Parents (Which I sort of already did but whatever)

Number 1: Yes, I know I haven't updated in a little while. Life happens :P

Number 2: I know that I've already sort of talked about this character in my post about mothers but hey, fathers should be thrown into the mix as well.

Parents are tricky in all genres of fiction, but especially in Young adult. That's because most people think that the best way to capture the mind set of a teenager is to pit them against their parents who totally don't understand them. They're, like, so old fashion.

This gets under my skin, of course, but that's not to say it can't be done well. So let's take a look at stereotypes vs. 3D characters for parents!

Stereotype: This can go several different ways. First, the parent can be there just to be a part of the conflict. They hold the MC back, cause drama in their life, or just don't understand. This usually falls short when the issues they get in fights over are trivial, as opposed to something really debilitating (Like physical and emotional abuse). Bad parents in fiction aren't bad, per say  unless their arguments with their child are trivial and, like, so old fashion. (Ok I'll stop with the 'like' bit).

The other stereotype is the dead parent... yeah. YA books have crazy 'kill off the parents' syndrome, often because they just don't want to have to deal with writing their characters. This can work too, so long as it has purpose in the story. Like the death of the MC's parents come into play or effect them throughout the book.

3D characters: This can go several ways as well. First of all, if you're going to make your parents emotionally or physically abusive, they should have a reason. No one is abusive just to be abusive (Outside of psychopaths but we will get to them later) so every parent who hurts their child must have some kind of reason to do so. There should be an attempt at understanding why the parent does what they do. They shouldn't just be villainized.

The dead or missing parent should also have a reason, as I said, for being dead or missing. At the start of my book, the father is dead and left the MC at a young age. But he plays a really major role in the story both plot wise, and in developing my MC's character.

Or, crazy thought, you could make the parents nice.

Mind blown? I'll give you a moment.

Done? Ok good.

You see, I like reading books about genuinely helpful parents. I love Mo in Inkheart as he is such a carrying, awesome dad. I love Molly Weasley. I like Tris' mom in the Divergent books. Nice parents can be really awesome. They don't have to be the source of conflict. They can help the MC.

That's jut my personal thoughts on 3D vs. stereotypical characters. Of course your opinion is your opinion and I can sometimes be guilty of that 'dead parent' stereotype.

In other news I got another partial request, and then rejection. True I've gotten two partial rejections, but at least I got requests in the first place!

Now I'm kind of a contest guru. I'm obsessively entering in whatever I can find, so fingers crossed for good results!

Not sure what my next special will be on but see you then!

-Authoress Anonymous

Mothers in Fiction (An Advancement or not?)

Anyone noticed this lately? An overpowering working mother with no time for her kid because she's too busy making her place in the world?

How about this? The mother that just doesn't understand her child because she's SO old fashion

And how about an evil step mother?

I must admit I don't really like the rep a lot of mothers are getting in YA fiction, particularly in contemporary pieces. (And in fantasy half the time the suffer from off screen death)

So lets look at a few mothers done right.

Molly Weasley: We all know this woman. It's too bad because a lot of people considered her to be a typical housewife rather than a progressive female character. In fact a reporter (Female reporter, might I add) even told J.K. Rowling "But she's just a mother."

Which understandably irked J.K. Rowling. She didn't see what was so wrong about a woman choosing to raise a family and not throwing herself into the working world. In fact Rowling is a mother herself, adding insult to injury.

This little encounter was one of the things that led J.K. Rowling to the infamous "Molly kills Bellatrix scene." She was going to have Molly do something strong to show she was just as powerful as the men, even if she did choose to raise a family. And I respect her for that. Molly Weasley was a kind and caring mother who worked hard and cared deeply about her children. And that is not a crime. It's a choice.

Rachel Morgan: Heard of her? She's from the Gallagher Girl series. And this is one of the few series where I've seen a teenager who totally looks up to her mom and wants to be like her. A typical conflict is "My mom doesn't get me. So old fashion. I never want to be like her." Rachel Morgan however, is portrayed in a positive light.

She's a very strong woman (And a spy) and she cares about her daughter just as much as any mother so we don't have the "Strong working woman neglects her family scenario". And because Cammie likes her, we like her. I like the portrayal of strong mother-daughter relationships.

Natalie Prior: This is the mother from Divergent. And before we go any further, I would like to mention that I strongly dislike this book and most of the characters in it. Honestly. But that's going to a review for another time. Natalie Prior is one of the few characters I like because she was both selfless and kind but also brave so you could see why she transferred from Dauntless. And the lengths she was willing to go to to protect her daughter are quite admirable. She's also very smart and wary of the danger Abnegation faces. I mainly just like her for being a strong character who seemed submissive and classic "gentle woman" but turned out to be very brave. She was one of the only characters in that book who actually surprised me.

Which is why it's a shame that her daughter showed so little emotion towards her... but that's a review for another time.

In my book: Admittedly, my mother character doesn't have a huge role in the book because she doesn't get as much page time but I made an effort to make a good relationship between her and the main character, her daughter. I'll go ahead and say: Her name is Christina, since that's not really giving anything away. Christina is a working woman but she still cares about her daughter. She is strong and sharp tongued and doesn't cry much though this is largely due to the fact that she tries to be strong for the main character. And while she is still flawed (Because she sort of keeps a lot of secrets) she wouldn't give up her daughter for anything.

I wanted to see more positive mother-daughter relationships so I wrote one.

So that's my schpiel on mothers and making them three dimensional characters in YA fiction. Tomorrow I think I'm going to talk about villainous and their prose and cons. (But the Bella Swan rant is coming... oh it's coming)

Thanks for reading!

-Authoress Anonymous