what's your opinion on using anime like colored hair in fantasy?

[Garren Jacobsen]

She prided herself on never doing research. Which resulted in such wonderful gems as an island off the west coast of Brazil...

Wait, what? That's crazy. That's not even research. That's basic geography.

 

[Tom]

Then there's the eight-pointed snowflake that Renesmee (stupidest name ever, I swear) catches in Breaking Dawn.

Eight-pointed snowflake.

She played the "special snowflake" trope straight.

Gah!

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Eight-pointed snowflake.

Is this a recent book? My guess is that the author has daughters ages seven and under and had to go to a bunch of Frozen themed birthday parties where well-meaning dads did the research to teach the little girls how to make six-pointed snowflakes, but the "princesses" folded the paper the easy way that makes eight-pointed snowflakes.

I should've told those pigtailed punks how the extra points would make the snowflakes so sharp they'd saw your skin off like in this cartoon:

Then maybe the little $#!%s would've made proper snowflakes. Is that what I gotta do next year? Scare children into not botching up arts and crafts?!



On-topic part begins here:
@OP, just to be a good little mod I'll post on-topic: any color hair and eyes for the characters are cool, since you're trying to give the readers a visual, be true to it. Give the readers the imagery you want to give.

I personally like the idea of pink, purple and teal hair for pixies.

 

[glutton]

In defense of BWFoster, I haven't read the books, but I've seen several of the Twilight movies except for the last couple and Bella didn't come off as that much of an obvious Mary Sue to me. I mean, I get the story isn't as combat-oriented as the stuff I usually prefer to write/read/watch, but... Bella can't even kick the bad vampires' butts while still a human lol. That would be one of the first abilities that comes to mind for an all-out Sue.

 

[Garren Jacobsen]

There are tons of definitions about what is and is not a sue. In face I think she fits under the classic sue as defined here. Mary Sue Classic - TV Tropes

 

[X Equestris]

In defense of BWFoster, I haven't read the books, but I've seen several of the Twilight movies except for the last couple and Bella didn't come off as that much of an obvious Mary Sue to me. I mean, I get the story isn't as combat-oriented as the stuff I usually prefer to write/read/watch, but... Bella can't even kick the bad vampires' butts while still a human lol. That would be one of the first abilities that comes to mind for an all-out Sue.

She's not nearly as over the top as most Sues. If she is one, and that point is certainly debatable, she is a more subtle type.

 

[valiant12]

She prided herself on never doing research. Which resulted in such wonderful gems as an island off the west coast of Brazil( Brazil doesn't have a west coast) and a family keeping their wealth through the Great Depression by being involved in financial institutions( financial institutions were easily the hardest hit by the stock market crash). You'll never be able to convince me that that is a good approach.

I think she was trolling her fans. You don't need research to know where Brazils is on the map. And sparkling vampires, really? By the way, how is Twilight narrated. If it is narrated from Bella's perspective, maybe she is not mentioning the fact that she is a gold-digger with a drug problem and most of the books are a mix of unreliable narratives and drugs induced hallucinations. Things like the sparkling vampires, geographic nonsenses, snowflakes, the fact that her strongest character trait is that her blood is apparently tastier than that of the average person, are delivered hints left by the author for the most observant fans.

 

[Miskatonic]

I think she was trolling her fans. You don't need research to know where Brazils is on the map. And sparkling vampires, really? By the way, how is Twilight narrated. If it is narrated from Bella's perspective, maybe she is not mentioning the fact that she is a gold-digger with a drug problem and most of the books are a mix of unreliable narratives and drugs induced hallucinations. Things like the sparkling vampires, geographic nonsenses, snowflakes, the fact that her strongest character trait is that her blood is apparently tastier than that of the average person, are delivered hints left by the author for the most observant fans.

It's pretty evident that she was projecting herself into the book and was actually in love with the Edward character she created. Even the guy that played him was picking up on that. She's not clever, she's a crappy author.

 

[BWFoster78]

Maybe y'all approach things differently than me. When I see a highly successful author, I want to know, "What did they do to become so successful?"

I think all of you are way off base if you think that Meyer's success was solely due to some kind of magical marketing.

The fact is that she connected with her core audience in a way that few authors do. If I could connect with my readers as well as she did her, I'd no longer be an "aspiring" author.

Also, do any of you fear that dogging on a successful author like you're doing when you're trying to become an author makes you sound kinda envious?

 

[Miskatonic]

Maybe y'all approach things differently than me. When I see a highly successful author, I want to know, "What did they do to become so successful?"

I think all of you are way off base if you think that Meyer's success was solely due to some kind of magical marketing.

The fact is that she connected with her core audience in a way that few authors do. If I could connect with my readers as well as she did her, I'd no longer be an "aspiring" author.

Also, do any of you fear that dogging on a successful author like you're doing when you're trying to become an author makes you sound kinda envious?

Tweens are pretty much the easiest demographic to market to. It doesn't take any expertise to exploit their parent,s wallets with boy bands, teen heartthrobs and relationship drama dealing with male characters they fall in love with because their hormones are starting to play a part.

Envious of Stephanie Meyers? Not even going to dignify that with an answer.

 

[Nimue]

I'm gonna repost something that I said already, since it was a late edit and I doubt anyone saw it:

Edit: Yes, I understand why you might not agree with all the Twilight backlash--it was never that awful, just that popular. But saying "If it was successful, it must be good"/"If you want to be successful you need to write like that" isn't necessarily true. "Awful" and "Ideal" aren't the only two choices.

I don't hate Twilight nearly as much as I did when I was a teenager at the height of the book craze and felt affronted that people kept suggesting I read it. But the idea that you can't criticize a book until you've written something just as successful is a bit daft. Maybe don't write it off completely, (and many people have done that with Twilight) but surely we don't have to swallow its strategy whole.

If you want to sell large numbers based on genre and strategy regardless of quality, by all means paranormal YA romance with an idealized/homogenized protagonist is probably the way to go. Does that mean that Twilight must be the best book out there? I think that saying that is needlessly contrarian. It's not something that would work for everyone. For one thing, you should love and enjoy what you're writing. Meyer clearly did. But someone writing in that vein solely because they feel they should might not. And I think that lack of passion takes some of the spark out of the writing itself.

 

[Mythopoet]

Man, this poor thread has gotten so off topic. Are there even any characters in Twilight with funky hair colors?

 

[Nimue]

I think Twilight is a bit of an insta-derail topic on any book-based forum.

There is! ...right? Alice, the slightly-goth/scene vampire? (Or maybe she just has blue streaks in the movies?) I...don't think her dyed hair made me think less of the book, so there's that! She was one of the more interesting characters, actually.

 

[BWFoster78]

But the idea that you can't criticize a book until you've written something just as successful is a bit daft. Maybe don't write it off completely, (and many people have done that with Twilight) but surely we don't have to swallow its strategy whole.

Not saying you can't criticize something, just saying that a lot of the posters seem to be trying to write it off completely. She connected me to her characters in a way that few other authors have managed to do. I only wish I could do that as well as her, and I seriously doubt that anyone else commenting on this thread has the ability to either.

 

[Ben.D]

I would say if you can justify the color of their hair in the evolution of their species or cultural practices. For example if a group of people come from a warmer climate they tend to be taller, have darker skin ect... Also if a religion or other form of cultural practice dictates a specific color of hair then it makes sense. In short I would say don't give your character a specific characteristic without a reason.

 

[X Equestris]

I would say if you can justify the color of their hair in the evolution of their species or cultural practices. For example if a group of people come from a warmer climate they tend to be taller, have darker skin ect... Also if a religion or other form of cultural practice dictates a specific color of hair then it makes sense. In short I would say don't give your character a specific characteristic without a reason.

Certainly. For example, a caste based society where people dyed their hair based on their caste would make sense. It's really when you have a character with some weird, one of a kind, naturally occuring hair color that you have problems.

 

[X Equestris]

Maybe y'all approach things differently than me. When I see a highly successful author, I want to know, "What did they do to become so successful?"

I think all of you are way off base if you think that Meyer's success was solely due to some kind of magical marketing.

The fact is that she connected with her core audience in a way that few authors do. If I could connect with my readers as well as she did her, I'd no longer be an "aspiring" author.

Also, do any of you fear that dogging on a successful author like you're doing when you're trying to become an author makes you sound kinda envious?

She successfully appealed to the romance genre's base. Even then, it took a while for it to turn into the craze it did.

Envious of Meyers? No, not at all. She might be successful, but I'm still going to point out grave issues with her work. By all means, if you want to make a lot of money, romance/paranormal romance is the way to go. There's a reason the romance genre is so profitable. But let's not pretend that profitability=quality. E.L. James made a lot of money by repurposing her Twilight fanfic as Fifty Shades of Grey, but the writing has a great deal of issues. So I can see what those successful authors did, but their choices aren't for me.

 

[Miskatonic]

As far as hair color goes, just look at the punk rock fashion of the 70's and 80's. It was about rebellion against the norms of society.

 

[Garren Jacobsen]

Also, do any of you fear that dogging on a successful author like you're doing when you're trying to become an author makes you sound kinda envious?

At the risk of derailing this thread even more I'm going to address this point in brief here and then open up a new topic to address this point in more detail in the writing questions forum. No, it's not envious it's good practice. By seeking flaws and learning to combat them we learn to become better writers ourselves.

 

[BWFoster78]

At the risk of derailing this thread even more I'm going to address this point in brief here and then open up a new topic to address this point in more detail in the writing questions forum. No, it's not envious it's good practice. By seeking flaws and learning to combat them we learn to become better writers ourselves.

I agree that it's good practice if employed the way you suggest.

I do not feel, however, that the comments in the thread thus far are coming across that way (by and large, anyway).