#realisticYA

It's fun. I contributed several over the weekend.

I made up a couple as well ... might do a few more as the inspiration strikes

I like this one:

There's no #realisticYA because we read YA to escape our real lives.

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I get that it's funny to mess with tropes, but it just feels kinda... mean, tbh. Grown-up genres don't get this kind of mockery, do they?

I contributed it was a <140 character short story based on something that actually happened to me when I was 16.

"Girl ends up sitting next to cute boy in Creative Writing class. He writes her a "love" poem called "Make me a sandwich." #VeryRealisticYA"

How I wish that poem had never been written...

Um yes they do! Detective novels. Crime novels. ROMANCE novels. Women's fiction. Every type of book everywhere has had their tropes made fun of at some time or another. It's just fun. The truth is, if we wrote books about #VeryRealisticYA we would be bored to tears. That's why we write and read things that would probably never happen about characters who would probably never exist. It's just sort of writers blowing off steam and poking fun at their own business.

I contributed a few myself.

Samsonet said:

I like this one:


I get that it's funny to mess with tropes, but it just feels kinda... mean, tbh. Grown-up genres don't get this kind of mockery, do they?

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Oh yes they do. There was a recent article about 'You may be living in a fantasy book if', or something along those lines that was a fun read for fantasy fans. As long as it's in good humor, it doesn't bother me.

Thought this was fun I contributed 3 (one about a girl going to two different proms w/two different guys…neither of which are romantic interests which did happen to me! and another about how girls quote John Green and how guys quote…no one , and I forget my 3rd).

I thought it was really interesting that it was created by a 17 year old (the hashtag #veryrealisticYA) and blew up to such capacity.

I had a ball with it the other day too. My favourites from other retweets were "Boy and girl become partners in biology. He blows off project, she has to do it by herself. They get a B. No one kisses." and "Girl likes to read books. Not the classics but the ones they made into CW shows."

My contribution to the masses was "Girl meets strange paranormal creature as a human. Found again when he's transformed into beautiful wolf. Girl is eaten."

This is the one that I retweeted, "CIA program to create teen superspy is killed in budget subcommittee. Someone gets fired."

Samsonet said:

I get that it's funny to mess with tropes, but it just feels kinda... mean, tbh. Grown-up genres don't get this kind of mockery, do they?

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Looks like it's done in good fun.

And people make fun of romance novels ALL THE TIME. Both people who have no #&@$ clue about genre romance and have never read it, and people within the genre. The latter is often hilarious.Trope Heroine, for example. I wrote a romantic comedy that was supposed to be an affectionate parody of small-town romances. I dunno, I love this stuff.

There is also Brooding YA hero.

I had a lot of fun with this the other day.

My contribution.

LJD said:

There is also Brooding YA hero.

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I'm so glad I'm not the only one who enjoys Brooding YA Hero. *high five*

I put up a bunch of them. It was a ton of fun (I spent waaay too much time on Twitter yesterday. Ate into my writing time pretty hard. Oops.

I discovered Average YA Dad last night. Very funny.

Samsonet said:

I get that it's funny to mess with tropes, but it just feels kinda... mean, tbh. Grown-up genres don't get this kind of mockery, do they?

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Hm, I sort of agree about Trope Hero/Heroine/Average YA Dad/Average YA mom, which are very funny but can sort of kill my writing vibe if I binge too many back to back. But I really loved #veryrealisticYA (and saw some genius ones from AWers), because what was so funny about it was how hilariously undramatic it was. It wasn't really mocking tropes because, although we could recognise our own teen experiences, it was mostly funny because you simply couldn't write most of this stuff in a book: "Nothing happened and life goes on!" [waits for multi-million contract from the Big 5]

The_Ink_Goddess said:

It wasn't really mocking tropes because, although we could recognise our own teen experiences, it was mostly funny because you simply couldn't write most of this stuff in a book: "Nothing happened and life goes on!" [waits for multi-million contract from the Big 5]

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Bwahahhaa, yes, that's what I thought as I read (and laughed) through those Tweets.

Mine was: Girl is told she's gifted at math. Instead of becoming a superspy, she becomes an accountant. Is happy with all the money. #VeryRealisticYA

Seriously, I can't write about a girl choosing to become an accountant instead of a super spy.

...or can I?

Here were my personal favorites:

Shy, beautiful girl takes off nerdy glasses. No one notices...until she walks face-first into lockers. #VeryRealisticYA

#VeryRealisticYA Teen boy spends entire weekend playing a video game.

Teen finds out great evil threatens humanity. Tells adult about it. Competent grown ups save the day. #VeryRealisticYA

And my contributions:

No precocious, witty young siblings that verbally spar w/ teens. Arguments consist of "You're stupid!" "No, you're stupid!" #VeryRealisticYA

Boys in high school are skinny, smelly and pimply. Even the "gorgeous" ones. Not a rippling pectoral in sight! #VeryRealisticYA

Smartest kids in school still can't quote obscure literature, but they're still cool, and smart. And they don't smoke. #VeryRealisticYA

Mean Girls turn out not so mean, just can't hang out with everyone all the time. Even Prom Queens have curfews. #VeryRealisticYA

Boys and girls fall madly in love w/ one true . . . and break up in 2 months. Then do it all over again w/ someone new. #VeryRealisticYA

It was fun. And adorable that it was started by a teen (who I follow) that was just taking a break from his homework. I mean, how cool does he feel now that it went viral. Big authors contributed, though I didn't think theirs were as funny as some of the ones from everyone else.

What's interesting to me is how much my teen years resembled the "unrealistic" YA novels more so than the #realisticYA tweets...

I liked that one too, Sage!

jtrylch13 said:

Mean Girls turn out not so mean, just can't hang out with everyone all the time. Even Prom Queens have curfews. #VeryRealisticYA

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Fun fact: there's a certified Important Person I might be close with to this day if I hadn't somewhat bought into this stereotype (among other things) in high school. She wasn't a Mean Girl, and she seems to remember herself as slightly outcasty, but I still saw her circle as more cliquey that in retrospect I think it actually was.