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Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Parentals in YA Fiction: Rethinking ignoring them
Kaitlin Ward from the YA Highway had a wonder about parents in YA fiction and what to do with them and how to make your YA novel stronger by utilising their existence.
She wrote down her conclusions here and I reckon it's worth checking out. Some interesting thoughts.
I think one of the big things that affects believability is when a writer sidesteps the whole 'how much to show the parent' by leaving them out of the book. Annoying. Yes it can be hard to strike a balance, but parents are great for comparing and contratsing. It takes work, but the effort pays off.
You're right, Ange. The effort definitely pays off. No matter how independent the child feels (okay, so emancipated minors are a bit different) their parents are in their lives in some capacity.
And thanks for writing such an interesting post, Kaitlin!
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I think one of the big things that affects believability is when a writer sidesteps the whole 'how much to show the parent' by leaving them out of the book. Annoying. Yes it can be hard to strike a balance, but parents are great for comparing and contratsing. It takes work, but the effort pays off.
ReplyDeleteThanks for linking my post! :)
ReplyDeleteYou're right, Ange. The effort definitely pays off. No matter how independent the child feels (okay, so emancipated minors are a bit different) their parents are in their lives in some capacity.
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks for writing such an interesting post, Kaitlin!