Book Shame

I did start to do some more writing, so little that it could be considered negligible, but it's a step in the positive direction. It's difficult because even if I had time, I have fallen into the habit of not writing and it makes me feel like nothing I do will be good enough so why should I even try. It's a phase I've been through countless times once I take a break for a few weeks but I will try to push through it and concentrate on just having fun with my writing. It will be the only aspect of my life that isn't being scrutinized and graded.

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As a child and merging young adult I always perceived adult books as being these sophisticated, complex hunkers of novels that would signify that the reader was mature and intelligent. It wasn't that I couldn't understand what happened in these stories, but the slower pace and the thorough analysis of characters' feelings and perspectives rendered me begging for more adventure and magic. I always put these books on a pedestal as being the true test of maturity and stuck to young adult or children's novels.

Since then I have read many adult books, spanning a huge range from fantasy and science fiction, to romance and adventure, to historical books. While I am not an expert in any means, I do believe that I have had enough exposure to properly see these books for what they are.

Just because a book is written with long words does not make it any better than a children's adventure novel. I have stopped idealizing books that are longer because I have realized that more pages does not equate to a better story. It took me reading adult books long enough to understand that there is nothing wrong with not wanting to read those slow, thought provoking books that make me antsy and impatient to move on to what I consider more enjoyable: fantasy and adventure.

But even though I have become comfortable with myself and my choice of novel, I continue to see shame being assigned to those who read novels that are outside of their demographic. For example, this article insults all adults who enjoy reading young adult books. I was quite shocked the entire time I read it and thought that they were actually going to turn around and admit that this was a satire because I couldn't understand how someone could sit at a computer and make judgements on how others spend their time. But I enjoyed watching this video contesting the article.

This kind of thinking persists like a dark cloud over the reading community. Frankly, it exists in all aspects of life. But since this blog is centered on writing and novels, I will try to keep my focus on how it affects the reading community.

It is no secret that I love to watch booktubers (youtubers who vlog about novels). Many of them are just exiting their teen years and are now becoming adults and it is interesting to watch them try to make that adjustment. Just the other day, one of them posted a video on the adult books that they wanted to read in an attempt to make that transition, which is one of the reasons that I was inspired to write about this subject.

We need to experiment in our reading, just as we do in every other part of our lives when we are growing up, and there should be no shame in the books that we read. If a seven year old wants to read memoirs of deceased presidents then more power to them. If a thirty year old woman wants to read about teenagers struggling through high school then I support her in that.

There is now a stigma surrounding novels. People scoff at the idea that there are those who enjoy books like Twilight or Fifty Shades of Grey. There was even a trend on Youtube where people would attempt to read passages from Fifty Shades of Grey without laughing. I won't link any of them because I found it insulting that they would try to so publicly shame a novel. I know that the author, E.L. James, probably doesn't care because she is watching these people while counting all the money she has made, but this promotes the idea that it's okay to shame people for enjoying a novel.

No matter how much a person reviles a novel, there is a way to express that frustration without insulting others. People are allowed to read whatever they want because at the end of the day, reading is done for pleasure and if you want to read a book about two kids flying on a dragon, then it's your free time and you can do whatever you want as long as it is not hurting someone else. And do it without having to feel as though you have to hide it.

This post was more of a rant, but this is a topic that has been bothering me for a while now and I wanted to share it and see if anyone else has been annoyed by it.

Magical Realism

I still haven't done any writing this week (other than the mandatory stuff for university) but I am not disappointed. I thought I would get more opportunities to write while I am here--and I am certain that I could make the time if I so wished--but I want to spend the time I am not studying to relax and get to know people better. In my mind university is a time for new experiences and keeping my head bent over my computer won't give me that.

I did spend the weekend reading, which was really nice. I even finished a book. I have found that even when I have an hour free I didn't want to read before because there was always something else for school that I should be reading instead. But since I worked so hard all week to keep up with school work, I gave myself the entire weekend off to relax.

Though I don't believe at this point that I will return to editing my book until Term 1 is over in December, I have been toying with the idea of writing a new story in my free time. It would be an unplotted story that I would write purely for fun and to use the creative side of my brain. There is 't much imagination involved in science.

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Magical realism is a term coined in reference to early Latin American writers, most notably Gabriel Garcia Marquez in his novel One Hundred Years of Solitude. Its official definition is combining realistic narrative and naturalistic techniques with surreal elements of dream or fantasy. In layman’s terms, it’s when people who live in a seemingly real world experience a different reality than us. If it still doesn’t make any sense, it’s because it is a concept that is better shown through examples than told outright.

In a dream, anything can happen. So imagine that some of those things seeped into the real world and everyone acted completely normal about it. It was as though there was nothing wrong with people singing instead of talking, or it was the norm to go to the bathroom in public. Whatever the difference might be, it is up to the writer to offer a perspective where the reader begins to believe that it is also a normal thing to do. So your protagonist can’t be aghast at all of this, they have to treat it as if it is no big deal and play it off as a normal part of life.

At the same time, there is an emphasis on the seemingly normal things that we experience in the real world. That could be an activity such as a sport, or an action that we do without thinking. But this contrast helps to show the reader that things are different in other cultures, in other places and that our norm is not the same as someone else’s.

There is so much to explore in this genre. Time can be warped, ideas can be explored that are taken seriously even if they might appear comical or strange.

If you would like more reading on the subject this website might be of interest as it details the ways that this device can be achieved. One of the front runners of the beginnings of magical realism is Gabriel Garcia Marquez. He has done an interview with the Atlantic in which he attempts to explain it.

Even though I seem to understand how it works, it is still a true mystery to myself. I would be able to recognize it when I see it but as to how to write it myself, I would have no idea where to begin. But this seems like a very enchanting way to write so I hope to explore if further so that one day I can incorporate even a sliver of this into my own stories.

It has been suggested that Western use of magical realism is not true to its original form. Without the influence of mythology as other cultures have, it has been quickly summed up as characters, setting and incidents not corresponding with the real world or our acceptance of facts. This is basically what I have stated above, and yet it is always so much more. This device is so confusing to most that critics prefer to disregard it as a device at all. It is argued that if it can be explained than it is not magical realism.

Whatever the case may be, I highly recommend you spending some time to do more research on the subject as it can prove to be very interesting.

Here are some places to begin your research:

7 Defining Works of Magical Realism to Expand Your Literary Horizons

What Is Magical Realism?  (Video)

Magical Realism Definition (Video)

No More Magical Realism: Juan Gabriel Vasquez and the New Latin American Lit

Diversity

Since starting university I have had no time to read, let alone write. Every free moment I have to try to enjoy some peace and quiet all I can think about is that next chapter I have to read or that quiz that still needs completing. I hope that when I get into the swing of university life I will be able to relax and find time to read and enjoy the quiet. But even when I reach that point I don't think that I will be able to write because all my creative focus is towards school work.

I had an unfortunate venture into short story writing. I considered not mentioning this because if I didn't say anything then no one would be the wiser, but I told myself that I would be honest here and truly catalogue my writing journey.

Basically what happened is I finished writing a short story and submitted to a magazine. A couple days ago to was rejected. I'm not really feeling sad about it, mostly because I don't have any time to feel anything about anything. I am undecided as to whether I will try to get it published elsewhere, or even upload it here so that people who read this blog can have an ide what my writing is like.

But at this point I feel as though my writing is being put on hold. I did write a few draft posts on subjects that I can use for the next couple of weeks if I continue to feel uninspired. I guess I will just have to play this all by ear and decide what I believe is right. Because even though my writing is very important to me, university does come first. The luxury of long, lazy summer hours is gone.

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There has been an increased demand for diversity in books as of late. This includes race, sexual orientation. But while there might be some writers who are moving to include these things in their stories, they are also entering the danger of including these things only to say that they have. This person is only gay to fill a quota of another person is Japanese to make the cast diverse with no other reason behind it.

This angers me because these characters end up becoming caricatures of what they are meant to represent. These things are not what qualifies a person, it is simply another part of their biological makeup like being tall or having a quick wit.

Unfortunately, or fortunately in some ways, the books that handle these things we'll do them as their central story. The main character is gay and the entire plot is them coming out to their family. These stories are important, I'll admit it, but when that is the only way that they are used it becomes annoying and repetitive.

It was brought to my attention a little while back that there is even a trend in Hollywood that gay characters are eventually killed off. This usually happens when a gay couple has finally been established and they are happy. I don't know if the industry is aware of what is happening but it would be awful if that was done on purpose. This is even worse than the black best friend stereotype, even though that has become ridiculous as well.

Now, keep in mind that I am a straight white person so whenever I read novels I get to read about a lot of straight white people. I never feel as if I'm under represented in literature because straight white people are everywhere.

But it infuriates me that we get straight white people in all sorts of complex roles whereas the black person will be thrown in as a token for diversity. I want to read books that have all sorts of races and sexual orientations thrown in not because the author wants to prove to the world that they can do it and be accepting (though it's still great that they're trying) but that they're included because that is a better reflection of our society today.

From an outside perspective, if someone were to only read modern books and watch modern movies, no one has immigrated or moved and that we all still live within our separated races.

Also, a quick side complaint is that we never get to see inter racial relationships. There might only be two black people in an entire book but you better bet that by the end of it they are going to end up as a couple. This is does not reflect how our society works in the slightest. 

This is not to say that there aren't books that aren't doing this. There are hundreds of authors being published each year so while there might be a couple that handle these topics with a lot of finesse, there are others that don't. I can understand how apprehensive some authors can be about writing from a different race or a different sexual orientation but it's important to keep in mind that no matter what choices we make or what we look like, we fundamentally think the exact same way and react the exact same way. 

When I'm reading a book usually I don't picture the race. All the characters embody more of an aura than a physical form, and I've heard people mention that no matter what description they get from an author, they will change all the characters to their own race. While I have no problem with that, I would rather that we get that diversity from the start.

This is not the first time that this subject has been talked about and it certainly won't be the last. I only wanted to add in my two cents into the conversation. I appreciate you taking the time to read through it all and if you have any commentary on the subject I would love to discuss it with you as this is an important subject that I believe will only be fixed once we have thoroughly understood it as a society.

Here is some more links in case you want to look further into this: 
We Need Diverse Books
John Green: Why We Need Diverse Books (Video)
Picturing Characters - Book Chat (Video)
Where is the Diversity in Publishing?

The Damaged Heroine Romance Plot

It's fun to look back at old passages of my writing because even when I talk about being a better writer now and having to redo a good deal of it, there are a few times when I love what I have written and even find myself impressed with it. So not only am I happy to read a fantastic description of funny piece of dialogue, but it's also great because it means less work to edit.

I have been letting my dad read over some of my work and I am getting a lot of good feedback. I have done some researching on beta readers (people you have reading the book beforehand to look out for plot holes and such). A lot of the advice on this encourages writers not to use family members as beta readers but since I have to pretty much force my friends to read my writing, my dad's the easiest to coerce.

At first he was only giving me positive feedback but now that he's reaching the midway point, more issues are coming to light. There are issues with characters becoming wimps or sections that feel boring or repetitive. I won't say it wasn't hard to hear because my writing is like my baby, but I can say that having talked through ways to fix it with him makes me happier because I know my book can only get better with this feedback.

But this does make me think more about how involved beta readers and editors can get when writing a novel. While the story is being written by one person they are constantly getting feedback from others on characters, plot, setting, and even prose. So how much of the work is entirely theirs at the end of the day and how much is a collective from a small group supporting them? 

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Brace yourself because I am about to spoil you for any book that features a damaged heroine in a romance book. I used to enjoy these stories quite a bit until they all began to blend into one another due to their similar points. Therefore I want to take the time to outline exactly how these stories progress so you don't have to waste your time reading the same story dressed with different embellishments.

Each of these stories begin with a heroine who is in hiding or away from home because of the abuse they suffered back home. Most times they want to keep a low profile. They are varying degrees of scarred, ranging from hating even the smallest physical contact to avoiding social activities. But even though they refuse to share even the smallest detail about themselves, they have found a best friend who they are entirely comfortable with and brings out their "original" personality. This person has "broken the barriers" of the main character and are usually loud and rambunctious.

Cue the entry of the hero. He is charming and outgoing, but somehow this timid girl captures his attention and inspires all of his attention. All his previous habits of one night stands is washed away because suddenly all he wants is this girl and all other girls fade from view. As he starts to bring her out of her shell and fall in love with him, she struggles with telling him about her past.

Now, if her past included an abusive relationship, around this time you will have the heroine receiving text messages or other hints of this ex boyfriend having found her. She is worried but brushes it off for various reasons because she doesn't want to ruin her new romantic relationship.

Finally the new boyfriend is trying to find out more about the heroine, though she refuses to mention as much as possible about her past. This causes a rift between them and during this conflict, she finally admits to what happened even though she is certain he will leave her after she is done explaining. But then he does the unexpected and supports her. He suspected that she had these issues in her past and he loves her despite it.

But before they can have their happy ever after, the boyfriend kidnaps our heroine and threatens her. Just as he is about to hurt her the hero charges in and saves her at the last minute. Then there is a happy ending with an epilogue that shows how the heroine has moved past her ordeal and has found new happiness with the hero.