forum Things You Want LESS Of In Books

Started January 21, 2019 by @HighPockets group

tune

Sometimes death is a necessary that can do good. I still get emotional at Theoden's death.

I want characters that fuck up, majorly.
Like, none of that "Perfect" bullcrap, my characters are teens, they're going to make mistakes.

T R U T H!!!

And when characters do fuck up, it ends up perfectly for them which… no??? It doesn't??

Sometimes death is a necessary that can do good. I still get emotional at Theoden's death.

S A M E

And when characters do fuck up, it ends up perfectly for them which… no??? It doesn't??

My character fucks up and it ends up with him almost dying.

Yay!

The whole 'no adults/parents' thing.
I admit I do that myself, but

1. Most of my casts are young adults or teenagers, I think the oldest major protagonist is 28, so there's still adults.
2. In the dystopian stories, it's to highlight the fact that life expectancy isn't a big thing and that the villain took out her parents' old allies Stalin-style.

Yes! I admit I fall under that sometimes but I try not to.

I used the same strategy for Addar to kill everyone's parents in a war.

One focuses on teenagers and a big part of the main character's issues is that her dad died when she was young and that her mom is kinda distant, so her mom isn't a major player. Her aunt is a reoccuring one, though, and her friend's moms are reoccuring as well.
The other has characters in college so they don't see their families much, and 3 of them are estranged, so there's that.
One is a story about 3 kids who grew up on the street and their time as assassins, so no parents there.
In Twyllo, most of the parents are dead, because of the aforementioned Stalin-y stuff, but Jon still has a strong parental role model in his uncle.
Ehre actually does have a live parent, she's a major character, and Lysander is essentially pseudo-adopted by his mentor and her girlfriend by the end.
The fae stuff has Lucas and Aspen as the son/father relationship, and Iam is struggling with the death of his mom, Juniper, especially after things she had buried come to light.
Creston is an chaotic anarchy, so yeah. No parents.

In Smile Pretty, Kill Beautifull, the entire plot is a woman taking kids off the streets and training them to be undercover spies and seductive assassins.

In Smile Pretty, Kill Beautifull, the entire plot is a woman taking kids off the streets and training them to be undercover spies and seductive assassins.

Oh I love those kind of books!!

In Smile Pretty, Kill Beautifull, the entire plot is a woman taking kids off the streets and training them to be undercover spies and seductive assassins.

Oh I love those kind of books!!

Thanks! I actually thought of it on a whim while in cosplay-

No more 16 year old protags.

I was seriously the most reclusive 16 year old. If the apocalypse started and I was the 'chosen one' everyone would have died.

It's just not believable.

I have a few 16 year olds, but they're sides. We have the overeager dork, the super shy medic, the one who has the mentality of a 21 year old because her life is horrible, and the sweet but easily manipulated youngest sister.

All my protags are 20+.

responsible somewhat functioning adults.

Mine tend to be later teens/early twenties

I think the commonality of the trope has a lot to do with the audience and overall message. A lot of books with 16-year-old protags tend to be targeted towards that age range. Plus it's a better fit if the writer is trying to explore themes of growing up and finding oneself, as the teens are an age where one's body goes through tons of changes and utter chaos.
But I do agree, there are some points where it becomes a little too strained and unrealistic.
It could be worse though, most protags in Pokemon games are 10-12 years old, and every time they inevitably defeat some horrible new evil that threatens to do something insane like destroy all the universes.

@Winter that’s a good point and I see where those authors are coming from, but it’s still irritating to see characters without the necessary skill set (which tends to be the younger protags) saving the world like it’s nothing, especially when it could easily be made more believable. For example, I have some 16-17 year old main characters that are tasked with completing an incredibly difficult quest, but I also have a solid cast of older, more experienced characters on their team so they can realistically not die a quick and horrible death.

i hate when YA books have really dramatic school settings, with really drastic personalities when there isn't anything that aggressive irl.

Well schools are pretty boring so I suppose one would have to try to spice it up.

i hate when YA books have really dramatic school settings, with really drastic personalities when there isn't anything that aggressive irl.

you clearly haven't been to a canadian middle school. drama is all those fuckers know

Lol

I mean, yeah school has some bad apples but most of the time it's not as bad as the media says. There's drama and stuff, but friends tend to stick together and the 'bad' kids do too.

I tried to write a slice of life type school thing at some point, but based on real life experience, school is very boring to write about.