How to Write Better Teen Fiction

{ rational is overrated }

{ rational is overrated }

            I know I can’t be the only person who does something that, in five-second retrospect, was completely irrational and ends up forcing an unnecessary scenario to explain the behavior only to find that no one really cared about how erratically you were behaving two minutes ago.

            So if real-life people have unwritten permission to act senselessly, then why can’t your characters? I’m just saying: your characters don’t have to always act “rationally.”

            I’m not saying that you should go willy-nilly with what your characters do, because that’s stupid, but we all have lapses in judgment, and then we regret it. We don’t always see all the possibilities, and what one person may think is obvious may not be obvious to someone else.

            When you’re writing, don’t worry about how rational your characters might come off as. What you really need to do is to get into your character’s mindset. What do they value? How do they think? Don’t try to force your characters into anything, and especially don’t try to force all your characters to do something that you think would fit an amazing, sweet scene that you’ve always wanted to write. If it doesn’t fit, then don’t write it in that story.