. she lives, eats, sleeps, and breathes edward. her entire world revolves around him. where's her independence? where is her identity? it's like she doesn't have one until she meets him, and then she's mindnumbingly redundant, which leads me to point number 2.

2)She's superficial. even the most resolute twihard (right? i really don't know twilight lingo) will admit that bella is fixated on edward's looks. and that never. changes. ever. i eventually got to the point where i just read dialogue because i was so annoyed by how much bella missed edward's sculptured chest or eyes or whatever. i guess she couldn't miss parts of his personality, given he doesn't actually have one. he's as exciting as a rice cake. not even the caramel- or chocolate-covered ones. the original. bland. tasteless. rice cakes.

now, don't get me wrong. everyone who knows me knows that i'd leave my bf in a heartbeat for chris evans (bf knows it too; unfortunately, chris evans does not) and for the first few months, i'd likely worship the ground the man walks on. however, at SOME POINT, that fades. i'd stop noticing his piercing blue eyes and perfectly sculpted chest in favor of his charm, his wit, and his intellect. i'd engage him in conversations about life, love, music, our choice of arts... i'd get to know HIM inside, not just outside. my guy is a really good-looking man, if i say so myself. when i'm away from him, i don't miss his body. i miss HIM. i miss his voice. i miss his stupid jokes. i miss laughing with him while we watch stupid people on 'most shocking.' i miss the comfort he provides. i miss the way he smells. i miss the way my head fits perfectly into his shoulder... i miss how he GETS me. i just want HIM, you know? not his chiseled manly form or whatever the hell she calls it. i can understand missing someone to the point of insanity, but it's gotta be more than his muscles and pasty sparkling skin. really.

3) She's the woman tied to the railroad tracks. Other known aliases: Damsel in distress. Woman tied to a chair with a stick of dynamite. Princess locked away in a tower. we've all seen the movies and read the fairy tales. rapunzel is locked away in a tower, just waiting for someone to come by and rescue her. sleeping beauty is awakened by her true love's kiss. dudley-do right has to rescue nell from any number of snidely whiplash's traps. you know who kicked serious ass? rachel weiss' character from the mummy, evelyn. she even came back from the DEAD and kicked anck su namun's reincarnated butt! hellz yeah, nefertiri! some seriously awesome sai work there. or hows about max from dark angel (fell in girl love with jessica alba on that show)? she TOTALLY kicked ass, but she was still vulnerable with logan. she did whatever she had to to protect the people she loved. granted, she was genetically altered, but still.

my point is that bella does nothing but promote (unhealthy) conflict while never acting as part of the resolution. though the story is told in her POV, everything happens TO her, never BY her, if that makes any sense. the one semi-brave thing she does is confront james, and even that is a bad idea. she only gets herself into more trouble and then edward has to come rescue her for the zillionth time. she can't get herself out of trouble.

there's a huge bold line between help from friends and being saved by friends. let me give you an example.

in TEEK, by steven krane, alison is wanted by the government because she's part of a controlled experiment and has NO idea about it until she somehow makes a boy's pelvis explode. yeah. that's right. EXPLODE! but that's not what makes her a strong female protagonist, oh no. what does is that, despite her paralyzing fear, alison DOESN'T GIVE UP. she fights through to the end to uncover what this whole teek thing is and why it's happened to her. why she's different. and she does so with the help of her sassy friend macy and the dad she never really knew. then there's this awesome teek fight between her and jessica and...yeah. you'll have to read it yourself. i'll mail it to you.

but do you see the difference? please say 'yes!' the situations are different, but the principle is the same. strong female protags push the action. weak ones are pushed BY the action.

...i'm totally copyrighting those last two.