RP = Random Person (who shall remain nameless)
Me = Me
RP: What do you do?
Me: I'm a writer.
RP: Oh? That's cool. What kind of books do you write?
Me: Young Adult
RP: What, like The Hunger Games and Twilight?
Me: No, I write contemporary. Like Sarah Dessen, John Green, that sort of thing.
RP: I've never heard of them. Are they like Sweet Valley High?
Me: (thinking: how old are you?) No, not like Sweet Valley High. YA fiction has changed a lot since the eighties.
RP: What are your books about?
Me: Well, they're all about different things, but they mainly focus on teenage girls overcoming their pasts, trauma, etc.
RP: So they're realistic?
Me: I hope so.
RP: I don't like realistic books. I read to escape.
Me: .......
RP: You should write a vampire book so you can be rich like Stephenie Meyer.
Me: Nice weather we're having today, don't you think?
The next time someone asks me what I do, I'm going to say "I'm writing a non-realistic Sweet Valley High-type book about vampires."
Been there! When I'm asked what I write, I can barely get "young adult paranormal" out of my mouth before the well-meaning questioner follows up with "Oh, like Twilight!" Yeah... No. I'd get a kick out of the Sweet Valley High comparison, though.
ReplyDeleteThis has happened to me too! And because I'm closer to being a classified as in the young adult category myself, I always get mushed in with the target audience of these types of books, which annoys me a lot, because I prefer contemporary YA. Oh well.
ReplyDeleteWait. All I need to do to be rich like Stephenie Meyer is write a vampire book?!
ReplyDelete(Seriously though, I loved SVH, and I am in love with this essay from one of the ghost writers. So beautiful: http://www.kenyonreview.org/kr-online-issue/2013-winter/selections/amy-boesky-656342/)
So funny! I get that a lot. "So, it's like, Twilight or Harry Potter, right?" So sad, but so true. I'm so glad there are other writers out there who understand :)
ReplyDeleteYou should say "No, way better than that?" Haven't you boufht it yet - it's called.....
ReplyDeleteWhen I said to someone that "I'm a writer", he said "Like J.K. Rowling?"
ReplyDeleteMe: "Yeah, kinda."
He: "I don't mean to ask you a silly question, but are you famous?"
Me: "No, I'm not famous."
He: "Oh, you must be very modest to say as a writer that you're not famous."
Hahaha, I usually just tell them that I'm a student. People tend to want to throw their own ideals onto without caring.
ReplyDelete