Saturday, November 30, 2013

In Defense of InstaLove

by Mindy McGinnis

I know, you're probably looking at the title and thinking that there's no way Mindy is the author of this blog post. Mindy, who is so clearly acerbic and a downright instigator when it comes to the demise of the HEA. But, I think this makes me the perfect person to write in defense of insta-love in YA, because you can rest assured that I'm not being reactionary in regards to my own book. (You'll notice that Lynn and Eli don't ever say, "I love you." Why? Because- ick).

So, with that pre-disposition of ick in mind, I can still honestly defend the presence of insta-love in YA. Because even though I'm an old, bitter, cautious woman now, I haven't always been. Yes, Mindy used to fall in love, often and easily, just like the vast majority of teens everywhere... which is who YA is being written for in the first place.

Yes, teens fall in love quickly. And there's plenty of evidence to show that they really can't help it. This article from National Geographic regarding the maturation of the teen brain goes into detail regarding their risk-taking, but the last section focuses on how their changing brains function socially:
The teen brain is similarly attuned to oxytocin, another neural hormone, which (among other things) makes social connections in particular more rewarding. The neural networks and dynamics associated with general reward and social interactions overlap heavily. Engage one, and you often engage the other. Engage them during adolescence, and you light a fire.
Yep, it's true. Love is just better when you're young. Their brains are chemically predisposed to fall in love, and anyone who spends more than the average amount of time around teens can attest to this. They enter into emotionally-drenched connections with someone they truly believe is their soul mate in December, then discover in February that it's actually the girl from English class they're into. And the truth is - they probably are. I don't think it diminishes the weight or value of their love to fall into it so easily and so quickly when they are biologically predisposed to behave in this manner.

What I don't like to see in any genre is insta-love that happens as an excuse for lazy writing, with zero spark between the characters and a simple forced-upon-the-reader: These two are in love now. Fact. Most of the time when I see people complaining about insta-love it's because the writer didn't sell the relationship, not because the relationship shouldn't exist in the first place.

My other beef has nothing to do with insta-love, it's insta-stability. I firmly believe teens do fall in insta-love, but they also fall out just as quickly. It's when I see teens portrayed as meeting their one-and-only and being-blind-to-all-others-for-an-extended-period-of-time-with-no-question-of-the-happiness-that-will-extend-into-eternity that I start to get a bit pissy.

Sorry, I don't buy that.

In fact, I don't care how old the characters are.

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Mindy McGinnis is a YA author and librarian. Her debut, NOT A DROP TO DRINK, is a post-apocalyptic survival tale set in a world where freshwater is almost non-existent, available from Katherine Tegen / Harper Collins September 24, 2013. She blogs at Writer, Writer Pants on Fire and contributes to the group blogs Book PregnantFriday the ThirteenersFrom the Write AngleThe Class of 2k13The Lucky 13s & The League of Extraordinary Writers. You can also find her on TwitterTumblr & Facebook.

5 comments:

  1. This is an AWESOME post. I've shoved books with "insta-love" into the meh corner, but now that I think about it...those books have shallow characters. It's not really the insta-love that ticks me off. But you've put into words so well! ^.^
    (I'm also reading Not A Drop to Drink for the first time evvvver. It's awesome. Just sayin'.)

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    1. Hooray! Thank you for reading DRINK, and yes - InstaLove is a fact of life. Delivering it on the page is the trick.

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  2. Eh, biologically explained or no (so that's why they married so young back in the day!), I still tend to stay away from insta-love, partially because that "category" of YA books seems disproportionately inundated with lazy writing and "your're my one and only forever" syndrome.

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  3. Yes, the "one and only forever" syndrome is what turns me off as well. But there are definitely YA's out there with instalove that aren't necessarily insta-HEAs!

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  4. Interesting! I agree with you completely about how often insta-love is paired with a poorly developed relationship. It's all too rare that I'm reading a YA book and can point to specific things that two characters in a relationship like about each other. However, I don't think I buy into the idea that teenagers really experience insta-love. Insta-crushes sure, but I think that's far less intense than love. This might be the same distinction you're making about insta-stability, but I wasn't sure :)

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