Promiscuous teenage girl primary character

Now I've got your attention...

No seriously though, we're talking about writing a very sexual active teenage girl as my protagonist and I want to make sure I get this right so it's neither gratuitous and unpleasant but also not moralizing and judging her for it either. She is who she is and I want to get her right so that it fits organically.

The book is a teen romance and it's broadly a Romeo and Juliet kind of affair; kids from two warring gangs getting together but the genders are flipped; so the hot headed, promiscuous Romeo is a really tomboyish girl and the soft, shy Juliet is the boy. The question here is, as all good questions are, about sweaty teenage humping and how to characterize our 'Romeo's' extensive sexual history in a way that feels genuine and not just like a boy but not just like a stereotypical girl either.

The protagonist is a 16/17 year old girl, Oz (Oliva) who is the daughter of the head of a motorcycle club. She's spent almost her whole life around the gang, she was three or four when her dad left the army and started the gang. She's a real tomboy (hence Oz not Liv) and spends a lot of time hanging out with the gang and getting into trouble with them. She absolutely idolizes her dad and the gang, seeing them as knights on harleys who can just take whatever they want so she's a bit of an anarchist and a thrill seeker and doesn't see the problem with just hitting people who get in her face, both boys and girls. She's really set on following in her dad's footsteps too. All she wants is a cut and a harley and to ride with the gang, even though she can't officially join. She's even thinking about joining the army because she wants to carry a rifle and kill people just like daddy did.

And following from all that she's into jack daniels, cigarettes, drugs and heavy metal. And sex of course; she's been outright promiscuous, outwardly taking the same attitude to boys as the bikers take to sex and she doesn't see a problem with cheating on someone if they don't find out. She started early too, at about 13 or 14, hooking up with exciting older boys, not immediately jumping into bed but by the time we start the story she's definitely had plenty of sex and fooled around quite a lot more, mostly with boys she met at a gig or a party and barely remembers.

Her 'Juliet' is Marcus who's father is the head of a black street gang from the next town over. Marcus is mixed race and that makes him a bit of an outsider to the Jamaican gang but he's just fine with that because he loathes the gang and the violence and drugs that follow them around. He's a good kid, he's artistic and quiet and clever, involved with his church and wants to get away from where he grew up.

Marcus' father sees himself as a business man (think Stringer Bell from The Wire; he always wears a suit). He does love his son but he doesn't quite know how to talk to Marcus. He wants to support his son in getting away and having a better life but part of him thinks that it'd be better if he'd never told Marcus he was his father. Despite their problems Marcus really wants his dad to be proud of him and he's trying to connect with him. As part of that his dad asked him to paint big extravagant gang murals around the town, a way for them to bond and he can always see something of Marcus when he walks down the street.

So that's our leads. Star crossed lovers, warring gangs all the good stuff. And they'll get together, end the war etc etc. Marcus has never had sex, Oz eats young men for breakfast, after a belt of JD. Marcus isn't really happy about that, seeing the same behaviors that he sees in his gang in her but he'll forgive that because he sees a different side to her and their relationship is very different to her previous ones.

The question here is less about how to put Oz's previous sex life into the plot, it's more about how to characterize that part of her in both the past and present and accurately communicating how she feels about it. Oz is a first person narrator so she's going to think about her previous liaisons and I don't quite have a handle on what that is. She definitely doesn't feel bad about sleeping around, in fact she probably saw it as making her 'one of the boys' and she likes that she can manipulate boys (especially the young biker recruits) to do anything for her by being sexy at them.

But that said she's definitely not as brash on the inside and even if she doesn't quite admit it to herself she likes the idea of having a proper boyfriend who she can really talk to, something she's never had before. She's an artist too, drawing up designs for the gang and she airbrushes them onto their bikes, and that's a real passion for her. The two of them first met when she was sketching something from one of his graffiti murals; and she loves that they can talk about that and that she can be more expressive and emotive with him instead of just drawing 'cool shit' for the gang.

Oz is still daddy's girl too; a bit less grown up than she puts across. She can get away with hitting people and throwing her weight around because people aren't keen to incur the wrath of a local bike gang so she's never really had to deal with the fallout from being drunk and lairy and shagging people's boyfriends, so I think she's maybe not quite as grown up as she thinks she is because she hasn't really needed to grow up just yet.

Oz's dad is somewhat different to most dads but he dotes on her and since he's the king of bikers that makes Oz the princess. She's not a traditional princess by any means, she can handle herself just fine, but she loves bossing the prospects around and riding on the back of her Dad's harley to school. The start of the book is her dad going back to prison (again) just for nine months for a stupid bar fight but he's gone again and she really misses him. She so badly wants to make him proud and it genuinely upsets her that she can't join the bike gang (at least, she thinks so, her dad is planning to bend the rules so she can join and no-one will tell him no).

When it comes to her sexual past I don't want to make Oz just think like most boys would at that age (sex is awesome, why would I want anything else?) but I don't want her to just be a stereotypical girl hidden under her bike jacket either; I don't want her to be secretly pining for prince charming to sweep her off her feet. She's very masculine in lots of respects, super proud that her dad got her in to meet Lemmy after a Motorhead gig when she was six and she has a punch that even the bikers have learned to fear, but she still has femininity to her too but I kinda don't know how to get them both to sync up in a genuine feeling way, at least when it comes to sex.

She'd hate the idea of some boy trying to look after her in a physical or material sense, but she needs Marcus to moderate her thrill seeking and bring out the more creative, positive side of her; someone who can be really happy without that self-destructive stuff. It'll definitely be a bone of contention between Oz and Marcus that she is legitimately and unapologetically violent at times which Marcus absolutely loathes. Even when she beats up his crazy ex-girlfriend who is stalking him he gets angry at her because 'that's what they would do'. He definitely won't be happy at the idea of her really joining the bike gang too, but in the end they have a strong enough connection and she grows enough through their relationship for him to stick around.

So, with that in mind, how does she think about her past shags to herself? Just as a bit of fun, just like the lads do? Or do you think she's more aware that it's not really fulfilling to her outside of the physical moment? She's definitely missing that spark of someone who she shares a deeper connection with than just a mutual love of bikes and leather accouterments, especially while her dad is away. But that said she definitely does see being young as a time to be wild and stupid and get in trouble, and to make her dad proud of course.

That's the connection I'm missing; sex has been part of her thrill seeking, self-destructive side and I'm trying to find how she frames that in her head and how that changes. I don't want her to end up being ashamed of it either, I just want her to grow up a bit and I'm not quite sure where I'm starting or where I'm going.

I guess my problem is that I'm not a girl and perhaps more importantly I went to an all boys school so I don't have a lot to draw on with Oz, especially not from younger teen girls who are still quite macho. Does she care if girls at school call her a slut? Or does she revel in her bad girl image? Does she see boys as just notches on her bedpost that she doesn't even want to get to know? Or am I totally wide of the mark on her and teenage girls think completely differently?

It's not a huge part of her character really, but it's an important undercurrent in her and something that really shows how she's grown through the story as it changes. I suppose what I'm asking is what would feel right to you based on who the character is without judging her or making her ashamed. There's more nuance to it than just writing a promiscuous girl, or a promiscuous boy come to that; that's the problem really.

Any help here would be greatly appreciated!

 

I'm going to make a minor comparison here.

My sister's now-ex used to smoke, being in a family who hates smoking (when she was 7, our granddad died of a smoking-related heart attack, which doesn't help) she said she was not going to kiss him if he smelled and tasted like cigarettes, and that was all it took to inspire him to quit because he's a big sap.

You've made no mention of Oz's mother, so I'm guessing she's not in the picture, which would explain her only really having guys to look up to and emulate. Marcus probably delivers something that she has been missing, which at first intrigues her, but as she learns what it is, it makes her realise she didn't have this feeling for the guys she slept with until now. In a way, she was using them to seek her own ends, it's up to you whether she feels guilty about it or not, but that's the feeling I get.

 

I think this is a really intriguing setup. (I think it may actually be the first time I've read one of these blurbs on this site that I've actually been tempted to "steal" someone's ideas!).

I think you're avoiding the pitfall that would make me wary: too many teen books with a female MC who has had lots of sex end with her realizing it was just a tool to fill her emotional damage, or whatever. You got a bit close with "she doesn't quite admit it to herself she likes the idea of having a proper boyfriend who she can really talk to", but I think there's enough distance from the physical to make that okay.

To me, it'd be the physical vs. emotional side of things that will make this shift work. For girls as well as guys, sex feels good, or at least it does if the girl is either lucky enough to be with someone who's paying attention or, in this case, is assertive enough to damn well make sure he's paying attention. So why has she had lots of sex in the past? Because it feels good. Not some deep emotional hole, just a physical response. When you remove all the social rules that get in the way of having sex, why wouldn't she have done something that feels good? Add in the power element and it's even more appealing.

You can have her explain this fairly early in the book - a school- or court-appointed counsellor, if no other characters seem like they'd be candidates for the conversation. Your teen MC might not have the philosophy well thought out, but she could react with genuine confusion to the counsellor's questions and show her opinions that way. Like:

The counsellor gave me that look, the one bitches like her seem to think is going to hide their bitchiness. Oh, you're just a silly little girl, and I should help you out. You know that look? Then she made it all worse by opening her mouth.

"You really don't understand why Carrie was angry with you?"

I snorted. "Yeah, I understand. So what?"

"So--" She looked kind of confused, which was nice. "So don't you see how this all started? If you--spend time--with her boyfriend--"

"If I fuck her boyfriend," I clarified.

Her smile was a bit forced. Yeah, I was winning this one. But she hadn't given up yet. "If you have sex with her boyfriend and she finds out, you can't expect her not to be angry."

"I guess. So what? I mean, you guys have been telling me for years that just being angry doesn't give me the right to get physical with people. So she had no right to get physical with me, right? That's how it should work? So she got physical with me and I defended myself."

"She pushed you; you broke her nose."

I smiled sweetly. "I don't know my own strength."

A sigh, and then she said, "Why did you sleep with him in the first place? Was it just to set all this off?"

"Are you a virgin?" I asked, making my voice all high and shocked-sounding.

"What? We aren't here to discuss me."

"Oh, okay. I just--I just asked because if you don't know why people have sex, it sounds like you maybe haven't actually done it? Or maybe you just aren't doing it right? I don't know. I could suggest a couple guys--don't worry, old enough to be legal for you--who could maybe help you out with that, if you're interested."

"Have you considered that sex can fill emotional needs as well as physical ones?"

"Considered it? Sure. But it doesn't have to, right? It can just--just feel good? That's the part you don't know about, I guess. But trust me. You do it right and it feels real good."

etc.
​

Sorry, I got a bit carried away. Like I said, I like this idea!

And then when she hooks up with Julio, they can have another conversation, one where she says it's just physical, and he points out that there are emotional aspects for him, and if she wants to be with him it has to be emotional for her as well, and he insists on her being monogamous (I assume) and she agrees, not because there was anything wrong with her previous behaviour, but because she cares enough about him to give it up. That's the part I think would be easy to mess up, and have it turn into that weird sort of slut-shaming that comes from "reforming" the slut and having her realize she was wrong.

I like the idea of her never thinking it was wrong, just something that wasn't important enough to interfere with her new relationship.

Good luck with this! Let me know if you get it finished!

 

I agree that she would view her past shags as no big deal, and probably consider it sexist that anybody would. Man who has sex at 13 is a hero, right? Woman who does it is damaged. In reality that difference in perception is down to the fact that for all practical purposes, there aren't a bunch of women looking to prey on 13 year old boys.

A man like Marcus wouldn't sleep with her until she has the all clear from the VD Clinic. Period. Contracting HIV from a promiscuous druggie is not on anybody's to do list.

 

One problem I have is that if her dad is the boss of the gang, he's going to have a lot of issues with his daughter being promiscuous. Most (not all) powerful men tend to be pretty patriarchal, if not outright misogynists, and while he may [redacted] a different woman or women every night of the week, and three times on Saturdays, he's probably going to be pretty protective of his little girl, if only to maintain his own image within the gang.

 

Quibbles aside, (what Iain said about the dad) I think it's an outstanding idea for a story. I'm very impressed. In fact, it's probably the best original "synopsis" I've read on WF. Ever.

 

What about my Queen Lear?

 

Let me start by agreeing with what everybody else has already said: this sounds like an amazing story premise and I would love to read this book!

I have a couple of little thoughts to add.

So it is clear that her promiscuity isn't a big deal to Oz. But it seems as though, at least in your head, it is a big deal ... or at least, you are assuming it will/should be a big deal to readers because that kind of behaviour from a young girl is received with a plethora negative responses in comfortable modern society. I would suggest you forget what readers will or won't think - they will accept whatever you present, because it is your story, not theirs - and give yourself the freedom to 'get inside' Oz's head more. Is she noncholant about her sex life? So should you be. You will be in a constant push-and-pull war between your character and yourself if you are unable to let your headspace reflect your MC's. The way you present her nonchalance or rebellious attitude won't come across as genuine, because you are feeling guilty or uncomfortable about it.

As to how this would play out in the story, don't dwell on it. Let it be a fact without being a major, scandalous thing. Slowly over the course of the book, as Oz revisits and reassesses some of the choices she's made, you can linger a while longer on the impact and the negatives of the patterns in her life. But as to the initial reveal to the readers of her past choices and current headspace with it, it would be appropriate to keep it understated, factual and quickly move on - this seems, to me, to be the way Oz would handle it. Think like Oz.

Example:

She sits and watches him flick through her sketchpad. When she handed it to him, she told herself she didn't care what he thought of her or her art. But now she is poised on the edge of the seat, ready to snatch the pad away from him the second he smiles or raises an eyebrow.

Marcus turns another page and she grins. A little defensive, a little defiant. He looks up in surprise. "You drew this?"

"Sure." She shrugs.

"Why?"

"Why not?" She is particularly proud of this page. It took her two weeks to complete, from start to finish. She looks over his shoulder and assesses the fourteen tiny pencil renditions of people having sex in varying positions. Not all of the pencil strokes are as crisp or soft or confident as she would have liked, but all in all, she thinks she can see real progress in her drawing skills since last year.

"I mean, it's kind of graphic," Marcus says.

Oz has a choice. She can shrug and pull the book out of his hands - weak - or she can stare him down, defy him to judge her. Why the fuck does she care what he thinks? She stares him down. "They are my personal favourites."

"These drawings?"

"No. Those positions."

​

Not the most perfect piece of prose, but you can see how it hints at the idea that Oz might actually care more about what Marcus thinks of her than she has ever cared before about a boy's opinion of her, and also that this makes her uncomfortable. It also is enough to illustrate her sexual experience without going into graphic detail.

If you don't judge Oz, neither will the readers. If you are uncomfortable or uncertain about her promiscuity, your readers will pick up on that vibe. Likewise, if you think about her promiscuity as being a major big deal, so will your readers. It takes the focus off what matters.

 

@LostThePlot I think you're going to be OK with a semi masculine, metal loving, biker girl who has a libido and sexual attitude on par with your stereotypical guy, as I happen to know someone exactly like this, minus the biker part. I don't think there needs to be some psychological reason for her promiscuity- she just has a male sex drive. It helps that you're willing to give the girl some masculinity, as the person I know is also (imo) a little bit on the male side, in terms of manners, looseness of hygiene, and musculature, although still feminine enough to attract masculine men.

 

Thanks for both your thoughts and your kind words. It feels weirdly uncomfortably to have people respond positively to my ideas, but I am trying hard to take it in the spirit it was intended.

To answer some specific points:

Why wouldn't she is definitely I think how she sees it at the start of the story. Why wouldn't I have fun? The question then becomes though how she thinks looking back at the end now she does have a more fulfilling, emotional relationship? And that is pretty much the bit I'm struggling with because I very much don't want her to regret it or look back and realize what she was missing all along. Perhaps it's that, in the end, being with Marcus is good sex and good other stuff?

Yeah, I'm very much with you on that front. Much of her backstory is getting exposited by her meeting with the school counsellor early on. She has a pattern of *ahem* disruptive behavior both in and out of school. When her dad goes to jail again he leaves her his bike-cut and she starts wearing it everywhere including to school and her just flatly refusing to take it off puts her in front of the counsellor and we'll go through some of her past misdeeds there, and see that she sees the world somewhat differently to most people. For lots of stuff she really doesn't understand why people are making such a big fucking deal about it. She doesn't grumble about getting punished, but she doesn't get why people are acting like it's some awful thing to kick someone in the balls so hard they throw up. She'll 'do the time' and not complain but she still lives by simple rules like 'talk shit get hit' and 'if he liked you that much he wouldn't have slept with me'.

That's a fair point. I think I can live without writing a trip to the clap clinic in a teen book, but he definitely isn't the kind of guy that will jump into bed with her no matter what. The question that I suppose I want to ask with that though is how Oz will respond to a boy that is clearly into her but won't sleep with her. It has more narrative impact if she chooses not to sleep with him immediately and I think I'd much rather it take that path, because that shows her growth and that she legitimately likes that guy in a greater sense than sexual. Perhaps there's scope to do both, to some degree? When they've just met he says gently says no and then next time she's the one who stops herself?

In the end it's her story though, and with her narrating as well I really want it to be her choice to change herself not just because she's nuts enough about him to not care. That makes it feel like the story saying that shagging people she likes was 'wrong' and 'real' romance means not doing that and that's the opposite.

Point taken, but that's not a vibe I've ever gotten from bikers. Granted I haven't (to my knowledge) known any 1% (ie overtly criminal) bikers but they tend to being pretty anarchistic. I think Oz's dad just stays out of her business when it comes to boys, treating her much like he would a son. I think he just sees it as up to her how she has fun. Remember he's ok with her getting blind drunk, reeking of weed and occasionally sticking a steel toe cap up someone's rear end. She's been arrested before and randomly just stays out all night. He sees her doing the same things he did at that age, shrugs and goes back to working on his harley. He's certainly protective of her, absolutely, but in a literal physical sense. He's there to get her out of trouble once she's in it, rather than to stop her getting into it. He would absolutely take violent exception to anyone in the gang trying to sleep with her but with boys her age I can't see him having a reason to care. He knows she'll tell him (or in his absence anyone in the club) if she's in over her head and that's worked well enough so far.

I think you're right to some degree. It's me worrying as an author about the whole rather than looking through the character. My big deal is other people seeing it being creepy or gratuitous. I suppose I just wanted to talk it through and make sure that others feel that this kind of character can work and to seek some ideas on how to approach it in a grounded, realistic way. At least then I can be reasonably confident that I'm writing romance and not weird porn. Not that there's anything wrong with that as such, but it's not what I'm trying to do.

I've known a few girls like that too, although most were a bit older when I knew them and I never knew much about them as teens, which is partially what gives me pause. I think you're right to say there isn't some deep psychological reasoning to why she likes sex, she just likes it. The thing is however that while she is legitimately masculine I don't want her to just be a boy. That's what I think made me want to ask here. It felt that there would be, or perhaps should be, some subtle difference in how she sees sex. I'm open to the idea that that's not the case though, that it's not gendered really to be promiscuous, and I need to look elsewhere to find that feminine part of her.

Perhaps I am just legitimately over thinking this; perhaps it is just that obvious. At least that's something helpful to think about, as long as it scans fine already then I can just stop worrying and think about doing it well.

A question for everyone:

If you are a 15 year old boy who gets laid you bask in the kudos from your peers. If you are a normal 15 year old girl who has sex would you tell people? What do you think people at school would say/think? And, further to that, as Oz, does she act like a boy and expect people at school to be impressed? No matter how masculine she is her school friends are still girls and she surely understands that they aren't going to queue up to give her high fives like boys would?

 

There are girls who would give high fives, assuming the guys she's sleeping with are attractive. And if these are genuine friends of hers, I assume they'd be okay with her behaviour? She doesn't sound like she's a good-girl-gone-bad type, who might still have some good-girl friends... if she's been like this her whole life, any friends she's got are likely running on a similar wave-length, right?

 

I wanted to comment that you definitely seem to see having multiple sex partners as a negative thing. That may give you trouble with writing a character who may absolutely not see it that way at all.

Also, you're throwing some more negative things in with the multiple sex partners. She can have multiple partners without "shagging people's boyfriends". She can have multiple partners without cheating--"cheating" means that monagamy is expected. She doesn't need to "eat young men for breakfast." Now, you may want those attributes, I just wanted to make it clear that those behaviors, and having multiple partners, don't necessarily come as a package.

A quote on that topic from the British comedy Coupling:

(Right before this, Susan discovers, to her surprise, that Patrick had thought that they were in a relationship. He was starting the "let's date other people" conversation and was startled to learn that she never thought that the situation was otherwise.)

Susan: Look, I’m not saying it wasn’t good. I’m just saying it didn’t seem like a week’s worth! No, don’t look like that! Not everyone has my level of sex drive. I mean, for a start you’re a bloke-
Patrick: Alright! Alright. I wasn’t gonna say anything, but actually… I’ve been seeing someone else, too.
Susan: …You’ve been cheating on me?
Patrick: What?
Susan: Is this true, Patrick?
Patrick: But you were cheating on me!
Susan: I wasn’t cheating. I wasn’t being faithful. You were being faithful, and that means you were cheating! And I thought I knew you.

I would actually suggest that you watch Coupling--the British version, NOT the US one. It's about adults and not teens, but I'd suggest it all the same.

Susan's past history includes sleeping with so many men in Australia on a long holiday that various towns started naming bars after her. But then she was monogamous with Steve. At one point she broke up with Steve, and one of the jokes was "I quite fancy popping back to Australia. There must be a whole new batch past the age of consent by now."

But my point is that this is simply a character trait of Susan; it's not a big big thing.

I offer one video. Susan's the blond one.

 

I should have made something clear- the girl in question has a high libido- it's untied to any issues involving low or high self esteem. She totally treats guys like notches on a belt. She's unusual. I don't know anyone else like that.

 

I'm going to chime in as a monogamous person who has written a non-monogamous MC and struggled with following through based on my own biases.

Do you have anyone you can share your writing with who's non-monogamous? Because their input can be invaluable.

 

I've written a character who's a little bit similar to yours in the sense that she's young (19), a member of a gang, does stuff that's usually associated with men like fighting, and she works as a mechanic. The main difference is, I think, the way she handles her sex life because I was conscious of the gang being patriarchal and figured she couldn't afford to appear "slutty" or else she'd struggle to keep her status and the respect of her peers and elders. A part of patriarchy is controlling women's sexuality, so I included that aspect to the story. Maybe it's not a necessary component in yours. But I have to echo what @Iain Aschendale wrote up above. There's this weird double-standard where you can get drunk, break shit, get arrested, and cause all kinds of mayhem, but if you're a girl and sleep around, suddenly it's like, you're damaged goods.

Anyway, she can totally treat boys and men like notches in her belt. There's no need for her to get emotionally involved just because she's a teenage girl. Either she makes it clear from the start all she wants is sex or she just stops returning their texts 'cause she doesn't know the guys or expects they can man up and take it, that guys want no-strings-attached kind of stuff anyway and that pacifies what pangs she may feel (that was my go-to justification if I ever started feeling bad).

Sex isn't self-destructive in and of itself, but if the environment frowns upon you doing it left and right, then it can serve as a form of self-destruction (you consciously sabotage your status, friendships, etc.). If the environment is more forgiving of it, like maybe it's a big town or city where you can have fun without your family breathing on your neck all the time, it's just that, fun, you know? Like, hey, "I like doing it. I like doing it with guys I haven't met before because it's fun and exciting and doesn't tie me down." Nothing shameful in that. What she might feel ashamed of, however, could be treating other human beings flippantly (like not making it clear you just want to sleep with them), or if she's used her body to trade for luxury treatment or expensive gifts or whatever, that might make her feel ashamed, even cheap. I guess it all depends on what you want to say with this character.

She'll be perfectly capable of monogamy and loyalty too, if you want her to have a monogamous relationship with her Romeo. It's not necessarily tied to the amount of sex you've had before, even if they were with different partners. I mean, there's a difference between hooking up with some guy at a club and meeting someone you want to be with 24/7 for a hundred years.

At her school, some girls might judge her, but at least in this day and age, it's not that uncommon for girls to want to hook up with a lot of guys, so she might have friends she can talk to about her conquests. Kind of depends on the culture she lives in whether it's seen as a badge of honor or not. I'm from Scandinavia, so things might be a lot freer around here than in the States/the UK.

Since the OP is male and said he needs some advise from the female POV, I'd just like to add, to some ladies, it's not even necessary the guy pays that much attention as long as the, um, pocket rocket is in full salute. Even if a lot of guys feel like that's how it is, sex with women is not always like reading the subway map of Tokyo or calculating the mass of a black hole.

 

Fair enough. I guess the question for me tends to be - why bother with the guy, if you could get what you're looking for from an inanimate object (toy of whatever sort - are they still inanimate if they vibrate?). So if the guy is essentially serving as a stable base for a human dildo, I'm not sure he's worth the trouble. But fair enough, if she's built that way and knows her body well enough, she doesn't need too much more from the guy!

I've known quite a few women who were interested in casual sex and lots of it. At university I think my female friends hooked up way more often than my male friends did. It really wasn't a big deal. I think the only unusual part of this story (in that direction) is that she's starting younger than society would traditionally accept.

I agree with @ChickenFreak that I've picked up a few hints from your writing that made me think you aren't totally comfortable with her behaviour - not surprising, given how we're socialized. But I can say I would feel REALLY cheated if this story presented her as happily non-monogamous at the start and then turned it around and had her "healed" or "fixed" by the love of a good man/boy. I've read this too often in YA, and I hate it.

Your character engaged in one sort of activity when that was appropriate, and if she's going to be with someone to whom monogamy is important, she's flexible enough to engage in a different sort of activity. Good for her - she's adaptable!

 

What trouble? I read back to your post and I'm not sure if we're talking about some trouble/hassle that could be present in this story or just in general the hassle of hooking up with someone?

This was actually what I was wondering about as well. My own "hook-up years" were in senior high school between 16-18, so I find this character quite identifiable (to this extent, I was never the quintessential bad girl who liked motorbikes and mayhem, and I much, much preferred Jameson over JD!) but I might be coming from a culture that's different and more lenient in this regard.

While a monogamous relationship does not "fix" you, I have to say I personally grew tired of... not even playing the field, more like wandering aimlessly around the field, and I always wanted to be fiercely in love and find my Soulmate. I think because that story is close to my own experiences, I wouldn't mind reading about it.

But suggesting it's objectively better to just stick to one dick would grind my gears for sure.

 

Three similar points answerable the same way.

I don't see it as negative, at all. I have been someone who did exactly what Oz does, for the better part of five years. And I don't feel bad about it at all. I had a lot of fun in my late teens and early twenties. But if I was writing the book of my earlier years I would not read as a character you'd want to sympathize with. It wasn't self destructive per se, but pretty much everyone around me saw me as being a massive asshole who just happened to be charming enough to get away with it. And that's my friends who thought that, people who I'm still friends with, who still think I'm an asshole. Those people weren't going to give me the benefit of the doubt. And they just had to know me. I didn't ask them to read a book written from my perspective. That's what we're talking about here.

Forget about who I am and what I think. Think about who I'm writing for; girls aged 14+, the kind who read romance novels. How do they think about someone like Oz? That's what I'm trying to figure out here. I can totally agree that my perception and that of the audience are somewhat divorced, absolutely. It's definitely possible that I'm being a bit patronizing by even worrying about this. But that's why I'm careful about just making this be just nothing to her, just saying she has a high libido and moving on. Because I don't think that's how the audience would react to it.

I am indebted to @ChickenFreak for reminding me of Coupling because that's actually an interesting subversion of the romance ideal. In the show the women are all really highly sexed while the men are mostly slightly terrified of that. Think of Steve finding Susan's vibrator; it's shot like a horror movie. Jane is so over the top that most men won't even sleep with her. Throughout the show it's Steve who's worrying about having a real relationship while the girls who are worried about sex. The men are all thinking about the melty man and not performing adequately for the girls. And because it's well written (or at least I remember it being so; watching it in latter days it feels very 90s and it never recovered from the loss of Geoff) it's funny. But at the same time, that Susan has shagged everyone in the outback is played for laughs. That they can manipulate men so easily by saying 'naked' or 'stockings' or 'throb' is played for laughs. As it should be, it's a comedy. But because it's a comedy those details aren't such a big deal. If we jump a bit further back in Jack Davenport's career; imagine transplanting those Coupling female characters into a show like This Life or Cold Feet. In that setting where the audience needs to really buy into the character and sympathize with them, well, yes you could still make that work but it wouldn't be quite the same.

I guess that's a interesting question. I met my soon to be wife when I was 19 and she was 17. Her group weren't the really bad girls but they smoked and drank and did drugs. But when I showed up her close friends got kinda weird about it, to the point that by the time my girlfriend finished school they couldn't really talk to each other anymore. I absolutely agree that her friends were being fucking weird and jealous but things like that make me feel like I just don't understand girls at all. I remember when I dropped her off to meet her friends in town after she'd stayed with me, not the first time we'd slept together but the first time that we'd be blatant about it, and just watching from the car I could see two of her friends treating her differently, while the other one who'd had boyfriends was all squeaky and excited for her.

Oz always been a 'bad girl', or to her mind 'a rugged individualist'. But again there's levels and nuances there. My girlfriends friends were people who liked the same bands as her or shared a love of anime or vampires. I knew a girl a couple of years below my girlfriend (she was a friend of my friend's little sister) and she had been a private junior school and her school friends were definitely the good girls. But I never really met them. She'd come jump in the back of my car and I'd take her out drinking when she was 15 and to meet my disreputable friends. When she slept with a friend of mine, she told me but not her school friends. The school friends part is important here though, because Oz is still at school and still has school friends but I don't know how like her they really are. Oz could be 'the rebel' in her group, or she could be one in a group of rebels. Personally I like the feeling that her friends are somewhat like her, people that she can party with and who like the same kind of music and the same kind of boys, but she's definitely the out there one. The others are just being typical teens; they wouldn't just hit someone to shut them up and they're a bit scared to come hang out with the bikers.

 

Oh, yeah, just the trouble of, like, leaving the house. Not a larger issue.

 

I agree a thousand percent. I don't want to do that. At all.

But there's some immediate narrative dissonance there. Because why is someone who's really happy sleeping around suddenly equally happy not to do that? Why does someone who is so highly sexed so keen to be in a relationship with someone isn't highly sexed? Because the power of love?

And that's the crux of this.

Yes, they have a better relationship that's more emotionally fulfilling. But even if it's not said directly just by that being the case it inherently puts a shadow over her previous sex life. If this is fulfilling then it follows that she wasn't fulfilled, right? If this is what makes her happy then how can she claim that she was exactly as happy before? Just by setting up the physical/emotional split and showing her being happy with the emotional side that implies that no matter how much fun she was having before that by contrast that will seem shallow and empty and meaningless.

That's why I'm so caught up on this detail. Because I don't want to do that. I definitely don't want the audience to walk out with that message. Neither do I want them to walk out thinking that she's given up sex 'for him' because that's weak; she's assertive and confident and I want her to change off her own back. But she is going to change. And clearly she thinks that's the right thing to do for her, that it makes her happy. And that leaves us right back at the single thing that I don't want to do; with the audience picking up the message that she wasn't happy before. Just by saying 'she was missing the romance before' that says she wasn't actually happy before.

In purely narrative terms; if she was happy with her sex life before then why change? The act of changing it implies that how she was isn't what she really wants, right?

 

What does it matter? This a "gender inverted" Romeo and Julliette. They ARE going to die, right?! We don't get to find out if she's changed.

 

I think that's how it's going to have to pan out in the end. But there needs to be more nuance to it than just that because otherwise it leaves problems.

So; Marcus meets her physical and emotional needs, right? And that's something new to her, that makes for better sex and better other stuff too. Great. So when she was having sex before; what was that? Not meeting her emotional needs, right? And that casts a different light on it. That's what makes her previous behavior seem at best childish and at worst self destructive; because she didn't even realize she needed that emotional side too, didn't even realize she was missing something. And that's what, to me at least, makes it feel like the story is judging her previous actions, saying that she really wasn't as happy as all that.

It just feels like it's missing something important to really make it click.

To try and put it in non-sexual terms; she's really self centered initially in lots of respects. She's the center of the universe and just chases a good time because there's no reason why she shouldn't and her old man and his buddies facilitate her in doing that too. And she has a great time doing that. So why would she stop being such a brat? Why wouldn't she just continue to be selfish? And, importantly, why wouldn't she just be friends with Marcus and keep sleeping around? He's definitely not the kind of boy that she'd immediately be attracted to if they met under other circumstances. She loves that they can be arty together and actually talk, especially that they can talk about their dads and the worlds they live in. But she can have all of that while still shagging whoever she wants, right? So what is it that makes her want to be less self centered in her life generally?

My inclination is to put her on the receiving end. To see it from the other side, take a few lumps and become more empathetic as a result. Marcus already has a crazy ex who he isn't good at dealing with and Oz needs to beat up. Perhaps seeing them together, even in an innocent setting, and feeling the tug of jealousy can set her on the road to being more empathetic and growing up a bit? Perhaps in tandem with another boy who likes her that she doesn't remember sleeping with and that really upsets him.

That at least fits but obviously that leaves the book saying she was acting selfishly before. That's a bit better though; at least that's not her running around not even realizing how unfulfilling it was. It's hard for anyone to say sleeping with your friends boyfriends isn't selfish for one. At least from that position she can look back and say 'It was fun but I was stupid' rather than 'How could I ever have done that?'. Perhaps that is the answer we're looking for. Just seeing it as a wider change in her away from 'because I can' towards 'because I want to'.

All of my stories are planned with one or all of the main characters dying or killing themselves at the end. I've yet to see it through though. I doubt they'll end up dead. I think that the ending will end up being, in broad terms, the two gangs stop fighting and with that calming down Marcus can accept Oz joining the bikers and finally get to know his father better. Oz can still be herself but she's with someone who'll encourage her to have her own life outside the gang and pursue the things that fulfill her like her art. And with Oz growing a bit she sees her dad will be proud of her whatever she does and she doesn't need to try and be a son, she just has to be her and all will be well.

I agree that it's much more of a me story if this awesome romance just gets steam rolled in a gang war and Oz gets herself knifed up an alley while Marcus watches; but I'm trying to make myself just write a straight romance. The nasty, dark, tragic stuff is much more interesting to me personally. That's why it's weird to me to see people say they like the idea. Because from my point of view it lacks the bleak, tearjerking, soul crushing pain of my earlier books.

Where's the weird, creepy/sexy pseudo-incest? Where's the physically abusive foster father she runs away with a gypsy acrobat to escape? Where's the being torn apart by living a double life as a cancer patient and her boyfriend who thinks she's dying? But I have been slowly working from 'other stuff with romance' to 'romance with other stuff' and I think it's time to try and have some discipline and focus on the romance and hopefully write things that other people will want to read, you know? I think there's enough in this concept to make it still interesting and dark and compelling just as a romance without making it directly tragic.

Although of course if you all think that one/both of them dying is part of what makes it good then I can reevaluate that.