It wouldn't be so bad if the boys were just super hot, but too often they're perfect too. Yesterday I was reading a new book (otherwise excellent) where the main boy was the hottest guy in school, was a perfect gentleman despite the MC being a giant bitch, and devoted his life completely to the girl after knowing her for five minutes. That sounds more like a wish-fulfillment robot than any 17 year-old guy I've ever met. Crap, the 25 year-old guys I know are nothing like that.
Okay okay I know. YA readers and writers love to fantasize about the slightly dangerous but oh-so-perfect boy who will risk his life for us even though he's knee-meltingly gorgeous and, well, no one's ever actually asked us on a date before. But I think we writers need to back away from this. It's starting to border on objectification - just as bad as women are objectified in pron and really awful action movies.
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| Does/did anyone out there actually have a "hottest guy in school" anyway? Are they holding elections now or something? |
The antidote, I think, is to put more thought into our male characters (or make our boyfriends read our books. The boy shredded the male characters in my first book). The best guy characters have goals and interests (and maybe even agendas!) that have nothing to do with the main girl. They have flaws like real teenage boys. They play too many video games and speak mostly in Colbert Report and Archer quotes and generally space out (my 19 yo brother is proof of this).
It's okay to make a perfect character once and a while. But there should be a good reason for it, like he's not very handsome so he makes up for it in charm, or he's grown up desperate to please his OCD mother who's the general of an interstellar space armada. Everyone has flaws. Even our mysterious demi-god-werewolf-ghost boyfriends who just transferred to our high school school from Borneo who OMG is so dreamy.
How do you avoid cardboard characters of the opposite sex?
This is something I try to avoid as much as possible, because it bugs me when I read it. I do very detailed character outlines for all my characters (except for the really minor ones-- they get fewer details). One of the things I always focus on is WHAT THEY WANT. Like you said, they should have their own interests and agendas. They're not just waiting around to become a part of someone else's story.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this thoughtful post! Glad I found your blog.
Great post! I try really hard to avoid this too-cause it's not realistic. I don't THINK the love interest in my book is perfect (actually, he's sort of far from it, but he's not a bad boy either). But you have me thinking now...
ReplyDeleteHey, you have a blog!
ReplyDeleteHere are my thoughts:
Like many things, this is a problem that comes out of several different, smaller problems. One issue at hand is that writers struggle to explain why their main characters care about their love interest - and at first glance, it's harder to explain why someone is in love with a human with a bunch of problems. If the love interest is good looking, good hearted, smart, devoted, strong, etc etc, then the writer can skip over depicting why the main character is in love, and say, "It's obvious. Just look at him!"
A second, related issue is that YA love stories are often about the chase - meeting the love interest, pining for the love interest, going through embarrassing shenanigans to obtain on the love interest - and the stories often close on the first kiss and/or reciprocal declarations of love. And in that early part of a relationship we, as humans, tend not to notice many flaws in our beloveds. We are in that - I hate this phrase, but I'm going to use it anyway - "honeymoon phase" where we have blinders on.
Finally, there must be a distinction between whether the main character thinks the love interest is perfect, and whether the author does. The main character can have the blinder on, but the author can't. And unless the author wants to start adding footnotes to the text ("Dear Reader, do not be fooled! Though it may at first glance appear that breaking into your house and watching you sleep is a loving gesture, it's really just creepy") the author needs to be able to introduce the perspectives of other characters (friends, family, the love interest, etc) without breaking the narration. This is also known as writing dialogue!
"I love Edward McPouffyhair!" says Mary Sue.
"He does seem a teensy bit controlling," says Mary Sue's friend.
"That's because he loves me!"
"Or that's because he has gross emotional problems," says Mary Sue's friend. "Just a thought."
The thing that is often overlooked in romance stories is that it is our flaws and our damages that make us compatible, empathetic, and interesting, and this is true for both the main character and the love interest.
"And then she meets unbelievably gorgeous Boy X." Really? Again?
ReplyDeleteAmen.
To avoid this pitfall I try to imagine the story with the roles of hero and heroine reversed. If the pairing afterward makes me scoff, I know the characters need more developing.
Very interesting!
ReplyDeleteI'm with Chelsey, in terms of the MC probably being blind to the guy's faults. I was definitely that way in high school and I definitely thought boys were far more dreamy than they were. I think that's usual. But, she's right -- as the author, we need to be aware of the faults.
I try to work mine in in such a way that it's like my MC finds something that is kind of dorky to be adorable. Or, perhaps, if she likes a jerk, the character at first thinks the boy's confidence is appealing, but then she has a breakthrough.
I guess that's another thing -- don't always have them live happily ever after.
And like Clutzattack, I think the author definitely needs to establish believability in terms of why "hottest guy in school" would go for the MC, if she's not in his social group.
One book I feel does a good job of that is Kody Keplinger's THE DUFF.
Anyway, thanks for a great post!