I Don't THINK I'm Doing Anything Wrong (right?)

rendezvous_with_leon · Dec 19, 2010

Okay. I'm pretty young and I'm writing this thing. . .I call it "My Future" (that's not the title. It's just that it's my future

) and it's a chapter book that hasn't yet been separated into chapters.
Well, I just want to know if this is too much, or too little, or if I'm just not cut out for this.
I write YA realistic fiction with LOTS of drama. There are no parents, but a father figure who is the MC's oldest brother (granted he's only 22) and the MC's older brothers (ages 15, 16, 17, 18, and 22) take care of her as if she was their child. In this book there is quite a lot of profanity (swearing, sex jokes, stuff like that) and things like fist fighting, vandalism, rape, drugs, all that stuff, down to smoking and Playboy magazines. I just want to know if this stuff is okay, and if I'm not totally overdoing myself.
Also, as a teenager myself, at school and with my brothers, all this stuff is present, so (just to make the book realistic) it shouldn't be a problem, should it?

lm728 · Dec 19, 2010

Nope. The only thing you should worry about is if it's engaging.

Shady Lane · Dec 19, 2010

It does sound like you're playing with a lot of cliches, there--or, tropes, it's probably safer to call them--but there's nothing inherently wrong with what you're doing.

read Center Line by Joyce Sweeney.

Three Fish · Dec 19, 2010

There's nothing wrong with all of that, but you need to have a story. Sometimes shock for the sake of shock (like if you include drugs, rape, sex, swearing, pregnancy, vandalism, abuse, etc. all in one book) just comes across as over the top.

CheG · Dec 19, 2010

Good gawd that's a lot going. I hope all that doesn't happen to one character!

But no, some lives are just miserable so if that's what you're going for go for it. Nothing wrong with anything. Lot's of people read Playboy. I hear the articles are very good.

Shady Lane · Dec 19, 2010

I hear the pictures are really good.

^oh yeah she did

oobzie · Dec 25, 2010

There are pictures in playboy? :2angel:

But I think what everyone else has said is fairly accurate. So long as your story is cohesive and everything that happens happens for a reason and pushes the plot forward, and everything makes sense within the story, go for it. Don't worry about the actual things seeming, you know, unrealistic. You make them believable by putting them in a believable story. If that makes any sense.

KimJo · Dec 25, 2010

Shady Lane said:
It does sound like you're playing with a lot of cliches, there--or, tropes, it's probably safer to call them--but there's nothing inherently wrong with what you're doing.

read Center Line by Joyce Sweeney.

I loved Center Line when I was a teenager. I took it out of the library so often they finally asked me to leave it alone so other kids could read it. (Side note: That novel was the first Delacorte Press Prize winner.)

To answer the OP's question, I shall quote advice that is often given around here:
Write your story. Write it the way you want to write it. Write the best story you possibly can.
THEN worry about whether it's too much, too little, or just right.

Droemar · Dec 25, 2010

Sounds like the kind of stuff Ellen Hopkins writes.
You've got plenty of time to develop your writing aesthetics; don't worry so much about what people will think of your writing. Someone is always "writing filth" or "writing crap", even Stephen King and J. K. Rowling have had this criticism leveled at them. If you're already worrying what the Snooty Ladies's Book Club is going to think is acceptable content in your writing, you're carting before the horse is even present.
Just write.

I Don't THINK I'm Doing Anything Wrong (right?)

rendezvous_with_leon

lm728

i'm baaaacccckkkkkk

Shady Lane

my name is hannah

Three Fish

practical experience, FTW

CheG

Shady Lane

my name is hannah

oobzie

New kid, likes it rough.

KimJo

Outside the box, with the werewolves

Droemar

Writer's Heart, Editor's Mouth