Young Adult Novels?

[PaperGrace]

Stuck already, and I haven't even started writing.

I'm taking Freedom's Styx and running with it for NaNoWriMo, which seems like it's ages away, but with wee ones, it might as well be starting this weekend. I've been doing some thinking, and I was considering trying to write a YA Novel. The Young Adult 'genre' is more of a category, since it contains other genre within it. I've been trying to talk with Husband about what makes a YA novel a YA novel and we disagree wildly. I did a quick search on the topic, and got some useful info, and some absolute rubbish.

I don't want to write a 'problem novel' or a 'coming of age' story, nor do I have any interest in a 'paranormal romance' so instead of writing to those themes I'm left with these markers for YA:

• uses language easy for reader to understand ( )
  
• tight sentences
  
• plot-driven
  
• quick pace
  
• few to no subplots
  
• protagonist the age of, or slightly older than target audience
  
• characters/issues teens can identify with (believable/empathetic)
  
• teen characters/issues are never marginalized or devalued
  
• positive or hopeful resolution
  
• absent are: nostalgia, excessive introspection, hindsight
  

And this gem from an online article suite101.com/article/what-is-young-adult-fiction-a135786 :

What YA Fiction Is, and What It's Not

Don't let its name fool you: Young Adult fiction is not watered down adult fiction. It's also not children's fiction with older characters. It is literature that doesn't waste a breath. YA fiction moves at a clip that keeps pace with busy teens who are pressed for reading time, whose attention spans are brief, who are accustomed to and crave instant gratification. YA lit is the movie version of a great story... gripping from the first line, never slowing down, with all the slow parts edited out. YA literature is crisp, lively, and hip.

Can anyone add to, or call Balderdash on any of this? Am I barking up the wrong tree?

[scribbliz]

basically i would say that the age thing isn't necessary, but is very common. Other than that, keep your wording simple; teens don't want to use a dictionary to read a book I think hindsight can be useful even in YA books, but yeah, most teens don't tend to feel nostalgia...

[Freedom]

Wow, this is a tough one. YA is a genre I personally have never attempted, 'cause I don't think I could do it.

Having said that, I've enjoyed the ones I've READ.


I'm not sure I agree about 'no nostalgia' -- my impression is that they experience quite a bit of that. When I was in my late teens, I read, "Adolescents mourn their childhoods," and I ABSOLUTELY agreed.

I was crazy insane over Ray Bradbury when I was YA and lots of his stuff operates off nostalgia.


Also loved Poe, and ... Edgar Rice Burroughs -- I've read LOTS of Tarzan books. Both these guys use long sentences and big words, and both of them are dragging you along with the story so you just file the context of any words you don't know, and soon your vocabulary is painlessly bigger.


Also -- adolescence is ALL ABOUT introspection. Isn't it?


I guess it depends on the kid, right? I think it would be much easier to write YA for nerd-kids ... (erm, I resemble that remark).

[readilygrey]

Honestly, except for the age thing and the lack of subplots, I feel like these rules would improve most books. Then again, I have the attention span of a gnat. I like some words I need to reach for a dictionary for, because I like to learn, but if I feel like the author is trying to show off their vocabulary I will put the book down.

Of course, I've been a huge H.P. Lovecraft fan since I was 13, so I'm not sure how that fits in. He seems to be the exception to everything.

As far as using language easy to understand, I think it depends on the age of your target audience. I had a friend that published a book intended for adults and it was marketed for young adults. I was surprised because if was a gay, science fiction, romance. It even had sex scenes, although not incredibly explicit. She did not tone down her vocabulary at all. Apparently things have changed since I was a teen

Maybe try reading some YA novels, or watch some shows aimed at that audience and see if that's what you want to do.

[Freedom]

Aug 10, 2012 22:19:21 GMT -5 readilygrey said:

Of course, I've been a huge H.P. Lovecraft fan since I was 13, so I'm not sure how that fits in. He seems to be the exception to everything.

Ditto.

The copy of 'Dunwich Horror' that I bought on my first solo plane trip at about that age is currently on my bedside table -- all the pages are loose, but I don't care.

And yes, His Holiness Mr. Lovecraft IS the exception to everything. He does not have what you'd call a snappy fast-moving plot ever, yet he rules.

[readilygrey]

Aug 10, 2012 22:57:37 GMT -5 Freedom said:

Aug 10, 2012 22:19:21 GMT -5 readilygrey said:

Of course, I've been a huge H.P. Lovecraft fan since I was 13, so I'm not sure how that fits in. He seems to be the exception to everything.

Ditto.

The copy of 'Dunwich Horror' that I bought on my first solo plane trip at about that age is currently on my bedside table -- all the pages are loose, but I don't care.

And yes, His Holiness Mr. Lovecraft IS the exception to everything. He does not have what you'd call a snappy fast-moving plot ever, yet he rules.

Sexist, racist, lightening-strike endings--still totally awesome.

My dad gave me my first Lovecraft book, I forget which one, but the first story I read was the rats in the walls. All the pages were yellowed and loose but it so added to the atmosphere! I had to lift each page individually and I felt like I was reading some obscure tome It was great. I've always wanted to visit MA just because of his stories.

[PaperGrace]

;D We've been planning a tour of Lovecraft sites. There are walking tours in the hotspots with guides and everything; finding farms and caves around New England that his stories used for settings will be fun if we get a car someday! I recently saw side by side pictures of Lovecraft and Michael Phelps. There is a striking resemblance around the eyes and nose, and Mr. Phelps (Phelps? Phillip?) does have webbed toes...

[PaperGrace]

Aug 10, 2012 21:58:43 GMT -5 Freedom said:

Wow, this is a tough one. YA is a genre I personally have never attempted, 'cause I don't think I could do it.

Having said that, I've enjoyed the ones I've READ.


I'm not sure I agree about 'no nostalgia' -- my impression is that they experience quite a bit of that. When I was in my late teens, I read, "Adolescents mourn their childhoods," and I ABSOLUTELY agreed.

I was crazy insane over Ray Bradbury when I was YA and lots of his stuff operates off nostalgia.


Also loved Poe, and ... Edgar Rice Burroughs -- I've read LOTS of Tarzan books. Both these guys use long sentences and big words, and both of them are dragging you along with the story so you just file the context of any words you don't know, and soon your vocabulary is painlessly bigger.


Also -- adolescence is ALL ABOUT introspection. Isn't it?


I guess it depends on the kid, right? I think it would be much easier to write YA for nerd-kids ... (erm, I resemble that remark).

I think this is my problem. What I read when I was a teen wasn't really aimed at teens. Using my own childhood for guidance doesn't really work.

Recently we've been reading Madeline L'engle. I loved A Wrinkle In Time when I was a kid, and I read the other three books in that series when I was an adult, but with a sense of nostalgia. Now we've started reading her later series, and I keep reminding myself 'it's YA, I'm not the target audience'. Really I think it falls into 'middle grade' for a target audience. There are some really cool references and the books tie into the early works (Dr. and Mrs. O'Keefe are Calvin & Meg from Wrinkle, the story follows their children.) but there's this meh lack of depth to the male characters "D'ah girls are pretty, I don't know what these feelings are" while the girls' changing bodies are noted and they practice using their feminine wiles--clinging, crying, threatening suicide, begging for protection, tossing their hair... I want to read them because I enjoy her cosmology, but it's tough. I found myself thinking "Is this purposeful?" "Is this what I should expect in YA?"

Also: Reading level. I have a pretty good vocabulary for daily use, and that is, in general, because I read a lot of books. As you said so well Freedom: "you just file the context of any words you don't know, and soon your vocabulary is painlessly bigger." I don't think I know how to write for a specific reading level. It just doesn't make sense to me. I know that there are a lot of kids out there who struggle to read, and when the books that they can get through are too childish they lose interest and close that door. So, I see the reasoning, but have no idea how to do it.

[scribbliz]

One thought I have, is write the story the way it comes to you; obviously if you are thinking that it should be for young adults avoid R rated material, but other than that, write the story that's in your head, the way it sounds in your head. Then read through it; as you are reading your drafts, it should tell you what age group it seems to fit into. That's how I knew the novel that was in my head was actually for YA, it's the way it felt when I read it.

[readilygrey]

Aug 11, 2012 10:38:04 GMT -5 scribbliz said:

One thought I have, is write the story the way it comes to you; obviously if you are thinking that it should be for young adults avoid R rated material, but other than that, write the story that's in your head, the way it sounds in your head. Then read through it; as you are reading your drafts, it should tell you what age group it seems to fit into. That's how I knew the novel that was in my head was actually for YA, it's the way it felt when I read it.

^ This is very good advice.