Even though I keep telling myself that I won't trawl through Goodreads and read one star reviews of young adult books that I love and some that I loathe, I still find myself doing it a lot. I have to feed my insecurities so I can continue to be part of this group right??
Aside from the usual contentious tropes like insta-love and love triangles that always causes heated debate, one of the most common complaints I've read is that the reader couldn't connect with the hero/heroine. Often the heroines in question are the self-confident ones who know they are pretty and don't have complete social anxiety issues. From my own research (otherwise known as Goodreads/Amazon stalking) it feels like most readers in the young adult bracket don't really care for the self assured heroine. They prefer the mousy, shy girls with a myriad of insecurities who is gorgeous but can't know that she's gorgeous except by way of every boy in the book throwing himself at her. Even if both types of heroine were to act the same way in a story the less confident girl seems to garner more sympathy.
This speaks to a whole other topic of debate about portrayal of women in books and film that I don't have time to touch on but it worries me because my heroines don't fit into the demure package. Partly because the softly spoken and written girl wouldn't logically survive in the dystopian societies I make up in my head. They wouldn't even survive in some of my urban fantasies unless they did so on the pity of others. Mostly though, I just don't like writing those kinds of girls. It's not that I don't have insecurities of my own (clearly!), it's just that I find them so bland and author inserty. I can only hope that there are lots of other readers out there who feel the same way.
Intro to me: This month IWSG have asked us to introduce ourselves so here goes. My name is Lan and I'm a writer from all the way down in Melbourne, Australia. I mostly try and stick to the YA dystopian and urban fantasy genre and hope to publish something this year!
