So I’m reading a book That Shall Not Be Named, and I am really not enjoying myself, and am instantly intrigued. When I am not enjoying a book, I immediately see it as a learning experience as to What Not To Do in my own writing. It didn’t take me long to figure out what was irking me so.
The author thought I was a total idiot.
He spelled everything out, used extensive adverbs to let me know exactly how somebody said or did something, belaboring what I already knew. I mean, if somebody is calling somebody else a huge jerk, I can figure out that they’re angry with out the author adding “He said angrily.”
This was in a YA book, and reading the condescending, overbearing tone of the author was really pissing me off. So let’s get something straight about YA fiction and the YA audience in general, just so we’re all on the same page.
Kids are NOT dumb.
I can just hear all the bitter school teachers spitting in volatile rebellion at this notion.
Seriously though, kids are smart. Not ALL the time, but they’re smart enough to read a book and understand it without Joe McObvious Author beating them over the head with his prose. It is possible to make deep, meaningful novels for a young audience and people have done it and continue to do it. They are the good authors that understand and respect their audience. The bad authors think their audience is totally moronic and will be satisfied with an abundance of dick and fart jokes are laughably obnoxious prose (Hey look! It’s James Patterson and Maximum Ride!).
Making sharp, intelligent, engaging books for teens will help ensure that they go on to read sharp, intelligent, engaging books as adults instead of getting some pile of shit cleverly disguised as literature and developing an innate hatred for all books. That’s an exaggeration but not by much. As one who works in the field of education, I’ve encountered too many kids who have run afoul of books with the attitude that the reader is an inept pillock. They were young and impressionable enough for that feeling to persist and extend to books at large. And even if the reaction some readers have is never that strong, I’d still like to avoid treating my audience like a crowd of buffoons.
Of course, it’s just as bad to assume your readers are all in possession of multiple Ph.D.s, as you risk alienating them just as much, and coming off as a snotty, elitist prick as well. Still, I’d rather err on the side of my readers being too smart than too stupid.
In the end, if you treat the audience like it’s stupid, you’re the one who comes off looking dumb.
2 comments:
"Making sharp, intelligent, engaging books for teens will help ensure that they go on to read sharp, intelligent, engaging books as adults instead of getting some pile of shit cleverly disguised as literature and developing an innate hatred for all books."
Well said. The only thing I'd add is that adults are not going on to read "pile(s) of shit cleverly disguised as literature." In fact, they're not reading anything at all. So that's the problem. We need them to want to read as adults. From there, the best we can do is hope they choose well enough to stay engaged and want to keep reading.
The worst part is that if that's all they read, then it's likely to be what they write as well.
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