The Good Girl's Bad Boys [Book Two of TGGBB Series] (Ongoing)

An Imbalance of Support

HA! Yeah it's a post disguised as a chapter. Now silence. Go and read.

I want to first establish that I'm not calling anyone out. Honestly, the majority of you were great in the comments of the last chapter. Not all of you, but a good majority of you. But I want us to be on the same page and take a step back to think more clearly about what just happened.

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TGGBB has a lot of potential. People tell me it's their favorite book and other compliments, but I don't think of that. It just simply has a lot of potential that was brought down because of my amateur writing and incomplete plot outline. My insecurity and self-criticism would label it as a bad book, but I have enough confidence to say it has... potential.

I have never read TGGBB ever since I wrote it. You know how sometimes you remember an embarrassing thing and you cringe while in a fetal position in some corner of the room? Well, TGGBB is a "physical" entity of that fear and anxiety.

One of the many reasons I don't like TGGBB and worked to rewrite over it in Broken Glasses is the misogyny, or dislike or prejudice again women, in the book- not only from the writing but from the comment section as well.

The situation made it easy. I struggled writing a female protagonist who I wanted to be a relatable role model and friend, someone who's quirky and smart but has her flaws and selfish desires, hindered by insecurity and bullying.

BUT

Then we have three male characters each with their personalities, backgrounds, and imagined physical attractiveness served on a silver platter to a reading audience primarily of young women. (I could easily say hormonal tweens and teens as I was when I first started Wattpad but I digress).

And with that setup, this imbalanced sympathy and support was created. The majority of the readers through their comments naturally leaned towards the guys over Naomi. I'm not saying Naomi didn't have any faults and mistakes, I had just said she has her flaws and selfish desires. But that never meant the guys didn't have them as well. At one point, I even tested my suspicion of this imbalanced support, when I had both Naomi and Bennett say the same thing, and everyone supported what Bennett said while waving Naomi off.

It was frustrating and tiring. I remember when writing TGGBB I often got depressed knowing everyone seemed to just hate Naomi but love the guys. Maybe it's just because I made them that I want them all to be supported equally, but now it goes beyond that.

And I'm not saying everyone blindly thinks the guys are right, maybe even a minority of you think so now, but what's important is acknowledging that this exists and is actively happening. I thought this wouldn't be a problem anymore after TGGBB1 but here we are.

This is all because of, and you guessed it, Chapter 29. I wanted to wait to better explain it in the later chapters, but after talking about it in the TGGBB Discord (link in my bio what up), I felt it's important to first formally introduce/discuss it before those chapters because not everyone can analyze it on their own which is why I like Wattpad's comment section because it sparks these great discussions.

The main point of Chapter 29 is that everyone was in the wrong. Jordan was clearly in the wrong, snapping and starting arguments with everyone, looking towards alcohol as a coping mechanism- there was a general agreement in all of the comment sections that Jordan needed to shut up and calm down. Glad we're on the same page.

But now we turn to the other two: Declan and Naomi.

Naomi, also in the wrong. She bit back at Jordan's insults and arguments as well as started on some of her own. Like I said before, Jordan and Naomi used to have my same Myers-Briggs personalities and that's just the kind of characters they are when they're angry and hurt.