Wake of Echoes

Millennials. lazy. idiots. entitled. Well that's what comes up at the top of a Google search.  Some call them the "Me Generation." Others take to social media to label them crybabies, snowflakes, leeches, parasites and any number of other colorful insults. They are the champions of participation trophies. Armed with selfie sticks, this self-idolizing, instant-gratification generation of apps and memes doesn't know how to hold a conversation, much less a job, but insist on tweeting and texting every thought that passes through their heads (all without proper spelling and grammar!) Meanwhile they self-righteously berate their elders over the environment, the purity of Bernie Sanders and the proper use of genderless pronouns.  Whether you think that list is spot on or a stereotypical exaggeration, the real question is: do Millennials deserve all the guff we give them? Are the young people of this generation really a special kind of problem, nev...

I know you. You hate stereotypes in fiction.   That’s what I say too. Usually, it’s the truth. The skinny heroine, the leading man who owns a mansion. The overbearing mother-in-law, the drunken stepfather. The husband who sleeps with his secretary, the strung-out rock star. But I’ve come to realize that sometimes I find comfort in the stereotype. Some characters are not meant to stand out, but to fit in. Sometimes a character needs to say what is expected, do what is cliché. Every once in a while, vanilla is the right flavor. And even though real people are as unique as their thumbprints, we don’t know them all well enough to see where they differ from “the norm.” We don’t know the quirks of everyone among our acquaintance, much less all those we have marginal contact with – and I’m pretty sure we don’t want to! (I think this is why complexity in every  character can make a story feel just as contrived as those without any.) So when do we use stereotype and...