Building a Safe (Fantastical) Place
It's really amazing what you find out about yourself when you write. At least it has been for me. I knew I loved young adult fiction and I have always known that a good fantasy book will draw me in every single time. What I didn't know is that I view those worlds as a safe escape from the harsh reality of the world we live in.
My mom has been reading my manuscript along the way - which is amazing in itself that my 70-year-old mother would read a Fantasy Young Adult book, but I digress - and at one point I had added a superfluous word. It wasn't a bad curse word, but it served only the purpose of coloring the language. When I typed it, it felt wrong. But I left it because I thought I was being authentic to the way teens are today. When she read it, she was shocked that I had added it and questioned me about it. Props to her for not pushing me to remove it, but she did make her point that it isn't necessary and really didn't seem to mesh with the feel of the rest of the book.
I thought about this word for a long time, trying to decide if it was needed. Ultimately, I realized it actually detracted from my book. You know why? Because my book is a safe place for middle grade and young adult readers to escape from the harsh reality of the world we live in. It's not all sunshine and rainbows and it addresses some very real themes, but it does that without adding cursing, or sex, or gory violence. And I want it that way. I want my daughters to be able to escape from all the negativity and not be exposed (or assaulted) by those elements. I want all my readers to have that experience and I want them to know that it's okay to not follow the crowd and do things just because everyone else is doing them. The best way I know to get that message across is to set an example by doing it myself.
