Depicting Bullying and Prejudice in Fantasy YA Fiction

Yesterday, I edited a good 11000 words of Morgana Tremaine. Today, I wrote a good 3000 and now plan to edit 7000, since I've finished her second case and it needs work.

This case did not turn out the way I wanted it to. I knew that it was going to depict bullying somewhat. Morgana's best friend's homework keeps disappearing-- obviously it was going to show bullying in some manner. But I didn't expect the bullying to come mostly from Morgana's magic teacher rather than the person who actually committed the homework-stealing crime. It's tricky, to say the least. Kid-to-kid bullying is one thing; teacher-to-student bullying is another. Goner can stand up to herself perfectly well with one. She's more hesitant about the other.

Not that I mean to whine about what I have, myself, created. But Goner is the only "normal" girl in a city that is decidedly not normal. The only thing that holds together all of the various mythical races that make up her world is the idea that they can unite against people like Goner. "We are an Us; they are the Other." That means that Goner is a girl entirely out of place in the world she lives in who insists on constantly sticking her nose where it doesn't belong. It makes it difficult to write about her without it seeming like everyone is out to get her.

Goner is strong. She can handle herself in most situations. She is also only twelve years old, and "most" situations can't equate all. But neither can she seem passive-- passivity in the main character is one thing that kills a story. Goner doesn't have it in her to be completely passive. But she does have it in her to seem the victim, whether I want her to or not. I have to combat that. I have to make her tread somewhere between an extremely competent young woman and one who just isn't prepared and shouldn't have to be prepared for certain things. Prejudice is difficult. I didn't set out to handle it. I think I'm doing it well enough so far, but it does occasionally get overwhelming.

Morgana Tremaine is half-finished now.

Gawd.