(no subject)
So, desperate for something to distract me from the misery of flying Southwest, I picked up a book in the airport bookstore the other day entitled Slightly Single. Supposedly it was one of those 'young woman faces a crossroads in her life comes to terms with her own independance and goes on to be a better person' type stories. It looked innocuous and mildly amusing and it was three hundred pages long so I thought it would last me the flight there and back.
Now I remember why I don't read modern 'women's fiction.'
Why, if we are going to write about modern up-and-coming young women do they all have to be neurotic, insecure and self-delusional? I'm not sure how it benefits modern femininity to spend 300 pages reading about a young woman whose most decisive action in that entire time is to throw her unfinished copy of Gulliver's Travels into the New York gutter. And that was after her 'voyage of self-discovery.'
Then again, I suppose sane, reasonably mature, self-possessed women make for poor plots. If your plot synopsis reads something like Jane encountered a problem, which she solved in a reasonable and efficient manner. Then another problem arose which corresponded with several personal problems, causing her to be briefly overset and solve several of the problems imperfectly. The consequences of which she dealt with to the best of her ability and went on with her life. I suspect you are unlikely to get very far with a publisher.
Still, I now remember why I focus on science fiction and social satire where the characters face either extremely bizarre problems which allow them to be self-possessed and secure and still be interesting plot devices or the inanity is calculated to ridicule and you can accept it as such.
Now I remember why I don't read modern 'women's fiction.'
Why, if we are going to write about modern up-and-coming young women do they all have to be neurotic, insecure and self-delusional? I'm not sure how it benefits modern femininity to spend 300 pages reading about a young woman whose most decisive action in that entire time is to throw her unfinished copy of Gulliver's Travels into the New York gutter. And that was after her 'voyage of self-discovery.'
Then again, I suppose sane, reasonably mature, self-possessed women make for poor plots. If your plot synopsis reads something like Jane encountered a problem, which she solved in a reasonable and efficient manner. Then another problem arose which corresponded with several personal problems, causing her to be briefly overset and solve several of the problems imperfectly. The consequences of which she dealt with to the best of her ability and went on with her life. I suspect you are unlikely to get very far with a publisher.
Still, I now remember why I focus on science fiction and social satire where the characters face either extremely bizarre problems which allow them to be self-possessed and secure and still be interesting plot devices or the inanity is calculated to ridicule and you can accept it as such.