For those of you who don't know what October 3rd symbolizes, there was a scene in the movie where Cady was speaking about her limited interactions with her forbidden crush on Regina George's ex-boyfriend, Aaron Samuels. On October 3rd, she narrated, he asked her what date it was. She said, "It's October 3rd."
Which leads me to my second topic-writing about crushes.
It's hard to describe crushes realistically in books, because a lot of the things that people do (or, at least, I do) when they/I have a crush on someone would make for a very uncomfortable read. For example, no one wants to read about how extensively one stalks their crush's profile on Facebook, or how much of their schedule they have memorized. They just want to read the cute stuff, which is understandable, of course.
But at the same time, it's somewhat irritating to see books made up of ONLY the cute stuff. Crushing isn't just cute flirting...it's also awkward moments, random jealousy, bouts of creepiness, strange but somewhat cute dreams, and a whole lot of angst.
Books have a hard time of finding that perfect balance of realism and TMI. Which makes sense-it's a difficult balance to find. I have trouble with it too. But just remember when you're writing about crushes, if what you're writing feels a lot like wish fulfillment, it probably is. I'm not saying it's always a bad thing, but getting carried away with making that old eighth grade crush fall in love with you after all makes for a really hokey story. And on the other end of the scale, if you told your friend about something you did, like discovering your crush's address, and they stared at you like they were ready to put you on a neighborhood watch list, it might be a little too much to put in your romance...unless, of course, your book is about romance gone wrong, which is completely different. :)
Do you have any other advice for those writing about crushes? Comment them below!
Until then, I've got homework. APUSH packets for the win!
T