YA Cliches?

becomingabigail

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I'm really tired of the MC turning out to the most special, most powerful, queen/king of the world character that has everyone's attention. Sure, you can find out that you're actually a magical being, but does that mean you have to be THE ONE. Why can't you just find out you're a witch or a fairy and just join the new world?

And that is why I am attempting to write an MC who isn't the most special...it's a really difficult thing to do! One of the main attractions to YA for a large amount of readers, is the idea that you can become someone special, that you can be as normal as dirt and then BOOM, you're a god.

But the problem is, when you get a character who doesn't have to work hard to get somewhere good its a bit of a letdown! Face adversity dammit
 

edutton

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It's easier writing contemporary, I think, in that respect - normal, "real people" characters are easily acceptable (unless you're writing a Hollywood story or something like that, I guess)...
 

L. OBrien

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I don't like the dystopian novels that have Bottom-Rung White Chick and Bottom-Rung Rag-Tag Team overtake the evil dystopian government for no reason. It's boring now.

Seriously though. Can we all talk about this for a moment, because this drives me up the wall. There's this thing in dystopia where a skinny, straight, cis, able-bodied, neurotypical white girl rises up, attains celebrity status (or at least becomes comfortably middle class) and stages a "revolution" in which absolutely nothing actually changes. It's basically a way of telling teens that it's possible to rebel without challenging any actual power dynamics, which may be the least revolutionary thing ever.

A close second is the "forbidden paranormal romance." He's a witch. She's a vampire. They can't be together for plot reasons and it's just so controversial, even though they're straight, monoracial (usually white) and cis. Meanwhile the interracial and queer couples who actually have to deal with all kinds of discrimination and fight for their relationships on a regular basis are largely denied representation on YA bookshelves.

Maybe I'm just reading the wrong books, but if I could pick one YA cliche that has to stop, it would be books that invent ways for the most privileged people to pretend to be controversial while failing to advocate for--or even represent--actual minorities.

(Though I can second the love triangles thing. Like, c'mon guys. I came here for the dragons and I don't care which dude you end up with.)
 

becomingabigail

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Seriously though. Can we all talk about this for a moment, because this drives me up the wall. There's this thing in dystopia where a skinny, straight, cis, able-bodied, neurotypical white girl rises up, attains celebrity status (or at least becomes comfortably middle class) and stages a "revolution" in which absolutely nothing actually changes. It's basically a way of telling teens that it's possible to rebel without challenging any actual power dynamics, which may be the least revolutionary thing ever.

A close second is the "forbidden paranormal romance." He's a witch. She's a vampire. They can't be together for plot reasons and it's just so controversial, even though they're straight, monoracial (usually white) and cis. Meanwhile the interracial and queer couples who actually have to deal with all kinds of discrimination and fight for their relationships on a regular basis are largely denied representation on YA bookshelves.

Maybe I'm just reading the wrong books, but if I could pick one YA cliche that has to stop, it would be books that invent ways for the most privileged people to pretend to be controversial while failing to advocate for--or even represent--actual minorities.

(Though I can second the love triangles thing. Like, c'mon guys. I came here for the dragons and I don't care which dude you end up with.)

It all goes back to Othering really doesn't it. It's perfectly acceptable to Other a black kid, or to Other anyone who doesn't fit your standard stereotype as above but do not under any circumstances Other a white kid or whatever because you know....you just can't. (Please take that with a pinch of snark)

My MC is olive skinned, so not exactly unusual. I have important side characters who I like to think are diverse, not as a statement but because it fits my story,where it is set and is the natural thing to do. BUT it frustrates me that I had to sit down and work through my own preconceptions and face the fact that yes, I have this flipping stupid images in my head. I have a character who is male, a sailor and black. He just is black, I haven't made him intentionally not be white he was always black. But I did catch myself giving him a couple of characteristics that I looked back on and had to slap myself for.
 

zmethos

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I'm late finding this thread but find it very interesting! To second what Twick said--having worked in the entertainment industry, there's an understanding that girls/women might happily go see a movie aimed at men (i.e., an action movie) but men do not willingly go to rom-coms. So for the most profit margin, you greenlight movies that will draw in men and hope women will also come along. Or you make a family film that everyone will go see. I could go on (and rant a bit about the system), but it would be long and off topic.

As for YA clichés, I hope my book manages to avoid enough of them not to anger anyone here . . .
 

MaeZe

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I keep waiting for a YA Dystopian book where the plucky young rebels succeed in overthrowing the tyrannical government, only to pave the way for an even worse one to come into power. Because as many will tell you, revolutions seldom go off as clean in the real world as they do in fiction, and trying to establish a democracy in a country that's in upheaval and has known nothing but dictators or absolute monarchs...well, the outcome of the Russian Revolution seems to be depressingly common: you overthrow the tyranny of the Czar, only to wind up with Stalin down the line.

Been done, see the last book in the Hunger Games trilogy.
 

MaeZe

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Do most YA romances show teen girls sleeping around? Damn, I need to be reading more YA (just kidding. I love sex in stories, but I prefer romances with more mature protagonists).

Seriously, I haven't run into any YA where sleeping around was a thing, but most of the YA I've read in recent years is YA fantasy, and when there's a romantic arc, the protag is usually too busy staying alive to sleep with more than one person tops, if that.

My main problem with romances that have YA protags is that I can't take them seriously. My own hindsight about my first "serious" boyfriend makes it impossible. So I know the HEA at the end is really a HFN, because YA still have a lot of growing and changing in front of them, and imo it's generally a terrible idea for kids' first major romantic and/or sexual love be their last.

I was disappointed at the "non romance" ending of Judy Blume's Forever when I was a kid, but as an adult, I nod approvingly.

In The Doubt Factory, the teens at least have normal sex, i.e. they're not virgins and the two that hook up have sex fairly soon after. In Daughter of Smoke and Bone, the author dispenses with the virginity of the female protagonist by her having had sex once with a guy she breaks it off with soon after. Thereby virginity is not a story element without the protagonist having slept around. It's not that unusual for the first guy you have sex with not to be an important love in your life.
 

MaeZe

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... I certainly struggle to identify with the classic "High School" setup and cast of characters. None of those characters or situations resonate with my experience at all. I don't remember specific "mean girls" or "queen bees", nor "jocks" (some people were into sports, others weren't, and it had no bearing on their personalities otherwise). I don't even recall there being "nerds" - I was not mocked for being into science.

So if I were to pick a YA trope that annoys me, it would be that whole "High School" thing because it seems to me to be a set of stereotypes that are being pushed onto the whole world in a kind of induced-memory way ("remember when school was like this? Yes you do! Yes you do! Admit it!"), when I'm not 100% convinced they even apply in America.....
I hate the high school scene in YA books, especially prom. I never went to a high school dance and I certainly never went to prom.

But I was definitely not in the in-crowd and it wasn't my imagination. I changed schools in middle school, the worst time for not belonging to a group. I hated lunch because I had no one to sit with. Someone I hardly knew started a fight with me after school (I did at least win). I suspect if you weren't a mean girl you may not have noticed the people they bullied.
 

MaeZe

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I was in the teen section of the library wondering if I could grab a book for my son. Nearly every book had a lone girl on the cover.

I read once that part of the reason JK Rowling's agent got those twelve rejections was publishers saying "Oh the main character is a boy, and boys don't read."

Of course there are teen books with male protagonists, they're just kind of buried under mountains of female focused books I think.

I'm not so sure but I do think they are a different kind of story. Take Ender's Game, for example, more action, less romance focused. My son's high school books were stories like, World War Z. But he does have a rather eclectic reading appetite now compared to what I read.
 

MaeZe

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Boys don't read is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Editors believe that boys don't read YA because they go straight for adult lit, so they don't publish much in the way of boy YA (though that's changing). Boys go to the YA section to find a book, but all the books are "for" girls, so they look elsewhere. "See? Boys don't read YA," say the editors and pat themselves on the back.

You can walk the same circular logic path with [insert ethnic group] doesn't read [insert genre], so therefore we don't publish [genre] with [insert ethnicity] MC.

Harry Potter, however was MG, and those are traditionally more evenly spaced between girls and boys. Adventure books are usually male characters in MG.
Like girls don't do math or video games, tsk tsk, marketers are missing some lucrative markets.
 

MaeZe

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...
A close second is the "forbidden paranormal romance." ...
Forbidden love is an age old attraction: Cleopatra and Mark Antony, Romeo and Juliette, Whuthering Heights.

Unobtainable love like Jane Eyre is another version of the theme.
 

Emermouse

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Been done, see the last book in the Hunger Games trilogy.

I have and it plays the cliché completely straight. Apparently all you have to do is take out Snow and Coin, then fast-forward and everything's hunky-dory. Don't have to worry about forces still loyal to either Snow or Coin because apparently no one liked them, making you wonder why no one else tried to take them out. Makes you wonder if everyone was paralyzed into inaction until Katniss sprang into being.
 

MaeZe

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I have and it plays the cliché completely straight. Apparently all you have to do is take out Snow and Coin, then fast-forward and everything's hunky-dory. Don't have to worry about forces still loyal to either Snow or Coin because apparently no one liked them, making you wonder why no one else tried to take them out. Makes you wonder if everyone was paralyzed into inaction until Katniss sprang into being.

Yeah, I thought about that whitewash after I posted it.
 

Max Evan

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Is the cliche to have one parent dead or both?

I think yes. As well as creating the unfortunate hero, suffering from anything. It is believed that readers will feel sympathy for this hero. But I do not agree with that. The reader may not always associate themselves with such a character in the book. And a pity not enough.
 

Harlequin

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Dead family are common in most genres.

It's much easier to write characters who aren't tied down. And frankly, when parents are there, they're usually cringe. Think Rand al'Thor's annoying as balls dad, in WoT.

I don't think cliche is the right word - I don't think people do it for pathos. I think they do it for lazy writing and a way of limiting scope. Motivations are easier to control and nobody wants their cool hero's mum to show up shouting "Don't forget to tie your shoe laces when you fight the evil undead king!"
 

AKB

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Re: dead parents, while I can see how it may be used as a formula to evoke sympathy or be 'lazy writing', I don't think it has to be so. Maybe I'm just trying to convince myself of that since the manuscript I'm working on has the death of a parent being integral to the story, the MC blaming herself over her mother's death and now feeling responsible for her younger sister who suffers from OCD and who the MC resents for making her (the MC) an 'orphan' long before their mother's death. Add a workaholic/afraid to cope father and other complications, the MC is unable to grieve and get on with her life, leading her to other (one life/death) problems. I don't know, maybe my MS is all cliche.....
 

Dysnomia

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This looks like a potentially brilliant cliche-buster: The Love Interest

If I'm not wrong, that's from a fellow AWer... I remember reading his query letter in QLH some years ago. So happy to hear his book is out now! I wonder if he's still around on AW...
 

Twick

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Remember that when we rail against clichés some of them are there for a reason. Protagonists must face problems. Take away the problems, and you've got a dull story. Yes, a brilliant writer like Harper Lee can write a story essentially of a child watching her father deal with problems, but I don't think TKAM is really children's literature.

So yes, parents are often dead or useless, because if they aren't, they're not going to let their child go off to storm the castle. They're going to do it themselves. Child readers are drawn like moths to the flame by the idea "what if Mommy and Daddy weren't here, and I had to do things for myself?" They know that when a competent Mommy and Daddy are present, they don't get to play problem-solvers.

(And let's not even mention that outside the 20th century and later Western world, losing one or both parents while still a minor wasn't exactly uncommon.)