Mockingbird // 5sauce

MOCKINGBIRD ANALYSIS

MOCKINGBIRD ANALYSIS

Mockingbird is over. It was an amazing journey I had writing this and I apologize for all the grammatical mistakes and terrible first chapters.

There's a sequel, though. It's title is Phoenix. It's already published, go add it to your libraries. I'll start updating it about a month from now, I need some time to think and organize everything and mostly for personal issues.

Here's a sort of analysis from my point of view and what my intention was with this story.

1. The Title: MOCKINGBIRD

it just happened. at first, it was because of eminem's song 'mockingbird' and I somehow felt that word fitted the story but I wasn't sure why?

it was weird but then something clicked and to me, this title makes perfect sense.

We live in a society where everyone afraid of being different and not fitting. We're all mockingbirds, in one way or another.

2. The Concept

I wanted to portray the society we live in but in an alternative universe. Labels and stereotypes have been always very present in my life and is something that has affected me very deeply.

I intended to show how harmful it is to label someone. I chose the age of 10 for them to be labeled because that, at least for me, was the time everyone was starting to label and try so desperately to fit in this society.

It was a sad time for me. And the way I was stereotyped back then still affects me today.

I wanted to show you how just a simple label/stereotype can cause so much harm and pain. I also wanted to show you that there's always hope. You always have a chance to make it better but you have to want it and you have to want it really bad. And it's hard and mind-wrecking but it's worth it.

3. The Characters

All the female main characters were based off my friends.

Atiya, Kelsey, Maya, Daniella, Katie and Hannah. This story was dedicated to you, even though now I've pretty much lost contact with most of you. I'm still glad I met you though, all of you showed me different perspectives of life and I'm thankful for that.

Frances was me, that's why Frances character is a mess. Frances represents me, how I feel and everything. I'm pouring my heart and soul in the sequel. Frances character is the actual main character so she'll be much more developed.

5sos are just here because I needed some boys. Also, they're one of my favorite bands.

It was crazy of me to have 11 fucking main characters. Advice: don't have more than 6 main characters. It's very confusing and I really regret putting so many characters. However, all of them play a very important role which leads me to the next topic.

4. Representation.

I included POC representation because most of my friends are POC and POC people deserve representation and this is a very important thing that I'll always take into account when writing. I encourage you to include POC characters in your stories.

[POC stands for Person Of Color]

I also included people from all over the world because that's just cool.

LGBTQIA+
Lesbian couple without being sexualized
Non-binary character (Ale from Chile working in Perth)

I think I included more queer characters, I don't know though.

other queer identities will be also talked about later (pansexuality and maybe aromanticism)

I'm queer so I'll always include queer representation. That's something I relate to and it's important to normalize queer relationships.

independent women

do I even need to say anything else? my female characters are badass as fuck.

I had Katie representing what pretty much every women goes through in her life. slut shaming, sexual harassment, objectification and sexualization, etc.

5. Meaning for Myself

This was one of my favorite stories to write and it took me about 7 months to write. I put a lot of effort into this and I'm quite happy at how it turned out.

Also, the fact that the character Frances is pretty much me, when writing from her point of view it gave me this feeling of freedom and it felt liberating.

Writing is my therapy. It's what makes me feel better and putting my heart and soul into a story gives me some sort of purpose.

My final message is to not let this society get into your head. Keep your mind open, stay woke. It doesn't matter how hard it is, don't give up. There's hope, I promise.

Find something, doesn't matter how stupid it seems, find purpose in it. Don't let society win, you're far more important.

Don't let the labels win. Try your hardest not to stereotype others. Change your mentality. Don't wanna live in a safe, peaceful and happy world?

Don't be a mockingbird. Be unique like a fucking phoenix.

I'd love to know what y'all thought about the story. Comment here bro

love,

inês