Time For Another Rant

Have you guys ever been in a situation where your book is compared to Twilight?

So my "blonde sister", Heather, asked me a couple of weeks ago if she could read my print draft of Scrapper. Never mind that A)The draft I have printed, though it's the second, is terrible. (Honestly, I look at it and think Hmm, I thought that I finished this draft when I was fifteen. But that can't be right, this looks like I wrote it in fifth grade.) B)I need that thing to do some quality writing, and I only get it once every 50,000 years on the night of a full moon when it hasn't been raining for six weeks and pigs fly, and C) HEATHER NEVER READS ANYTHING!

Here's what I think happened.

Heather's not much when a book is in her hand, mainly because she doesn't have the attention span to read more then a page. (Unless you count texting...) I don't fault her for it, it's the way of society these days. (Us writers are truly a forever dying breed.) But my family is mainly split into two parts, me and everyone else. Not in a depressing way or anything, it just that they're are really good at math and they go out a lot and well...I write. Basically, while they live on earth I live on Mars. (I sometimes like to think I'm the one on earth and their all on Mars, but come on. I'm not that oblivious.) As you can imagine, there are a lot of miscommunications amongst us, maybe throw in some belittling. (This is why I have issues with Monkeys.) And Heather, being my "blonde sister" had translated that into me not being much of anything. (Other then maybe a little off my meds.) So when she heard that I finished a book, she must have thought Awww, Becca's finished a cute little "book". What is it, five pages? I can manage that. Her intentions were good at least.

Yes, there is a reason for my rambling.

About a couple of weeks later, she I and another kid named Kevin are chilling in the kitchen, and I ask for the print copy back. I always get anxious when I lend it out for people, for a number of reasons. (They're going to destroy it's perfect pages, they won't like it, they will like it, what if J.K. Rowling calls and says I must mail it to her post haste in order for her to spew her awesomeness on it?) So she's says she'll give it back to me on the next day (she admitted that she didn't read it, by the way) and Kevin asks "What are you two talking about?"

Heather: Oh, Becca wrote a book.
Kevin: Oh, that's really cool!
Becca: (Blushes) Oh, you.
Kevin: So what's it about?



Heather: It's Twilight.

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RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
BROOKLYN RAGE!!!!!!!
YOU FILTHY MONKEY!!!!!!!!!
 


Becca: IT'S NOT  TWILIGHT [Insert questionably acceptable word here]! YOU LOOK AT THOSE BEAUTIFUL WORDS! DO YOU SEE A SPARKLY VAMPIRE OR A BI-CURIOUS WEREWOLF ANYWHERE?????!!!! NO I DIDN'T THINK SO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Heather: Well, what about the main character Scrapper?

Becca: SHE'S NEITHER OF THE TWO YOU IDIOTIC MONKEY!!!!!!!!!!!!



So has that sort of thing ever happened to you, Paranormal Young Adult writers? I mean, yes, there have been a lot of Twilight rip offs over the years (not to mention the hilarious fan fics, the only good thing to come out of this whole horrific experience.) And yes, maybe you have written some juicy forbidden romance between VAMPIRE/WEREWOLF A and LOVE INTEREST B. I mean, come on? Who hasn't? But don't let the Monkeys of the world degrade your work to that of a copy cat. It's not just that it's Twilight (although that may have something to do with it.) I would have gotten just as upset if it was compared to Harry Potter (first very flattered, then offended.) Listen to me, right now, very carefully.

You are not a copy cat. Do not let anyone tell you different.

Have they ever spent hours in their room, blasting their music so loud there ears bleed just trying to drown out the noise of the world so that they could focus? Have they spent a small fortune on Mint Tea so that they could have a good excuse to sit in Starbucks and write in peace? Have they gone through the mind mushing soul crushing research just to know about the writing industry, or spent nights awake thinking of new plot twists, decent writing queries, or stressing over whether or not the book will ever make it to print or is it doomed to spend the rest of eternity on the virtual shelf of a amateur writing community with only three views? No. I doubt most of them could tell the difference between Twilight and Dracula. So don't let them get you down. You're day will come.