Thursday, April 22, 2010

Give up my cookies?

So... awhile back on the kidlit site (link below) I read that when it comes to YA novels, writers should not incorporate parental point-of-views or worse yet villian point-of-views.  No parental POV because teenagers don't really want to read that. No villian POV because it's too jarring for the YA reader.
 
Oops. My work-in-progress has multiple points-of-view. Including the parental and the villian. The kidlit site also suggested that writers who include a parental POV in YA novels are trying to "teach" the teenager something.  Na-uh. (That is TOO a word! Look it up.)

Okay... well, maybe the kidlit site is right. Maybe I was trying (without realizing it at first) to teach something, and maybe the villian POV is too jarring.

However, I love a good thriller (granted usually written for the adult market) that has some chapters from the villian's POV. Is it really too jarring for the YA readers to jump into the head of the icky icky bad guy?

So, I'm reworking (from page one) my WIP. I've successfully removed the parental POV. That was actually pretty easy. But, I'm struggling with removing the villian's chapters. These chapters are really creepy and I'm concerned I'll lose too much of the story by taking them out. What to do. What to do.

I feel like the Cookie Monster. I love cookies. But someone has just told me to do without them. Oh no...

2 comments:

  1. My villians were other teenagers. Teenagers can be complete jerks, so that seemed pretty natural to me. As far as parents POV's, there are parents in the book that the kids talk to but for the most part they do their own thing.

    I looove cookies. What's your fave? I liek girl scout somoas

    ReplyDelete
  2. MMMmmm, Somoas are good. But, I'd have to say my all-time fav is the basic home-made chocolate chip cookie, but followed closely by the snickerdoodle. I could list cookies all day...

    ReplyDelete