The Insta-Connect

There is a trend out there in YA works. A trend that is so common and (sometimes) so heinous, that even I, Captain Oblivious, have noticed it. I must comment, because it must be addressed. This trend is the insta-connect. It breeds in the wilds of YA romance. It hunts in fantasy territories both urban and high, in the world of sci-fi and dystopics, in paranormal universes and even beyond the grave and the stars. It comes in two species - the domesticated insta, and the feral insta.

Believe it or not, the feral one is the one you want in your novel (if you're gonna have them at all).

The insta-connect. That spark between the main character and their love interest, that instant of "Whoa. It's you. The person I'm gonna share the rest of this book with." The moment of eye-lock (usually) or just a quick moment of seeing that person, even if they don't notice being seen by the MC. Symptoms include sweating, dizziness, tummy trouble, distraction, mood swings, disorientation, increased heart rate, hyperventilation, and increased blood pressure.

That is the insta-connect. It works. But it must be done right. Seriously, that kind of craving/need/desire/love/passion/almost-obsession doesn't just happen right away. It must build. But it all starts with a single beautiful tense and possibly disconcerting moment (the disconcerting moments are the best, in my opinion).

Take Radiant Darkness for example (Emily Whitman's lovely adaptation of the story of Hades and Persephone, with a sprinkling of Rapunzel thrown in for kiggles). Persephone sees Hades, the first male she's ever even seen in person, so yeah, she's all, "Whoa." And she thinks about him, even though they don't even talk or even meet each other's eyes. I actually haven't even figured out if he knew she was there the first time.

But she's thinking about him because for the first time in her life, she's seen someone other than her mother or the various nymphs that live in the vale she's never set foot outside of. For the first time, she's seen a guy. And the mystery of it is driving her bonkers. Our little MC doesn't know who this guy is (Hades, we the reader know, but she doesn't yet). She doesn't know why he was there or whether he'll be back, and she's torn between wanting him to stay away so she doesn't get in trouble with her overprotective man-hating mother and wanting him to come back so she can solve the mystery.

Also, seeing as how he's Hades, he's a bit... intimidating? Awe-inspiring? Disney says "tiny," if you ask Eddie Murphy, but we'll go with the first two instead. Right there is a good example of the feral insta-connect and how to make it work without it being pathetic, cookie-cutter, or just plain creepy.

Another example of the feral insta-connect, a great "whoa" moment, is in Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce. The love interest in Sisters Red has known both female MCs nearly all their lives. Then he goes away for like, 2 years, and comes back on his twenty-first birthday. He left as the boy they (Rose and Scarlet) had always known, and came back as this oddly studly guy. He and Rose have a "whoa" moment, fueled by his newly-acquired hotness as well as the nearly life-or-death situation they'd just escaped and the familiarity he still possessed because it was still that old friend of theirs, even if he did look and seem different. The connect is there from the get-go, but it's not the panting-gasping-slobbering-craving insta-connect of so many YA novels. It has to develop.

Basically what I'm saying is, writers - please give your MC and the love interest something other than that "oh my gosh it's you I need you I crave your blood and want your demon babies" connection. Some of you might think I'm taking a crack at Twilight with the crave-your-blood thing, but actually, Twilight is one of those novels that in fact doesn't have the bane of my existence, the domesticated insta-connect. Bella has a good reason for her swift attraction to Edward.

1) He's being a complete jerk for some unknown reason, the mystery of which is driving her mad. In fact, the mystery of a person does a lot for the attraction of a female lead to said person. Examples of this are Nevermore, City of Bones, and Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side. Although annoying in real life, the whole "come-hither/stay-away" schtick done by male love interests in some YA novels does intrigue the reader and also gives a valid reason for the female lead to think about this person.

An interesting televised gender-reversed version of this is Puck and... that one big girl that he absolutely adores on the show Glee. The one girl who's the State Champion for Greco-Roman Wrestling and is actually kind of mean to him. Because she does that, he's totally besotted. And he's not the chump type, either. He's the love-em-and-leave-em bad boy. So that should say something about the efficacy of this method.

2) Physiologically, not a lot of difference between loving and loathing. To quote the musical Wicked, "What is this feeling, so sudden and new? I felt it the moment I laid eyes on you. My pulse is rushing; my head is reeling; my face is flushing. What is this feeling? Turbid as a flame, does it have a name? Yeeeeeeeeeeesssss...."

Now, when I first heard that song when I was fifteen, my first thought was, "I thought the name of this song was 'Loathing.' Why are they talking about love?" Does that tell you anything? A famous proverb is "there's a fine line between love and hate." A lot of books and movies use that to their advantage.

Twilight, of course. In Nevermore, by Kelly Creagh, Isobel and Varen start off loathing each other. The titular character of Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side thinks Lucius or Lucian (I can never remember which), the male lead, is a freak and a whack-job and is only putting up with him because after he's there for... I forget how many weeks, if she doesn't believe everything he's telling her by then, he's going to leave and never bother her again. Princess Diaries 2, Mia goes from kinda liking Nicholas to hating him when she finds out exactly what his plan is, to falling for him over the course of the film. Biologically, this makes perfect sense, since the physical response to seeing someone we dislike and are nervous around (a la Edward and Bella) is pretty much the same as seeing someone we love.

And if you think this is just in romance, think again. In one of Piers Anthony's fantasy novels about the mixed-up world of Xanth, there's a character who sort-of sees how he was conceived, and the whole time his parents are making out and stuff, they're growling at each other about how they hate each other and once they get away from what are basically the cops (they're bad guys) they'll kill each other and yet not only do they conceive a baby, they end up married for years and years. So... yeah. =)

Anyway, my point is, if you see the domesticated insta-connect anywhere - shoot it. Kill it with fire. If you want to use the insta-connect, call Animal Control and find out if they have any feral ones on hand. Use those. Or, go the Wither/Romiette & Julio/Beauty and the Beast/Hunger Games/Glass route and let the connection build slowly over time. That actually does work. =)

- LA Knight