reading...
I have noticed a trend recently in the books I have been reading. Not all of them of course, but in one specific genre. And I don't know what to call the genre, because everybody seems to call it a different thing. Some call it urban fantasy, some call it paranormal romance, some even call it trash, lol. I think it is probably somewhere between paranormal romance and urban fantasy but a little bit closer to the romance side. But anyway, think Laurell K. Hamilton and Charlaine Harris, as those are the authors that I am primarily thinking of, though Stephanie Meyer probably fits as well.
The trend I am noticing is that there are quite a few cool characters, most of them with supernatural attributes of some sort or another, and many of them are quite powerful (sometimes too powerful, but I don't feel like discussing that right now). And there is conflict, yes, there is much conflict, even if most of it is more angsty and drama-ful than the fuckin' emo-kid. But when it comes to resolving that conflict, the major climax of the story, it always seems to...not fizzle exactly, but be very...disappointing. I mean, these characters have struggled with something for at least a couple hundred pages, and then everything is finished in a couple pages (if that) and often there isn't even some sort of boom event, it is just over. And sometimes that's okay, there doesn't have to be a clash of the titans for everything, but it would be nice to have a few more pages of fighting, or struggling in that final...ness. It is like the authors think their readers aren't going to want to read about their protagonists (who in this genre are usually female) getting into the thick of it, getting hurt, bashing other people, so they kinda just skim over it. I mean in one of the ones that I read just recently the main character was kidknapped and tortured and rescued in like...five pages. And after it was over she didn't seem to even care. Of course she had some magical healing, but magical healing does not fix the mental stress unless it makes you forget...which come to think of it has happened a couple times in these stories...the main character goes through something awful and then someone uses magic to not necessarily make her forget, but to make it not real in her memories somehow, which is totally not the point of surviving the experiences that life gives us, good or bad (unless of course, there is a deeper something behind the decision to forget...sometimes forgetting/remember is a conflict all on its own).
Anyway, what I am trying to get at is that these authors need to realize that the climax is important. Arguably the most important part of the novel. So you can't skimp on it. You have to make it satisfying. You can't rely on the attractiveness of the characters or the hotness of the sex forever...eventually your readers are going to be so unsatisfied with the characters growth that they give up...
(or maybe I'm just giving their audience too much credit?)
The trend I am noticing is that there are quite a few cool characters, most of them with supernatural attributes of some sort or another, and many of them are quite powerful (sometimes too powerful, but I don't feel like discussing that right now). And there is conflict, yes, there is much conflict, even if most of it is more angsty and drama-ful than the fuckin' emo-kid. But when it comes to resolving that conflict, the major climax of the story, it always seems to...not fizzle exactly, but be very...disappointing. I mean, these characters have struggled with something for at least a couple hundred pages, and then everything is finished in a couple pages (if that) and often there isn't even some sort of boom event, it is just over. And sometimes that's okay, there doesn't have to be a clash of the titans for everything, but it would be nice to have a few more pages of fighting, or struggling in that final...ness. It is like the authors think their readers aren't going to want to read about their protagonists (who in this genre are usually female) getting into the thick of it, getting hurt, bashing other people, so they kinda just skim over it. I mean in one of the ones that I read just recently the main character was kidknapped and tortured and rescued in like...five pages. And after it was over she didn't seem to even care. Of course she had some magical healing, but magical healing does not fix the mental stress unless it makes you forget...which come to think of it has happened a couple times in these stories...the main character goes through something awful and then someone uses magic to not necessarily make her forget, but to make it not real in her memories somehow, which is totally not the point of surviving the experiences that life gives us, good or bad (unless of course, there is a deeper something behind the decision to forget...sometimes forgetting/remember is a conflict all on its own).
Anyway, what I am trying to get at is that these authors need to realize that the climax is important. Arguably the most important part of the novel. So you can't skimp on it. You have to make it satisfying. You can't rely on the attractiveness of the characters or the hotness of the sex forever...eventually your readers are going to be so unsatisfied with the characters growth that they give up...
(or maybe I'm just giving their audience too much credit?)