Is it wrong for writers to "profit" from writing about emotionally distressing subjects?

I finished the Fault in Our Stars yesterday and went on Amazon to read some of the 1 star reviews out of curiosity. One comment stood out as interesting to me: an actual stage 4 cancer patient complained about John Green using cancer kids to "make a quick buck" and wondered how much of the profits he was going to use off his book and movie deal to give back to cancer patients. While I do have sympathy with the poster for their situation, I felt like their comment was a bit harsh. Other posters said similar things. One person asked who would be sick enough to write about terminally ill kids falling in love? Again I ask the question...what is wrong with that?

A lot of the people on Amazon complained that reading should be an escape from reality and that writing about topics like cancer and death was "wrong" because it made people feel sad. They felt that stories should not depress the reader with showing them how raw and naked and harsh reality can be. I have a lot of respect for writers who are unafraid to write about sensitive topics. Cancer patients, in particular kids, are still people with thoughts and dreams and desires. They are not just a disease. I thought John Green's book was a fascinating insight into the mind of a person with a terminal illness: How would you cope if you had to breathe with the aide of an oxygen tank day after day? How would you feel about not reaching your 20th birthday? What you want to do with your final days? Would you want to kiss a boy or travel or do something silly and stupid like watch some bad TV? What makes life worth living? How would you accept your fate? Your stars?

John Green's book asks all of these questions and more and would be a great tool to get discussions started in the classroom. Is he "profiting" off cancer patients? Is that wrong? Are there some subjects writers should avoid? No, to all of these questions. He is not profiting off cancer patients, that makes it sounds like he stole something from them, he made this story up from scratch, it is fiction, thus he owns no one any profits. Saying that he should be ashamed for writing about terminally ill kids and that he should give them some money is like saying that every crime writer should give money to a victims of crime organisation. He has done nothing wrong. He used his imagination to write a sad romance story. That's not a crime. Life is full of sad stories. Life is unfair. Not all of us will be blessed to live to a ripe old age. Some of us will die young. And that's okay. That's a good message to give across to readers. Enjoy life. Every moment of it. Do not question the fates. Just accept things. And find love if you can. These are all good things to tell kids.

Is "Sick-Lit" bad for teenagers?

I'm reading a book at the moment called "The Fault in our stars" by John Green. It's about two teenagers with terminal cancer who fall in love and find joy in their final days together. I'm pregnant at the moment and last night I read a particularly sad bit and I started bawling, tears streaming down my face, big loud sad sobs that had my husband rushing up to me all concerned.

"What's wrong?" He gasped.

"This-book-is-really-sad!" I said between sobs.

He rolled his eyes, smiled, and said "Aww, Jeez..." and walked off shaking his head at his crazy, adorable pregnant wife.

"The Fault in our stars" has been labeled "Sick Lit" by some people in the media and publishing. "Sick Lit" is a genre of fiction that deals with teenagers combating real life issues like death, illness, self-harm, drugs, bullying and drinking. Another famous book in this genre is "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold. The Lovely Bones is about a girl who is raped and murdered and spends the book looking down on her family and friends from haven and watching them as they move on with their life.

I've read the book twice and it's a sad, wonderful story. I loved the film version too but not a lot of others did. It wasn't that it was a bad film, it was just depressing, and I think the reason it failed was because not a lot of people want to go and see a film about a little girl who is raped and murdered and goes to heaven. We don't want to think about such terrible things happening.

I told my Mum she should read "The fault in our stars" because I think it's written really well. Her response was "I don't like sad books" The problem a lot of people have with "sick lit" is they think that these books are too emotionally intense and that readers in particular young adults should not have to "deal" with the real life issues featured in them.

I actually read one article about sick lit that said Twilight was a better book for young adults to read because it was a harmless fantasy. There is something a little hilarious about people wanting young adults to read books about vampires rather than a book about real life issues like death, illness, and depression because god forbid they even think about such things.

Death, illness, depression and sadness are a part of life. Vampires, while fun to read about, are not. Why should we hide these books from young teens? Some people think that if kids read about sick kids dying from cancer it somehow "glorifies" being sick or if they read about kids who self-harm that they might run out and try it themselves.

There's also been a lot of criticism about kids in sick lit books having bucket lists that include having sex. That's encouragin pre-martial sex!!! Um, so? If a kid is 16 and dying of cancer, let them have sex, let them live the rest of their short life out how they choose. After all it's THEIR bucket list.

And how, exactly, can you glorify having cancer? I'm about half way through the fault in our stars and there is nothing about the kids in that book that makes me go "Wow, these kids are so inspiring!" It just makes me sad. Imagine being 16 and knowing you will not live more than a couple of years. Imagine having to go to bed at night hooked up to an oxygen tank. It does not sound like fun. This book makes me grateful to be healthy, alive, happy and about to have my first child. It does not make me want to develop cancer to get attention and special gifts from people.

Why do we treat teenagers like idiot children? And why do some people want to shield them from everything in life? It's just stupid. You can plug your child's ears with cotton wool, you can wrap them in bubble wrap, and you can put them up on a shelf but eventually they'll wiggle free, pull the wool out of their ears and unwrap themselves and will go out into the big world on their own. A good parent raises a child to become an adult. They do not hide a child in a cupboard so it will remain young and innocent and shielded forever. You cannot hide things like cancer and death. They exist in this world. Let you child read these books. It will not harm them. It will make them appreciate life more and the feel of sunshine on their face.

I need a new direction

I haven't written that much this year and I think the reason is I am bored of what I've been writing and I have run out of ideas for stories. I am tired of writing about gods and goddesses and soul mates and I think the topic has become a bit stale. Lots of other books and films have come out in the same area and I think the market has become a bit flooded with stories of demi-gods.

I am toying around with an idea for a science fiction story. I don't know if it will become anything or not. I need to find some inspiration. I need to get an idea that makes me want to write again. It'd come to me eventually.

My top ten favorite moments from Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Buffy the Vampire Slayer was full of wonderful, unforgettable characters and stellar writing. I'm still a huge fan and have moved on to the world of Buffy comics. Buffy inspired me a lot when I was younger. I was constantly in awe of its writing. Yeah, it didn't always have the best effects, but I didn't watch it for that. I watched it for the snappy dialogue, the humor, and Spike. Angel can go to hell!

My top ten moments...

10. Evil Angel in season two...

Evil Angel was a great big bad. I loved the radical change in his character: how he went from quiet and brooding to violet, manic stalker with a crazy cackling laugh. Highlights include: sneaking into Buffy's room and watching her sleep, harassing Buffy's mother on the front steps of her house, the death of Jenny, and of course: his death. Who can watch that scene and not tear up? That music! Dear god...it was perfect...

9. Buffy reveals she is a slayer to her mother

The argument Buffy has with her mother at the end of season two is one of the most well written and well acted scenes in television history. The frustration in Buffy and the confusion and panic in her mother is just so well played. Also, side note, the scene that came before it between Joyce and Spike was pure gold:

Joyce: Have we met?

Spike: You hit me with an axe one time and told me to stay the hell away from your daughter.

Joyce: Oh.

8. "I may be dead. But I'm still pretty. Which is more than I can say for you." Buffy to the Master after her return from the dead. I love how the camera panned up to her as she said that. And the bit before that when they played the theme song and she was kicking butt was cool too.

7. Spike is a fool for love...

The episode in season five that shows us Spike's origins is a great episode. It does a good job of fleshing out his character. The best part is the bit at the end when Buffy throws his cash in his face and tells him "You're beneath me" and then walks off. Spike collects his money and starts to get teary, which is a big deal for a vampire, but being him he quickly launches into a murderous rage. He goes to Buffy's house to kill her but when he finds her crying alone on the back door step he puts his gun aside and asks her "What's wrong?" and then slowly, awkwardly, puts his arm around her.

6. Buffy quits in season one...

When Buffy hears a prophecy that she is doomed to die if she fights the Master in season one she tearfully quits and tries to get her mother to agree for them to both flee town. After her mother refuses, Buffy eventually finds the courage to face the Master, which goes terribly and ends with her breathing down her neck "You're the one who sets me free..." before he sinks his teeth into her neck. I love the close up of Buffy's face moments before he bites her and the tears in her eyes.

5. Conversations with dead people...

This episode in season seven is one of the most terrifying episodes out of all seven seasons. In the episode Dawn, Willow and Buffy are each tormented by their past: Buffy deals with a vampire who was a school mate, Willow talks to the First, and Dawn is trapped in a house with an angry ghost. To be honest I'm still not 100% sure what Dawn speaks with: it's either her mother's ghost or the First fucking with her.

4. Spike tells Buffy he has a soul

At the end of season six Spike almost rapes Buffy so he goes off in search for his soul. When he comes back at the start of season seven he is ranting and raving and talking to himself. He eventually reveals to Buffy what he did and hugs a stone cross and as he starts to smoke asks Buffy: "Can we rest now? Can we rest?"

3. Glory thinks Spike is the Key

In season 5 Dawn is created and the big baddies are after her because she is a key that can unlock the doors between worlds. Glory's minions think that Spike is the key and kidnap him. Glory holds him captive and brutally beats him up but he never reveals that the key is Dawn. Instead he makes fun of Glory's ass and then somehow manages to break free, despite being half beaten to death, and stumble his way out the door.

2. The beginning of Dark Willow...

Another highlight of season five is when Tara, Willow's girlfriend, is brain raped by Glory and left child-like and rambling. Willow goes dark and packs a bag full of knives and goes to Glory to get revenge. Glory asks "What's this? bag of tricks?" and Willow's bag opens and knives rise out of it and she smirks and says "Bag of knives"

1. Chosen

There are so many awesome moments in this episode. Willow uses her powers to active all of the other slayers in the world. I like how she flops over on her side afterwards and goes "That was nifty..." There's Anya's shocking death, Buffy's speech as all of the slayers are activated, and best of all Spike's sacrifice: the holding of the hands, the flames licking their fingers, and the final touching moment between Spike and Buffy. Some people think that Buffy didn't love him. But I think she did.

New Harry Potter film franchise announced

Lately, I've had the urge to re-read Harry Potter. My copies of the books have been read so much, loved so much, that the pages are brittle and thin and stained with age. When I heard on the news that they are going to be doing a new series of films set in the Harry Potter universe but based around a different character I screamed in shock and delight and happiness for about five seconds.

Most of the internet and the people I've spoken with about it think it's a grab for cash on JK Rowling's part and they're pretty unimpressed about it. Yes, the film company does have dollar signs in their eyes. The Harry Potter generation has grown up and their kids are into the Hunger Games and Twilight. They want to re-capture their glory years. But I don't think JK Rowling is being involved in this to make more money for herself. She is richer than the Queen and the first author to become a billionare. She does not need anymore money. She has so much money she doesn't know what to do with it. She's donated a lot of it.

I think the reason JK Rowling is returning to her wizard world is because of her failed attempts to dip her toe into the world of adult fiction. Her first try, the Causal Vacancy, got terrible reviews because everyone thought it was going to be as fun and gripping as Harry Potter with lovable characters and a wonderful, rich world. It was the total opposite and people were disappointed. So JK tried again but under a pen name to get less judgement. Her book was a modest success...and then she was ratted out to the media and her book soared up the charts and she was swimming in cash that she did not want or even hoped would not get.

JK Rowling doesn't have to and doesn't want to write for money anymore. She writes for the enjoyment of it. She will never be able to escape the shadow of Harry Potter and I think she has come to peace with that. It makes sense then for her to go back to that world and flesh it out a bit more...I mean, why not? I think her decision to set the films 70 years before Harry was born is a great idea because it introduces us to a new time in the wizard world to explore. And having it in New York is going to be interesting too (I am curious if that part was her idea though and not pushed on her to capture the American market)

One of the things that made Harry Potter so delightful for me was its setting in England. I am interested in seeing American wizards and maybe even an American wizard school!

The disturbing hate for Breaking Bad's Skyler White

"I used Grammarly to grammar check this post, because I'm dyslexic and grammar is an alien language to me!"

I’m a big fan of Breaking Bad. It has excellent writing that keeps you gripped and anxious and entertained and the characters go through fascinating growth. Breaking Bad hooked me from the moment I first saw it advertised on iTunes as: “A high school chemistry teacher turns to making meth to make money to support himself and his family after he discovers that he has cancer” I thought “Wow! This show sounds fascinating!” I knew right then that the show was probably going to be very good. In writing you only have a very short period of time to catch the interest of your audience.

That is why the first opening paragraph is so important. Another skill that is important is the “tag line” which is a one line summary of the book/show/film. A tag line is a hook. It’s what you read on movie posters or on the back of a book that gets you curious just enough to want to know more. Breaking Bad had an excellent hook that summed it up perfectly. I watched all five seasons in about a month. Walter White is one of the best characters in the history of film and books and television. His downward spiral is epic. It was fascinating to watch him slowly change from a weary, depressed High School teacher into a man who felt empowered and dangerous and proud of himself.

What’s scary about Walt is how he justifies all of his actions. Walt could have had a much more successful life but due to his own bad decisions ended up lower middle class and working two jobs he hated. Walt is a greedy, power hungry man. The moment he dips his toe into the world of Meth cooking all he wants is money, money, money and he isn’t afraid to kill to get it. He wants to build the Empire that he felt he should have had years ago. He goes from being a High School teacher to Lex Luther. And the public love him. He’s an anti-hero. Other anti-heroes include Dexter and Batman. There is a difference between them and Walt though. Dexter and Batman are crime fighters who go out each night to try and rid the street of scum. Walt is a greedy, son of a bitch who feeds off the misery of others and is unafraid to crush people beneath his boot if it benefited him. He is out to make money and rule the streets. This is not a man people should be rooting for. And yet people do… and the person they DO hate is his wife, Skyler.

And that puzzles me. Skyler is a victim. When she reveals to Walt that she knows he is a drug lord he refuses to let her out of their marriage or even out of his bed. When she tries to kill herself in the pool he threatens to have her locked up in a mental hospital. Skyler is eventually pulled into his world of crime to protect herself and her kids because she has no other choice. She is Walt’s prisoner. And yet people on the internet despise her and think that she is a harpy, unsympathetic to his cancer, and they hate her for having an affair.

Walter has lied, stolen, kidnapped people, and committed multiple acts of murder and that’s totally acceptable with the audience – even cool – but Skyler’s affair is completely condemned. Now isn’t that interesting? It says a lot about what audiences expect from TV wives and women in general. Crime is cool but adultery? Unacceptable! It’s a little disturbing.

Is the world of TV stuck in the 1950’s? Why must men have all the power but women be condemned for it? A lot of people hate Skyler for how she forced Walt into buying the car wash and how she is spun the tale of his gambling winnings to explain how they got the cash to buy the business. Again people side with Walt. Skyler was right to come up with a story because simply telling people “We found some money on the sidewalk!” was not going to fly.

It was the fact that she came up with a story that cast Walt in a negative light (as a bad gambler) that was the problem. Walt had to apologise for his “bad habits” and that infuriated Walt because all he wants is for people to acknowledge his genius. He wants to shout it from the rooftops but Skyler keeps telling him no.

I really don’t know how anyone could possibly side with Walt and say that Skyler’s act of adultery outweighs everything else Walt has done. It paints a disturbing image of what some people expect from women and how they should act in life. Well done Breaking Bad. I can’t remember a television show that’s ever divided audiences so much before. Breaking Bad fever has gripped almost everyone. How is it going to end? Is Skyler a bad wife? What will happen to Walt? Will Hank catch him? I think we will all be surprised.

Apologetic snow

I am doing a couple of English Lit classes this term at university. One of them is a King Arthur class the other one is Fantasy Children's Literature. I had to buy about 6 books. Over the weekend I read Charlotte's Web and really enjoyed it. I'm reading Tom's Midnight Garden and the Dark is Rising at the moment. Both are...okay. I was able to read through Charlotte's Web in 3 days without much problems. It had a flow to it. I could enjoy the story and picture the images without the writing jarring me out of the experience. If a sentence is written badly it disrupts the experience. In Tom's Midnight Garden and the Dark is Rising I could barely get into either without finding the writing jarring.

In the Dark is Rising on the first page the author described the snow as "lying thin and apologetic over the ground" Um, what? Snow cannot be apologetic. It does not think. It does not emote. A better description would have been "A paper thin carpet of white snow blanketed the ground" you know? And then the author described, one after another, what the yard looked like: That house over there was the chook shed, that square was the garage, etc, etc, etc, comma, comma, comma.

Too many commas. Too much telling not showing. Do not tell us what is there. SHOW us. Show us through the character's eyes what the yard looks like as he experiences it. Do not tell us each piece of information, boom, boom, boom, like you are reading off a list.

I have been interested in writing for about 15 years now. In the past couple of years it has become more of a passing hobby then something I would like a career out of. I have gained enough experience to know that the chances of being truly successful are slim to nil and then there's the act of writing itself. It's hard and tiring and lonely. And lately I've been wondering just how many stories I have left in me.

I have been visiting writers web boards since I was a young teenager. It has been the best education in writing I have ever had. It's been hard and painful and the people have not always been nice but they have taught me all I need to know about writing and I am finding more and more as I continue with my university degree in writing and publishing how much I disagree with the teachings of my teachers because what they are teaching keeps clashing with what I have learnt from actual writers.

These books I have to read are considered classics and yet I am finding problems in their writing in the first couple of pages. It doesn't mean they are bad books. But I am surprised that their editors let that bad metaphor slip through and left that bad description in there. One thing I have learnt from my time with other writers is how you must learn how to break the rules.

It's true that there is no "right way" to write a book. Some of the best books ever written have been ones where the authors have thrown all of the rules of grammar out of the window.

I don't know if I am going to enjoy Tom's Midnight Garden and the Dark is Rising as much as Charlotte's web. I'm thinking probably not. But that's just my own personal taste. I just can't forgive that crappy metaphor.