writercises | Entries tagged with ya

Original posting 26 March 2009

YA writing?

Writer's Digest November 2005, pages 56 and 57, talks about teen fiction -- young adults. Liesa Abrams lays out several suggestions about how to write for the commercial teen fiction market.

"First and foremost, what makes a good YA book is a core coming-of-age story. No matter what genre -- from straight fiction to horror to fantasy -- the characters must confront basic questions about their identities and their relationship to the world."

You need a hook. A one line concept that makes your story stand out. This isn't just genre. Liesa suggests that "taking a story and adding vampires or flying cars could transform your idea into a horror or a science-fiction genre book, but it doesn't necessarily provide a commercial hook." [tink shudders -- nor would most genre readers or authors agree that such a simple conversion does the job. Just because your cars fly doesn't mean you are writing science fiction!] Liesa recommends thinking about your own and other people's experience for stranger than fiction stories. Think of interesting, quirky headlines. Dig out those hot button topics. What about wish fulfillment for teens?
Keep it authentic. Make sure that your teen characters' emotions and behavior are real. This emotions are close to the surface and intense. Teams don't diss themselves for being teens. In fact, one of the real dangers is teens that act like adults. Precocious, smart -- that's okay. But make sure they're teenagers, not mouthpieces for an adult.
Tighten it up. Commercial YA manuscripts average 40,000 to 65,000 words. Sure, there are exceptions, and post-HP, that length is more open, but keep it tight. "The story she's quickly with a minimum of extraneous detail." Scenes need to move the story forward. Get someone with fresh eyes to identify anything that you can cut.

A sidebar suggests some ways to make sure your teens talk right. First, read teen books and magazines; watch teen TV shows. Keep the dialogue fast-paced, with plenty of interruptions and colloquial speech patterns. Especially for older YA books, think about cursing and talking about sex -- it's all the rage. Be careful of graphic sex, though. And watch your cultural references -- actors and songs get old pretty fast. For that matter, slang dates itself is very quickly and often feels like an affectation. Get a teenager to check.

Authentic characters, a concept that people want to read, and a tight, well-written manuscript. Sounds like a good recipe for any novel.

So get out there and write.

The magic age of science fiction is ...

Original posting 12 March 2009

Main Characters for Young Adults

Writer's Digest, June 2006, pages 54 to 57, the Writing Clinic looks at a young adult novel and talks about a relatable main character. The critique has four main points:

Set the hook. Young adults want a fast beginning that catches their attention. "A writer must capture their attention without delay, on line 1 of page 1, if at all possible. The faster a young adult is able to sympathize with, root for or worry about the hero of a tale, the better." So throw the protagonist into a mess and grab their attention fast.
Maintain momentum. Every paragraph needs to keep the reader going. They have lots of distractions, so keep a rapid pace with events unfolding one after another. Watch out for unnecessary interruptions that slow down the forward motion.
Think like a kid. Young adult protagonists let kids vicariously experience adventures. "They want to compare a fictional teen's actions and emotions with their own and speculate what they would do in a similar situation." Check your memories, but also talk with kids and watch some of the movies and TV shows. And make sure that the reader knows what the protagonist is thinking and feeling.
No lecture zone. "If there's one thing every teen in the world has in common, it's the intense dislike of being harangued by adults." And they don't like it. So if they smell a lecture or a lesson, your book goes in the trash. Teen rebellion needs to be part of your story, along with mistakes. Life lessons are okay, but not overdone -- let the protagonist struggle. "In any good novel, whether written for kids or for adults, a well-rounded characters one who constantly changes, develops and overcomes obstacles between the first page and the last."

"Writing for kids can be the most rewarding work a writer ever accomplishes. Make the story exciting, keep it real and engage emotions."

I have to admit, most of this sounds like good advice for any novel. Make number three think like your reader, and I think it's good advice for any writer. Start with something interesting, keep things moving, think like your readers, and avoid lecturing. Remember, you're entertaining -- so make sure it's fun.

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