RE: "Puppy Love" (a five-minute #freewrite)
"Oh that idiot teenage guy in love, standing in the rain and snow outside that girl's window every night for more than a year, to get her attention."
It's funny how perspectives can change. As a teenager, I would have loved if that had happened to me. At the same time knowing that if I did that to someone else, they probably would have found it creepy even though it would have been a show of my love and 'please just pay attention to me, we will be happy together' :) As an adult, it's definitely creepy and stalkerish!
I have to work hard to not write such obsessive things in my stories... I was a very emotional teenager and still hold some of those quirks, as a result, my very first version of Vengeance and Lyria and Cael was some crazed love story that only I would find interesting. Really needed to tone it down x5000!!! Crazy.
If you're writing for teenagers, the over-the-top love stories are just what they love to read. If you're writing for adults, having the heroine come to realize her Romeo outside her window is a frickin' stalker would make for a more illumating and entertaining story than Romeo and Juliet. But I'm a mood most dire right now. Our youngest has just been bamboozled by a predatory, manipulative kind of guy, and the heartbreak of realizing the truth is far worse than what your heroine suffered in 5-Minute Puppy Love....
I'm sorry. Despite my levity, I am all too aware of the manipulation and predation that can happen in this world. I hope that your youngest is faring well. :(
No need to apologize.
Her situation is tricky. And to make things worse I apparently gave away my book about manipulators to someone, because I can't find it now... I hope my niece (it must have been her I gave it to) got some good out of it.