Teens Writing for Teens, issue 6

I despise the Hunger Games series and have funneled my anger into writing my books!

HG has lots of female characters who are shown in a negative light. Mine has many, but I aim for positiveness!

HG has TERRIBLE science. I calculate the joule count on my laser rifles.

HG has an unrealistic society that completely ignores everything that isn't Continental USA. I try and extrapolate based off my studies of history and cultures around the world.

HG sets up a war that is fought in the dumbest way possible! I try and create a war that makes sense, where mistakes are realistic when they occur.

HG has an absurd number of redheads when, in real life, redheads are on the way out. I think I have zero redheads.

And so on.

I believe sexism exists in much higher numbers than it should. I also believe that if you're looking for sexism, you're going to find it whether it's there or not.

I'm going to use my roommate as an example. She's the kind of girl that can't wait to cook for her husband. She wants him to invite his friends over so that she can serve them. If I wrote a book featuring a character who did that, would you call it sexist? But is it really? She wants to do that.

Some women want to stay in the home and take care of the children and cook all the meals and occupy the domestic role. Some women would prefer to do that while their husbands are out working and providing for their family. If that's what they want, is that sexist?

It's been awhile since I've read the entire trilogy, and I see where you're coming from, but I don't think HG is quite that sexist. I think there are some sexist elements, especially with Katniss later in the trilogy, but other than that... I think it shows more of a range of people. Some women do fall into a depression when they lose their husbands. Some men do the same thing when they lose their wives. It's one way of reacting to grief like that.

I'm going to agree with Ely, in the middle paragraph there even though i havent reached that part yet, that makes more sense. And honestly I picked up on none of that sexism. I feel that is like looking way way to closely into things and meaning. I'm sure there was no author intent to demonstrate or be sexist.

I take books at surface value. I find looking too deeply into meanings can lead to problems in your reading experience. I found this happening in my writing class alot and it made me laugh my ass off actually. When we got to the first three chapters of my first book I found it hysterical at all the "subtle things i was indicating" that my classmates "picked up on". Like dependency on authority, and parental rule on the world, and (the strangest) the busyness of the city. Yeah there was no intent on my part to add in bullshit "meanings" in between my lines. The stuff that my classmates imagined i made to represent and express things were exactly that imagined. By the reader. So that's why i stopped looking too deeply into books.

Feminism is about choice. If a woman wants to become a home-maker, that's a-okay. Hell, that's better than a-okay...home-making is a HARD JOB.

But that should neither be the end nor the all of the female condition.

That's why I try and have my girls range a wide array of character. Jillian is tough as nails, Dru tries to be tough and has lots of introspection and sarcasm, Sarah is a cuddlebug with an iron spine, Yolanda is a bit of a clutz but a whiz with mathematics...

And I try and give my boys a wide range too! Quiet boys, expressive boys, gay boys, slutty boys, straight boys, bi boys...lots of kinds of people.

Oh, no, HR, women who are strong and feminine are my FAVORITES. Hello, Sansa Stark!

And yes, women fall into depression, and such. It's the fact that it's always the women and never the men in that series, that Katniss is put in the role of healer not because she likes it or wants it but because it's her nature, that the accomplishments of female characters are dismissed while the men are excused constantly for their asshole moves.

ETA: What Zoom said. I have class.

I can't wait till I get to the Orion Trilogy: Orion's Gambit, Orion's Shield and Orion's Fall.

The three mains are Dru and Sarah's son, a Loonie transgirl (born a boy, became a girl) named Jessie and an asexual androgye whose name I haven't picked yet.

They're in a three way love affair and also have to fight alien crabs from beyond the stars!

Hi, guys.

Hey lisa!

How's it going?

Okay, I guess. How are you?

Still a bit ill, so I think I'm going to focus on novel playlists and fanmixes until I get better.

Love it, Zoom.

Hey, Lisa. I'm sick too.

And when I'm sick, I can't write. I just can't.

Lisa & Tally - Aw. I hope you two feel better soon.

Thanks.

I ironically just came back from the dr.s

My brain is melting. I can feel it...

I write best when I'm sick. I wrote 40,000 words in 4 days when I wasn't able to talk. The more pain I feel, the better I am at writing pain.

... that sounds rather masochistic...

I just can't focus...

I'm starting to feel like this book is going to have a really really complicated plot... which i didnt even fully come up with until now. hahaha this is only my ROUGH plot.

I think i'm giving myself a headache...

Hey guys! It's been forever since I was on, but I've been stalking the thread

Hey, what's up?

Nothing much, still working on my WIP...but my first novel came out and I have The Call tomorrow morning. I'm more of a nervous wreck than excited.

^Nice.

Hi, I'm comped/Matt. I write plays. Which are aparently edgy. 'Tis because, I think, my first play revolves aroung teen pregnancy, another is about teens dying from drinking an drugs and car accidents, another is about a school shooting, and one's about a crooked school election.

Yes, I'm strange!

comped

Hi Matt! That's so cool that you write plays. I would never be able to pull that off.