Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Fictional Authors

About a year ago a colleague and I started noticing a trend in tween literature - budding female authors. More often than not the characters in these books are young girls who have been keeping a journal and suddenly realize they have a passion for writing. Often it is a supportive English teacher who helps them find this talent. Or they're pushed into writing for a school project and discover they love it. Regardless a year ago there seemed to be a glut of these burgeoning author characters, enough so that I wanted to keep a running list.

Did I? No. Can I actually remember any of these girls? Um, not so much. Except of course, for Mia from The Princess Diaries. NoveList isn't helping much.

As I struggle to remember other characters come to mind. Harriet, the intrepid spy, while not new, kinda fits this category. Jo March, the template from which all others have arguably sprung. Chloe, from Smallville, does a different kind of writing. And then there are all the books written as if they're diaries. Through writing these diaries the characters usually find the same sense of freedom and "self actualization" that the more aware author characters find. The upcoming, Book of a Thousand Days is springing to mind.

Perhaps this is so common because that's how acutal authors, not the fictional kind, feel about writing. Or maybe it just seems so common because these girls speak to the wanna-be author in me.

So, help me out. What are some of these titles I can't seem to remember (or even find)?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Ok, this isn't really going to answer your question, but I have to give my favorite "book written as a diary" title: Bridget Jones' Diary!

Ah! I just remembered Anne Shirley and Emily of New Moon, my favorite fictional authors :) Though they are not recent...