Monday, September 24, 2012

Found Guilty


I have been found guilty of  insta-love.

The sentence has been passed, and I think it's time to defend myself.

See, the thing is, I didn't mean to write insta-love. I never planned it, I never intended it. Once it was done, it never seemed like insta-love to me. No, it was something else entirely.

An insta-crush.

My character is a teen girl. She saw a guy and thought, he's hot, I wish he'd ask me out, I just want to spend time with him, I really want to kiss those sexy-sweet lips.

I ask you, is this insta-love? To me, it's a crush. Those first overwhelming and often overexagerrated feelings a person can get when they see something they like about someone else. An insta-crush. Once they get it, they find ways to be with that person, to get to know them, and then... SOMETIMES the love happens. Sometimes it doesn't.

I know insta-love is one of those THINGS A WRITER SHOULD NEVER EVER DO. But what about insta-crushes? Do readers feel the same animosity towards them? If you read a girl saying, "he's so hot I want to date him!!!" do you automatically chalk it up to insta-love, roll your eyes, or maybe put the book down in disgust?

I'm genuinely wondering here. I don't have the same bad mojo towards insta-love as most people do. I think it's because I don't ever see it as love, I see it as a crush first which often grows into love.
But I also don't want anyone throwing my writing across the room because, bam! there's insta-love again.

What do you think? Is an insta-crush basically the same as insta-love?

*P.S. I've been found guilty, and am now on the road to rehabilitation. Meaning: I'm revising.*

6 comments:

  1. Honestly, I don't think this is a problem at all. People take one look at someone and want to go out with them/get to know them all the time. Really, that's basically just attraction. Perfectly natural/real/believable. At least that's my opinion. But then, I've never had a problem with insta-love in books, either. Probably because I took one look at my (now) husband, and decided then and there that I was going to marry him. And that was 8 years ago. :)

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  2. I'm with you on this, it's total insta-crush or insta-lust. The love part comes later. What i absolutely can't stand is when characters tell each other I love you or proclaim their love in inner dialogue when they only just met. That I can't stand. But the insta-crush thing doesn't bother me.

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  3. I don't like insta-love, but in some stories, it just works. I was found guilty of writing insta-love in one of my manuscripts. My CP told me to cut it out. I didn't. So then an agent rejected my full and told me it needed to be cut out. So I did. ;) I'll never disregard my CP's comment again!

    But, there's a difference between insta-crush and insta-love. And I think that's where you make sure the line is drawn. Yes, a girl can see a hot guy and try to get closer to him, get to know him. -->Insta-crush. But when she's automatically drawn to him for some unknown reason and then sacrifices important things for him, that's insta-love and usually unrealistic.

    That's what I did. My MC isn't allowed to hang with humans. And her aunts are aggressive in keeping this rule. The punishment, severe. And what did I write? Yeah, my MC was drawn to him and then hangs with him no matter what. She completely sacrifices her own well-being, her group's safety, and the rules she's held to like religion, just to be with some guy she's drawn too. Nope, not gonna fly.

    I had to change the dynamics of their relationship and give her an solid reason to fall for him and then a solid reason to sacrifice for him. Thus erasing the insta-love.

    So those are my thoughts. There's an obvious difference between the two. :) IMHO

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  4. Oh, I'm all about the insta-crush! Crushes are fun :) and it's totally normal to see someone, think they're cute, get to know them, and want to spend every minute with them. Sometimes that becomes love, and that's cool. I just can't stand it when the MC decides that she's in love with someone before she really knows him, and I hate when it's all I-can't-live-without-him. Love doesn't have to be quite so dramatic :)

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  5. I think crushes are just like that. It's what makes them crushes! If I read something like "he's so hot, I want to make out with him" I chalk it up to normal, especially in YA. Insta-love is a different beast. You can tell because it's sudden and tends to be almost obsessive to the MC. Ugh.

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  6. Thanks for all the comments! I'm seeing the difference between the two better. I've never liked the "I'm drawn to him for some unknown reason..." so I avoided that, but I think I made my MC a little obsessed about the guy for no good reason at the start. Definitely gotta change that.

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