When reading fiction, I have noticed there are elements missing that I desperately want to see more of. I hope as more young writers come up in the ranks we'll see more of these elements.
So far that's what's jumping out at me. Feel free to comment with what you want to see in your fiction and I may post said ideas on my Facebook page!
- Male-female friendships that don't end in romance: I don't know why this is such a rarity to find, but apparently it is, especially in YA fiction. Not every boy has to fall in love with every female friend, writers!
- More representation of people of colour (POC): There's been a lot of headway so far, which is great to see, but there needs to be more representation in literature. I know it can be intimidating to write about a culture or race you aren't, because you don't want to misrepresent them, but research and talking to POC is the first step to make sure there is no misrepresentation.
- And more LGBTQA representation! Gender fluid too, and any other sexualities/genders I missed. The world isn't made up of only straight young men and women, so why should they dominate literature? Again, there is progress being made, but I'd love to find more well-written books about a non-straight character.
- Medieval England? There are so many amazing countries in the world, so why is it that the common trait for fantasy novels is to put the setting in England, or a place that looks a lot like England? We can do better than that, especially with Google giving us the ability to look up anything we want about any country in any time period.
So far that's what's jumping out at me. Feel free to comment with what you want to see in your fiction and I may post said ideas on my Facebook page!