Universal Truth of Stereotypes

At the risk of being spanked* severely for wading into this contentious topic I've decided, 'what the hell?' I'm going to wade right in there.

I think there are a lot of truths to some stereotypes, and that it is inevitable that they come out in writing.

Think about it. If a gorgeous gal is curved, blonde, pert and has an infectuous giggle, she's likely had guys drooling over since she was in a training bra. Chances are, that girl is going to be confident, poised, know how to use her looks to her advantage...it comes with the territory when people are always paying attention to you and complimenting you.

Likewise, the homely, sullen girl will be regarded as difficult, ill-tempered, lacking in the social and fashion graces...they might just be a wee bit bitter, or a bit of a tomboy.

There are some things that are indicative of experience, and some of our experiences in life are based solely on our appearance, our race and our level of education.

One of the people in my writer's group was at BoucherCon a few years ago, and she said that on the cliches panel, one of the points made was that if you tried to go too far in being original, you ended up with one-armed sleuths because there wasn't anything feasible that hadn't been done before.

Face it. Some jobs invite stress. And there are certain things that are more likely de-stressers than others. When I studied journalism I soon learned just why it is that journalists have such a high alcoholism and divorce rate. Wow.

But the stress of it all was real. Even as students, we spend 50% of our time actually reporting. One reporter woke up on night to hear the woman in the apartment next to him being beaten to death. One of our classmates was shot and killed in Yugoslavia on assignment. I remember that. I got the assignment of writing up the 'dealing with death' piece. Tell me we don't feel, I'd have shown you a newsroom full of crying journalists.

In the end, though, you find yourself getting hardened. Maybe not everyone does. Some undoubtedly find the way around it. But I couldn't. I couldn't live with being that numb.


When I started writing my first mystery, I went to familiar territory. Two main protags, one a cop, one a reporter. A young reporter (well, a young cop too) still filled with idealism. Still believing.

I haven't written the second ms in that series yet, but I wonder about it. I wonder if she'll be able to hold on to her optimism, or if she'll become jaded and cynical like I did. I think that's why I've had a hard time thinking through the second book. Realistically, you can only get beaten on, threatened and witness murders and horrid things so many times before you might start getting a bit...cynical.

So I wonder, writerly folk out there, what do you think when you read a book and the characters manage to elude that? Do you find it believable? I usually don't. And I find myself thinking that its inevitable that these two are going to lose some of that innocence.

But I wonder how people will take it, anyone who ever reads book 1 and loves it.

What do you guys think? Is it possible to evade the stereotype and yet keep it believable?

* Like I don't know you want to. And some of you think I deserve it more than others.

And, in the first of what might be a weekly thing, a Friday Funny:

A couple has a dog that snores.

Annoyed because she can't sleep, the wife goes to the vet to see if he can help.

The vet tells the woman to tie a ribbon around the dog's testicles and he will stop snoring.

"Yeah, right!" she says.

A few minutes after going to bed, the dog begins snoring, as usual.

The wife tosses and turns, unable to sleep.

Muttering to herself, she goes to the closet and grabs a piece of red ribbon and ties it carefully around the dog's testicles.

Sure enough, the dog stops snoring! The woman is amazed.

Later that night, her husband returns home drunk from being out drinking with his buddies.

He climbs into bed, falls asleep, and begins snoring loudly.

The woman thinks maybe the ribbon might work on him, so she goes to the closet again, She grabs a piece of blue ribbon, and ties it around her husband's testicles.

Amazingly, it also works on him! The woman sleeps soundly. The husband wakes from his drunken stupor and stumbles into the bathroom. As he stands in front of the toilet, he glances in the mirror and sees a blue ribbon attached to his privates.

He is very confused and as he walks back into the bedroom, he sees the red ribbon attached to his dog's testicles He shakes his head and looks at the dog and whispers, "I don't know where we were,or what we did, but, by God, we took first and second place!"