Is Your Heroine...Taylor Swift?
OKAY, so it's true, I'm NOT a Taylor Swift fan. What I know of her I've caught in passing on the radio. But after recently overhearing part of her new music video 'Bad Blood' on the TV the other day, I investigated via Vevo and watched my first Taylor Swift music video.
This was done with Kendrick Lamar and a bunch of her Hollywood friends, but it's not the "Who's Who" list of celebs in the video that got me. It was a line spoken by Kendrick midway through the song, in the bridge:
Band-aids don't fix bullet holes
You say sorry just for show
If you live like that, you live with ghosts
(You forgive, you forget but you never let it go)
How interesting to me that he said that! So that got my wheels turning and I dug a little more...
It's getting dark and it's all too quiet
And I can't trust anything now...
he just might make me smile
But the whole time I'm wishing he was you instead
you can tell me that you're sorry
But I don't believe you baby
Like I did before
Baby, you know all the right things to say
But do you honestly expect me to believe
We could ever be the same?
So sad that this element of distrust predictably comes up again and again in her music. She likes to go on and on about how 'bad' or 'mean' or 'flirtatious' the other party is, but we rarely get to hear from the other side just how unforgiving she can be. Does art imitate life in this instance?
If she really favors all the 'good girl' image, why then do I catch the opposite feeling in other lyrics?
I miss screaming and fighting and kissing in the rain
And it's 2am and I'm cursing your name
You're so in love that you act insane
And that's the way I loved you
I get drunk on jealousy
But you'll come back each time you leave
Cause darling I'm a nightmare dressed like a daydream
I ain't jealous of you
Just thought you should know
You were never good enough for him
Or anything like me
So you might as well sit back
'cause I'm not trying to show maturity
haven't you heard
I'm just another thing for you
To roll your eyes at, honey
You might have him but
I always get the last word
Do you have a character like this in your book? A heroine who wants to be good, who wants to be mature, who wants to be in a forever love with a good guy...but not really?
Do you write her into a situation for a guy that could be really good for her, only to find a few chapters later she is screaming at him and acting like a nutjob? Does she resist every hero you try to write for her, insisting he is too flawed? Even insulted when he tries to call her on the carpet for something, maybe?
And while you and The Muse sit and ponder how to fix this, do you two wonder amongst yourselves if she's really a strong modern woman who knows what she wants - or is she just a jealous mixed-up clueless girl? A spoiled little heroine who wants everything her way...if only she knew which way she wanted...Why is this so prevalant lately - the girl who demands you see her as a strong independant woman who loves throwing tantrums, who can never trust anybody, who thinks she can toy with the hero like nothing really matters? What is up with girls like this?
Is your heroine becoming Taylor? How have you worked to tailor her to be a true heroine?
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