Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Big Ideas and Swapping Spit

I was lying in bed this morning, planning what I would write here for today. I had it all planned out, clever title and all. But when I got to my computer I'd completely forgotten about an article I needed to finish for deadline.

Of course, now (many hours later) I can't remember anything I was planning to write for my blog, not even the title.

Isn't that the way life goes sometimes? You get a great idea - one that gives you tingles on the back of your arm, even - and then something interrupts and the idea dissolves, getting wispier and wispier until it's gone.

Martinis and Big Ideas go together a lot of the time for me... although I have to admit that some of those ideas aren't nearly as big as they seemed before the glass was empty...

What do you do to hold onto you Big Ideas? Do you write them down right away, jotting them into notepads or onto cocktail napkins as the case may be? Or are you one of the lucky people that remember all your ideas? Even when you're drinking martinis?

Okay, as for swapping spit - I read a blog post yesterday that I can't get out of my head. This author was describing her series of books, and the fact that her heroine dates more than one guy in the course of the series. It's YA, she's 15, none of the "dating" goes further than a few kisses, but some of her fans/critics call the heroine a skank because of her fickle heart.

The author called this the "Twilight Effect," blaming Bella and Edward for the one-to-one monogamy "demanded" by YA readers.

I disagreed. I pointed out that Nancy Drew only ever dated Ned Nickerson. Ever. For how many books? Another commenter pointed to fairy tales, and the "one true prince" trope...

What are your thought for YA? Can our heroines date? Or just have a one-and-only?


6 comments:

  1. I think it's more realistic when teens date more than one person in the book, but i don't have a problem when they don't/
    This, too, also depends on the span of time passing in the book

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    1. Thanks for stopping by, Sarah!

      I agree I wouldn't want to see a teen version of Reese Witherspoon in "This Means War" ... but over the course of 7 books, Ginny dated a lot more guys than just Harry Potter. And she still got to marry the hero in the end :-)

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  2. whatever happened to the saying "you have to kiss a few frogs..." as long as the character is not swapping spit with everyone, I don't have a problem

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    1. Hmmm... vampires, faeries, werewolves... are we adding frogs to the mix now? jk - I agree with you. But a lot of YA seems to be more on teh one-and-only end of the spectrum...

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  3. Hmm...teen girls are supposed to be fickle. Doesn't mean she's a skank. How are you supposed to find "the" one if you don't kiss more than one frog. Besides, it's fun if all she's doing is kissing. *GIGGLES*

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    1. Again with the frog kissing ;-) There's got to be a book in there somewhere!

      I agree with you - I'll certainly expect my daughter to date more than one boy in her life, to find her perfect "one" - but I'm still not sure how much the world of teen girl literature reflects reality.

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