Too much Angst?

[Divia]

I dunno a lot of my teen patrons are pretty knowledgeable (unfortunately) to real life pain.

The story isn't all sad, but I did want to keep it realistic for the time. I could always get rid of some elements. I dont have to make the boyfriend become a drunk and die from a kick to the head. I'll may get rid of the friend losing her daughter.

I'm afraid the ending is sad though. I can't see any other way of writing it. It has to be this way.

I liked slammerkin.
I also enjoyed Living Dead Girl. You want angsty thats an interesting read.

Thanks for the advice. I'll trudge onward now, finish up this draft and then go over it and see what can be taken out.

Thanks

[Michy]

I don't think a sad ending is necessarily a bad thing -- I've always preferred bittersweet endings to happily-ever-after ones; I think they make for stronger and more memorable books. Even when I was young I felt that way; Summer of My German Soldier and A Separate Peace were some of my early-teen favorites, they are both very powerful. And neither one has a happy ending.

But if you can incorporate even a tiny glimmer of hope into your ending, that's a good thing.

[M.M. Bennetts]

At the risk of being a dreadful wet blanket, it's sounding a little too Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome...

I don't suggest dancing girls doing a wulie wulie dance or anything, but, er...

[Divia]

I havent read Ethan Frome in forever. So you'll have to tell me how it sounds like that book.

Hmmm. Trying to put a little glimmer of hope in the ending maybe a little difficult.

[Divia]

OK, I just read the summary for Ethan Frome and my WIP is nothing like it.

So you'll have to explain how they are the same. I'm confused.

[M.M. Bennetts]

It's the hopelessness, the idea of being locked in a life, a marriage, without any hope of escape...grim.

It could just be me. I'm always the one if given half a choice will go for Twelfth Night or As You Like It over Hamlet and certainly over MacBeth...Ignore me, I'm undoubtedly talking camel drool.

[Divia]

Ah, I see what you are saying. Well one is locked and suffers for it. One escapes and one I think is just selfish and I'm not sure how to handle the 3rd.

Well, if I didnt want opinions I wouldnt have posted.

[LoveHistory]

I must be in the minority in that I don't think that's too much angst. Though combined with a lot of other misery-related plot points it could tend toward darkness overload.

Your ending can be sad and hopeful at the same time. Just show a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel (and don't mention that it's actually a train).

[Miss Moppet]

You should take this with a ton of salt because I don't read much YA, but isn't the genre very angsty at the moment? I read a summary of The Hunger Games and it all sounded very grim.

It may go in cycles. A friend of mine working for a publisher of children's books when Harry Potter came out said part of its success was due to being such a contrast to the very dark, issue-based children's and YA fiction that was being published at the time. Of course over time the Potter books got darker and now the cycle has moved on.

I tend to find angst gratuitous in a story only when it doesn't contribute to character development or plot in any way, or when it seems inappropriate to the setting or time period.

I wouldn't let this hold you up, finish the book, start submitting and see what people think.

ETA: is this your Civil War nurse book or a new one?

[Divia]

I had to put the nurse Civil War one away for a while. I felt that it was bogging me down and I wasn't getting anywhere with it. I'll revisit it.

YA is a little gloomy, that's for sure. BUt not all stories are. I mean you have your chick lit which is light and fun.

You made good point about how this impacts my MC...or if it does. That is something important to think about.

Thanks