Is it Necessary to Sexualize Characters in YA Fiction?

Update: Click Here to read a post that also does a great job discussing this issue

Over the last couple days I've seen some comments on Tumblr and elsewhere around the writing world regarding character descriptions. One comment that sticks out in my mind says something along the lines of, "Why do we have to be told if characters are hot or ugly?"

I don't remember the specific details of this person's comment (I've tried finding them again, but with no success), but they went on to say stuff like, "Authors feel the need to say nerdy girls aren't as attractive as popular girls," and "the bad boys are always hot, but the good guys are always geeky and gross." At the end of their comment, they said, "I wish we weren't told how attractive characters are, but just describe what they look like and we'll decide from there."

Let's be honest. Not all authors are guilty of this...but there's something to be said about popular books, particularly books that appeal to teen girls -- and women in general. This could also explain why there are nearly twice as many girls who read than boys.

Think about the last book you read? Chances are, if the main character was a female, there's plenty of description about how hot a guy she meets is, or how sexy Brad-the-football-captain is. You know, descriptions about his arms, chest, legs, and even face. If they hold hands or touch at any point, the FMC probably talks about how firm, yet gentle his grip is.

I'm right, aren't I?

Now let's think about male narrators. (Male narrators? That's an outrage! We need strong female main characters!) Moving on...in my experience reading books like An Abundance of Katherines, 13 Reasons Why, It's Kind of a Funny Story, and a few others, we're told how cute this one girl is, how hot this other girl is, how big this girl's breasts are, how plump this girls lips are...the list goes on and on.

Point is: both genders are guilty of sexualization.

I bet you haven't seen WordArt since the 5th grade.

Let's think about the comments I mentioned above. Why is there a tendency for describe what makes a character attractive? Simple: it should make the character appeal to readers. But think about it: unless you're writing 50 Shades of Gray, is it really necessary to know how hot or ugly a character is? Does it have to be explicitly said, "He's soooo hot, and his muscular biceps are soooo dreamy." (As you can tell, I don't write erotica). Going further, is it necessary to say, "She has the perkiest boobs I've ever seen."

You can argue that these kinds of descriptions are necessary to characterize the main character, that these kinds of thoughts go through people's heads all the time. You'd be right. These thoughts do go through people's heads.

Stay with me.

When it comes to YA fiction, there's a fine line between what's okay, and what's not okay. But in order to determine those, we have to draw a distinct line between contemporary YA fiction and genre YA fiction. I'm defining genre YA fiction as fantasy, science-fiction, paranormal, magical realism, etc etc.

Contemporary YA Fiction

Ex. The Fault in Our Stars, 13 Reasons Why, If I Stay, Fangirl, It's Kind of a Funny Story, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Looking for Alaska, Eleanor & Park

I think it's easy to say contemporary YA has the longest leash when it comes to sexually explicit material and descriptions. These are stories about realistic teenagers living teenager lives, doing teenager things and thinking teenager thoughts. Thus, we're going to see a lot of description about how hot girls are, how muscular guys are, how sensitive guys are, how soft a girl's breasts are...

You get my point.

This genre of YA...this style of writing can get away with that. It's gritty. It's realistic. The readers can immediately relate to the characters because they act like normal teenagers. Perhaps you've even been to the town the character lives in, like the same books, adore the same celebrities. That's the point of contemporary YA: to show you're not alone, and to explore issues revolving around what being a teenager is like.

In my opinion, the sexualization presented in contemporary YA books is okay and normal. Don't go overboard, but if a teenager can think it, it will show up.

Genre YA Fiction

Ex. Divergent, The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, Eragon, City of Bones, The Maze Runner, Twilight, Matched, Delirium

This is where the line gets drawn. We have to define what is and isn't appropriate for books in these genres. It's a dangerous line that authors must cross carefully.

When it comes to genre fiction, readers aren't coming into the book expecting to read a girl's love life in Small Town, USA. We want an adventure. We want action. We want run-down cities and exotic planets. We want cool guns and serums and magic and death and zombies and monsters and vampires (well, we're getting bored of that).

The point is, we want to escape into a world we can only imagine that will eventually look good on the big screen.

Inevitably, there's a romance brewing in these books. And inevitably, we get to see one character's intimate thoughts about another character. The author, however, has to be careful. Remember, most of us didn't come here for the gushy-gushy makeout session. Most of us are strictly focused on the plot, and we're analyzing how everything that affects the plot.

So when the girl meets the hot guy, we don't want to be bombarded with physical descriptions about the attractiveness of said guy -- usually. It's okay to toss them in there. But remember: in genre fiction, plot is essential.

I recently read a book where the main character -- a girl -- met a literal beast of a man, and all she talked about from there-on-out was how golden his skin was and how wavy his hair was and how warm his chest was, and how big...well...use your imagination.

Uuuuuuugggggghhhhhhh.

Now, maybe it's just because I'm a guy and I don't care about how hot that dream-guy was. But when those physical descriptions started taking over, I started losing interest. Descriptions about how hot this dude was were on every. Other. Page. It took me out of the story, and I ended up glossing through the rest.

Let's return to the original comment at the top of this post: "I wish we weren't told how attractive characters are, but just describe what they look like and we'll decide from there."

I, for one, agree with this statement -- but really only for genre fiction. Contemporary can go do whatever it wants. But whether I'm reading a dystopian novel, a paranormal novel, or a speculative fiction novel, I don't care how hot that girl is or how muscular that guy is, and I think a lot of people feel the same way.

We want to read about the world and events and figure out how the characters will overcome the problems. So create that world, ignite those problems, and develop those characters. Don't give us cardboard cut-outs. Give us human beings (or whatever species your characters are).

Here's a tip: tell us what the characters look like. Hair color, height, if they wear glasses, if they stutter. But don't go to Build-a-Hunk™ and start explaining how hot and sexual this character is. We, as readers, don't want to see your late-night bedroom fantasies.

It's creepy.

Yes, even creepier than Bronies.

So should authors keep it simple? Should genre YA fiction be limited more toward unique traits and features, rather than a fictional Hot-or-Not? Let me know what you think in the comments. Personally, it's okay to toss in a pinch of spice, but don't make it too hot.

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Enjoy this post? Check out these others:

5 Ways to Intentionally Improve Your Story's Quality

5 Creative Ways to Enhance Your Story

The Most In-Depth Query Letter Advice on the Internet

How to Create a Vile Villain

5 Query Letter Mistakes You Should Avoid

6 Tips to Hook Readers in the First Chapter

Also be sure to check out my Get it Write Tonight ebooks, Characters and Edit! That! Book!

While you're at it, check out my New Adult Science-fiction novel, Embassy.

5 Ways to Engage Readers...with Style

I recently read The Book of Jon. It's a short memoir by Eleni Sikelianos, about 100 pages long. Took me maybe....three hours to read.

No, not even that.

If you have the time, I highly suggest you give it a shot.

It's not your typical "novel." It's a memoir. But the style is still so much different from any memoir I've ever seen, and adds to the reason why it was such a quick read.

The paragraphs are broken. There are poems. Flashbacks. Listed, one-paragraph stories.

It taught me something about engaging the reader, and I went through some other books to see what sorts of styles were used. More often than not, any books told in the 3rd-person had longer formats, and books told in 1st-person had shorter formats. What's going on?

The authors (and publishers and editors and anyone else involved in the science of books) fit the paragraph sizes and formats to match the flow of the story. There is a system to this. And now I'll give tips to show you how to move your own stories along at any pace you want.

5 Ways to Engage Readers Using Style

#1. WANT TO SLOW DOWN? THROW IN A LONG PARAGRAPH OR SENTENCE

It's simple. Our eyes and brains work alternately when it comes to reading. Your eyes, believe it or not, tend to stay 3-4 words ahead of what you are reading....unless you consciously stop and force yourself to read slower. When you're immersed in a book, this has been found to be the average.

So if you want to slow people down, don't give them something that they can easily jump through. Throw in that ten-sentence paragraph. Take some time with detail. What you want to do is show observation here. Pick things apart and describe them...like the situation, or the surroundings, or a person. Something. Anything. As long as it moves the story forward, characterizes, or puts things into perspective.

#2. WANT TO SPEED UP THE READER? CHOP THINGS APART

So you've reached your action scene and you want to show the action as it happens, yet keep it exciting. (In my story, there are a few instances where I have to show my MC's thought process when he gets anxious. Same thing.) The best way to start this is to use an engaging format that is easy to follow yet details the situation...thanks to how fast the pace is.

Chop up the story. Make short sentences. Boom. Crash!

Keep paragraphs short, yet concise.

If you find you need to slow down the pace, you can throw in a long sentence. Maybe add another to give emphasis to what is going on and let the reader recuperate and organize what is going on in his head. But once you think enough is enough...

Get right back to it. Make it exciting again.

Show the action. Put them in the fray. Show the erratic thoughts.

Short.

Sweet.

Trust me, it will speed up the pace. Give it a try. You'll see just how much different styles can affect the story.

#3. SHOW THE CHARACTERS' THOUGHTS...WHEN NECESSARY

Put the reader in your characters' heads. If you're writing in 1st-person, you probably already do this. But make more of what you have. Try to show how a character feels. How they react. How nervous or excited or sad or angry they get.

Use specific thought patterns to drive the point. If they are nervous, use erratic styles (like the example above). If they are sad/mellow/sentimental, slow the pace down and stuff their thoughts into one or two big paragraphs. If they are angry, use medium length sentences in paragraphs that are 2-4 sentences long. Different styles evoke different moods, so show what you can with more than words.

#4. SHORT WORDS CAN BE MAD WORDS

If you have an angry character, yelling and screaming is an obnoxious way to show that, unless you really think they'd be yelling and screaming and there is no other option.

Try short words. One-syllable...maybe two. Words that convey tone through sound. Sound can change flow and mood.

Now go back and reread that last sentence. I bet you didn't have a happy, higher-pitched voice in your head like you might right now. You probably read it with a voice reminiscent of Professor Snape. Try reading it faster and happier. Awkward, huh? And this whole paragraph so far, you've had a loopy voice going through your head like the ever-flamboyant Gilderoy Lockhart. (If you don't get the references...that's okay....I guess.)

What I'm trying to say is I chose specific words to use in specific styles. When I wanted a monotone...tone?....I used negative sounds and shorter words as compared to when I wanted a "faster" read, even though the paragraph was longer. See? Switch things up. There are infinite possibilities.

#5. PUNCTUATION IS CRITICAL

Don't go throwing around commas and periods and semicolons and colons and ampersands and exclamation points and question marks and en-dashes and em-dashes and ellipses without a battle plan.

Throw them in strategically.

In case you're wondering, an en-dash is ONE dash (-) and denotes a break in a thought that will be continued (usually on the same line), or conjunction of words, like "light-year." Aka...an en-dash is a HYPHEN. An em-dash is TWO hyphens (--) and denotes a break in thought that will NOT be continued. (This is the basic rule to follow, especially in thought patterns.)

Use periods ( . ) and commas ( , ) and semicolons ( ; ) to slow down pace (I hate semicolons though).

Use ampersands ( & ) at your own discretion. Try to keep it in business/band/product names (Johnson & Johnson), and that's it.

Exclamation points ( ! ) should only be used when necessary, like, when your life truly depends on them. Use the correct language patterns (discussed above and in another one of my posts) and you won't need that pesky point.

Question marks ( ? ) ask questions. But try not to ask too many questions. Sometimes a period will fit, because you might actually be asking a rhetorical question. Check it again and figure it out.

Ellipses ( ... ) denote pauses in thought or speech and are a good tool when you want to drag out a point or let something sink in...especially in dialogue and thought.

That's what I've got to say on the specific use of paragraph, sentence, word, and punctuation styles. Experiment with them whenever possible. You'll find that there truly are an infinite number of ways to use them together and create the mood and pace that you want to convey, which greatly enhances the reader's experience.

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Scroll to top of page in right sidebar.

Enjoy this post? Check out these others:

5 Creative Ways to Enhance Your Story

The Most In-Depth Query Letter Advice on the Internet

How to Create a Vile Villain

5 Query Letter Mistakes You Should Avoid

6 Tips to Hook Readers in the First Chapter

10 Effective Writing Rules

Also be sure to check out my Get it Write Tonight ebooks, Characters and Edit! That! Book!

While you're at it, check out my New Adult Science-fiction novel, Embassy.

5 Query Letter Mistakes You Should Avoid

Be sure to read the follow-up post:

The Most In-Depth Query Letter Advice on the Internet

Writing your first query letter can be daunting. You have to pitch your book to an agent in 1-2 paragraphs (not including your hook line and bio) and you have to make it memorable.

In the near(ish) future, I'm going to write a post about the anatomy of a successful query letter with an in-depth analysis of my query (which has garnered a few partial and full requests, so yay!)

Without further ado...here we go.

Mistake #1: "MY BOOK IS DIFFERENT BECAUSE....!!!!!"

No, seriously. People have said that in their query letters. Not even joking. I used to fall victim to that, and now I've changed my methods because I learned that saying your book is different is you screaming I'M AN AMATEUR!!!

You need to know what your book is about. If somebody told you a chapter number, you should be able to tell them what happens in that chapter. As the author, it's your job to say, "this happened because this happened because this happened." Show that your story is connected to itself, or else it'll look like you write a bunch of events that don't seem connected.

But when it comes to the query, you have to explain one question: "What is the main character's conflict?" That's it. Nothing else. Hook the agent with the conflict.

Mistake #2: TRYING TO SQUEEZE IN EVERY OUNCE OF DETAIL THAT YOU CAN

Do yourself a favor and don't rewrite your book in the query letter. Save that for the synopsis. Leave stuff out. Lots of stuff. You have around 250-350 words to make the agent/publisher flip to the next page.

Remember, the only question you have to answer is, "What is the main character's conflict?"

In two paragraphs, introduce the character, introduce the situation, and show the agent that there will be a journey. Only include the main character and the character who has the largest influence on him/her throughout the story.

See, instead of stuffing the query full of shallow plot points, now you can expand on one or two points, giving the agent a chance to connect with the story and characters.

(Stupid) Mistake #3: "MY BOOK IS JUST LIKE THIS BEST-SELLING NOVEL OVER HERE!!!!!"

*cough* no it's not *cough*

I understand you spent the time to write a book and that's about as far as you'll get for a long time. Come on. I've been writing for 10 years and I'm not professionally published yet. You wanna know why? Because I wrote three books and, at the time, thought they were the best books in the whole wide world.

Today, I shudder at the thought of them.

When you write a book, I bet ten-to-one you think you have the next Harry Potter in your hands. You are so hopelessly in love with your book that of course everyone will love it! How couldn't they?

Basically, be humble.

Unlike this cat.

Mistake #4: "MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY ALL SAID----"

And to the trash it goes.

For some reason, I can't stop laughing at this.

Mistake #5: "MY HOBBIES INCLUDE WRITING AND READING."

Really? I wouldn't have guessed!

Yes, I have seen this in query letters....and....sadly I included these in the first query letter I ever wrote. But that was 7 years ago.

Personalize your hobbies and pastimes. Be specific. Make yourself look interesting. What do you do that nobody else does? Heck, what's a quirky thing you do?

As Haymitch Abernathy would say, "Give them something to root for." Show why you are unique. What makes you qualified to write this book? Why should they want you as a client?

As I mentioned above, I'll have a post analyzing my own query letter sometime in the near future. Subscribe and share to keep updated with my posts!

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Enjoy this post? Check out these others:

5 Creative Ways to Enhance Your Story

5 Ways to Engage Readers...with Style

10 Effective Writing Rules

How to Create a Vile Villain

(Most) Self-Published Authors are a Bunch of Whiners

6 Tips to Hook Readers in the First Chapter

How Self-Publishing Can Prepare Your Book for Traditional Publishing

CLICK HERE TO READ PART 1

This is the follow-up post to (Most) Self-Published Authors are a Bunch of Whiners. If you haven't read that, you should, especially if you're a self-published author who opposes traditional publishing.

Let me make one thing clear: I hope self-publishing isn't the future of the literary world.

Let me amend that: I hope people who self-publish UTTER CRAP, yet are convinced it's the best book ever, are not the future of the literary world.*

*I do not have high hopes for this.

Congress needs to declare a war, because these days, there's a big one happening in every book store and online retailer (I'm looking at you, Amazon). It's the traditional vs. self-publishing war, and it's getting out of hand.

If you read (Most) Self-Published Authors are a Bunch of Whiners (which you need to if you haven't yet, cheater), then you'll understand why I have a bone to pick with a majority of self-published authors. Ironic, isn't it? I myself am a self-published author (case in point, Embassy, my New Adult Science-fiction novel).

The thing is, I might pull Embassy off Amazon any day, at a moment's notice. Why? Because there are professional agents reading the full manuscript as we speak. I didn't self-publish that book "just to get my name out there." Not entirely, that is. I did it to judge the market and acquire reviews, suggestions, and emails from fans -- which has happened spectacularly (Embassy is required reading in a Kansas high school).

You see, I put my beta readers through a lot. They did their jobs above and beyond my expectations. When I finished the eighth draft, I sent Embassy into the real world. This was my trial run: get it in front of people and accumulate feedback to keep improving the book until it started to grab the attention of agents.

From the time I hit "Publish" on Createspace, I gathered FOUR MONTHS of feedback and suggestions. Many reviews praised Embassy, while some went more in-depth and teetered on average ratings. Other people contacted me and gave personal feedback.

The point is: involve yourself with your readers. Be active somewhere and let people know you want reviews, suggestions for improvement, and critical feedback. DO NOT ATTACK ANYBODY WHO GIVES YOU A BAD REVIEW. Learn from them. Establish a professional relationship and listen to what they have to say.

For instance, one lady I spoke with, a complete stranger, told me she thought some of the characters felt superficial, and some of the relationships between characters didn't feel...realistic. (You can read her Amazon review HERE). She said she loved the world, loved the concept, but sometimes the characters just pushed her out of the story. We had a nice discussion, and she even pointed out she was surprised I didn't get angry with her critique, as some other authors had in the past.

I took her suggestions and began to apply them to the newest edition of Embassy. Around the same time, an agent expressed interest and requested the first 50 pages of the book. A month later, he came back and told me he loved the world, he loved the premise, but -- you guessed it -- he felt more detached from the main character than he wanted to be.

So in the span of a few weeks, I had multiple knowledgeable people tell me something was off with the characters. What did I do? I dove into revisions and focused on the characters, tweaking dialogue to make it more unique, adding some quirks, and reforming the relationships between some characters to make them more believable.

It took three months, but I cranked out the current draft, and Embassy is the best it's ever been. I gave free updated files to anyone who purchased the book on Kindle. A few of them reread it and told me they could literally feel the difference as they were reading.

Then I hit a new milestone -- an agent requested a partial manuscript (50 pages), and a few days later, requested the full manuscript. I'm still waiting to hear back, but without the feedback I've received from the general public, revising Embassy to the quality it is now would have been nearly impossible (I can't afford a professional editor).

If you read (Most) Self-Published Authors are a Bunch of Whiners, (you have read it by now, right?), then you'll know that that post is one huge rant about the crappy quality of today's self-published books. I swear, 99% of self-published books are GARBAGE because the author just wanted to put "Published Author" on their resume, or got angry with the same five agents for rejecting them over and over.

The key is how much time you're willing to spend editing. Edit, edit, edit. Get feedback. DON'T get angry with bad reviews (no one is immune to the pain of seeing a bad review, trust me, and a majority will just argue with the reviewer, as I mentioned in (Most) Self-Published Authors are a Bunch of Whiners).

The only way the quality of the self-publishing industry will improve is if the authors start treating it like the traditional industry. Selling books is a business, not a get-rick-quick gimmick. Don't believe those "success story webinars" you get in your email or find on the fifth page of Google.

To be successful, you need to write a quality book, free of errors and awkward formatting. That's 90% of the battle. The other 10% is marketing. If you give readers a crappy book with lots of errors, they'll give you crappy reviews pointing out all those errors. But if you give readers a book that stylistically looks good, readers are more likely to give genuine 4-and 5-star reviews.

So do the literary world a favor and CARE about the book you wrote. If you don't care, GET OUT. These days, we need quality writing, and if you respect the system, you might break out of self-publishing and land a contract with an agent.**

**That is, of course, if you want an agent.

Just don't forget to remove your book from Amazon when you do. There's something called "legal issues."

Enjoy this post? Check out these others:

5 Query Letter Mistakes You Should Avoid

Why I Don't Plot My Novels

5 Awkward Things Writers Do (That We Can't Help)

6 Tips to Hook Readers in the First Chapter

10 Creative Writing Tips

Thursday Morning Thoughts: the Life of an Author's Dog

I own German Shepherds. I have my entire life. Each of them is unique in their own way, and Leida (the younger of the two I currently own) has this rambunctious personality. I call her "Puppydog" for a reason.

You know what I love most about her? Waking up to this:

Sometimes she jumps into bed, sometimes she props her chin over the edge and starts whining. Whatever the case, it's my second-favorite way to wake up (the first being in a tent on a mountain).

Puppydog also has a knack for being photogenic. She takes up a variety of poses to look cute. There's her lazy pose:

And her upside-down, I'm a total nutcase pose:

And sometimes, if I'm not waking up (or pretending to be asleep), she'll sit by my window and patiently wait. When I took this particular picture, she was staring outside for 20 minutes:

But best of all, she likes to be my editor. When I was revising the fourth draft of Embassy, I went downstairs for a moment -- then came back and found her diligently working on my book for me:

As you can see, Puppydog and I are pals. We have a nice round of tug-o-war every day and play hide-and-seek (THAT gets intense). But what's her favorite thing to do?

Lay by the fire and sleep.

Do you have pets? What sorts of quirky things do they do?

Post it in the comments!