Just read this today in a book by one of my favorite authors, Michael Robotham:
Adolescent girls are the most complicated life forms in the known universe. It astonishes me how they manage to be so discomfiting. With little more than a glance or a flash of skin or a dismissive smirk, they can make a man feel ancient, meddlesome and vaguely lecherous.
Wish I could write like that.
I remember a two-picture series of an East European beauty of eighteen years posing in a difficult but thoroughly alluring position. The second picture was after the shot was taken and she had relaxed into a dumpy, lumpy, and frumpy adolescent with disdain written across her features. The universe of what they can project is vast, whether they mean to or not.
It's all about getting into their heads. For those of you without daughters of your own, many have younger or older sisters, or known friends who do. That's a wealth of ready reference material to draw from. What's more, soon after those dismissive smirks, there's the playful pout, begging you to forgive them.
At that age, not only don't they have any finesse, they rarely know what they're thinking from one moment to the next. ALL teenagers are like that, it's the nature of the beasties.
Wish I could write like that.
Almost any of us who try to tell stories, Could 'Write in an Evocative manner' if we try!
Not necessarily 'Like another Author' but with Our Own 'authentic voice'...
In those lines Michael Robotham has elegently presented what nearly all males from 8 to 98 Feel, even if they wouldn't say it aloud.
Adolescent girls are extremely complicated, if for no other reason They don't understand all of the changes they are undergoing, and lack experince in life to put what they are feeling in context. Even if they are not attracted to boys/men, nearly all of them revel in the attention of males. They want to be alluring, but don't know how, nor do they understand what feeling and thoughts they are stiring in others. How could they when they don't understand themselves. They crave the attention, yet most are uncomfortable when they do garner attention.
They can feel the power, but most have no idea of hos to use it, constructively, or for ill intent. Boys are immature, and grown men too scary!
Adolescent girls have (or nearly have) a mature body, most have a Healthy appearence, that the 'hind brain' of nearly all males find (biologically) Attractive. While, morally, and intelectually, we feel we Shouldn't see them as attractive; or at least not Admit that we do!
Most men, and even most boys know there are consequences for Acting upon our impulses. So, when we read "With little more than a glance or a flash of skin or a dismissive smirk, they can make a man feel ancient, meddlesome and vaguely lecherous." Even if we know we won't act on it, and the girl may not feel those thoughts; 'Society feels we should feel that way.'
If you Understand how you feel, and it is likely that most other people feel that way too, even if they might not admit it. Then Write about those feelings!
Use a thesaurus! There are times that 'Old' will suffice, because it is a necessary description, but it doesn't have to be evocative at that part of a story. In this instance, 'Ancient' is much more powerful. 'Vaguely lecherous' is chastising, yet gives the allowence that such feelings are understandable, even as we know we shouldn't act upon them.
The totality of the paragraphs is powerful because it admits Truths that society tells us we shoud be ashamed of, despite biology promting such feelings. Not that we should act unreservedly upon primal bilolgical drives.
The more I read, the more I am exposed to others prose. I don't seek to copy anyone in particular. However, I learn various ways I may better express myself, and my 'voice' to others in writing. I think you can too!
That's always the key. In creativity, it's better to steal outright than to merely 'borrow', grabbing common concepts and making them your own—in your own voice—rather than borrowing others' particular turns of phasing.
Idioms are fine, in the mouths of tertiary characters, yet when it's most vital, put concepts into your own, original, words.
With little more than a glance or a flash of skin or a dismissive smirk
He left out the part about pumping out pheromones screaming 'Breed me!'.
AJ
I was just discussing that today. Despite how popular the 'power of pheromones' once was, in practice, the only time they've been demonstrated in a scientific setting (i.e. a lab) is with cases of incest.
Since DNA tends to repeat, siblings tend to have similar scents, so during testing, you can often tell from the visceral response alone one someone smells a siblings sweat—something no one ever includes in incest stories—mainly because it's an unconscious response.
However, the uniformity of siblings doesn't carry to parents, since we only get half of our DNA from each parent, which provides ample room for exemptions on a wide variety of fronts (i.e. a variety of different smells, not always so similar to you).
We like smelling scent of loved ones when we first wake up, yet if your 'evil' stepbrother crashes in your bed, there's likely hell to pay for it. ;)