Long time no post! Howdy! I still read and show up, just not terribly active, sorry, sorry.
I have a question. I have an idea for a story, but the protagonist is a kid. If I write this am I going to need to market it as YA, or will it be stuck with that label?
I can hear some of you saying, "just write the damn thing, who cares?" This will not be YA from my perspective.
Thoughts?
It's possible. I've read a few good ones that are for adults but feature a young protag. The issue I see, is that in this current climate where YA is so popular, people will want very badly for it to be YA, regardless of what it actually is.
Also: just write the damn thing, who cares?
Also: just write the damn thing, who cares?
LOL. I guess my problem is, I have YET to read any YA I actually can think, "wow, this is very well written."
Most YA I chance upon is poorly written, filled with plot holes and shoddy characters. To lump someone into that would be dooming, not to say I have a chance in hell of anything I write seeing the light of day. Just an irrational fear.
Hi Matt,
I've got a similar thing going on with my latest. The beginning's in the workshop, if you want to see where I've gone with it. I'd be interested to take a look at your project, whenever you start it because I already feel like I know where you're coming from. I sometimes get the feeling that I ought to be writing YA, but I brush it away fairly easily.
I couldn't do YA, even though I've got a character who's 17 when the story starts (by the way, what age do you mean when you say your character is a kid? I think of anyone under 18 as a 'kid', but that's just me.) I feel like I'm writing a story for adults because that's what I always do. I don't quite get the YA thing because a lot of young adults read books for adults. I certainly did. I started with the likes of Stephen King, Iain Banks and Clive Barker as a teenager, and that's why I love using the word 'fuck', and describing the act of fucking, and pointing the camera right at the violence and giving detail that YA wouldn't. I'm the guy who read and liked The Hunger Games but deep down wanted it to be more like Battle Royale. I'm aiming my work at a readership from around my own age downwards (I'm 30), but there's plenty that would appeal to the young adult audience without it having to be written as YA. The very reason I read what I did as a teenager was that it gave me that feeling of tasting what was discouraged and liking what people sometimes criticised.
As much as I know I'd be lucky to get any interest from a publisher, the note I dread would read 'Re-write this story as YA and we'll take it.' Honestly, I don't think I'd do it even for a deal. It's just not true to myself. All you have to do is work out whether writing YA fits in with your goal as a writer.
I'm wondering, as far as structure. What do you think it could be that makes you think it may not be YA?
One situation I come across is trying to write YA, it often ends up coming across as adult.:/ The only reason I could imagine is that the voice is closer to being adult. Since edgy YA has been known for a fairly lone time, in that target audience.
Matt-- check out Under The Empyrean Sky by Chuck Wendig. Really cool YA.
Fuck writing. If the story is good, you should tell it; writing it will just get in the way.
One of my all-time favorite books is 'Black Swan Green' by David Mitchell, which I guess the x-year-old me would have loved, and the curent x-year-old me loved as well. Is it YA? Could be, might not be, but it was great. What about Neil Gaiman? I daresay some of his work could be considered YA< and he tells a mean tale.
Hi Mr. Attack!
On the other hand, think Lord of the Flies (which I still haven't collected enough guts to read). Think Damned and Doomed. Think all stories not revolving around your typical -- and appropriate for a teenager to know about -- teenager issues, starring teenagers. Lolita. Carrie.
If your kid is more being a proper teenager than, say, avenging around wielding a machete splashed with sex offenders' blood, then it will likely be marketed as YA. Sex offenders' blood unequivocally washing your pages and messing with all your kid's features will make the YA label pretty unlikely, plus the book will be probably banned and you'll become a lit god forever.
Now, your call.
I'm pretty happy that my WIP is shaping up as a young adult novel.
Children don't care what they read, as long as they read. Adults already know what they like, and are unlikely to branch out too much.
Young adults are still looking for what they like, still developing their reading skills, and are still developing their own identity, partly with the use of the media (such as books). In that context, providing quality young adult literature is incredibly important not only for developing readers, but developing readers with good taste. Make your book something worth reading, and you're doing all future generations a pretty big favor.
If it ends up being YA, is that big issue?
Thank you, everyone for your responses. I didn't consider some of the works out there that aren't YA, but still feature child protagonists.
Perhaps actually starting and finishing the work will allivate my fears. If it turns out YA, so be it.
YA is a marketing distinction, not a genre. That is to say, you can have YA sci-fi/action, YA romance, etc.
I mostly agree with the mindset which holds that it would be phony to drastically alter your book in order for it to be intentionally marketable to teens. (I also understand that it's a personal decision and some writers wouldn't mind changing their writing to suit an agent or publisher's aims and I probably wouldn't hold them in contempt for doing so.)
Personally, I'd rather write a straight-up children's book (Wind in the Willows) than a book for teenagers. Lots of good writers capable of producing mature work have done so: A.A. Milne, E.B. White, Roald Dahl.
And the fact is many teenagers can read and enjoy "adult" novels and do already in school, so the only reason to write specifically for teens is to sell to teens, not because they have nothing else to read or can't comprehend anything but literature designed with them in mind. I'm sure there are plenty of teenagers who find the YA tropes to be unattractive to them. Do they need other forms of YA lit? No, they can just read other books, which are already various and plentiful.
@JYH - There is also the tie breaker, and I've heard/read a few authors I like indicate they use genre/marketing that way. "I'm not sure if I should write X or Y in, but I'm pretty sure the readers will like X more so I'll go that way."
@Dwayne -- I guess if it makes little-to-no difference to the writer what they write, then that could work. Or if they simply want to write to a specific target demographic, then I guess they'd have to pick one.
I'm not saying it comes up a lot, but I think everyone has choices they are unsure of that amount to a flip of the coin. Trying to make the reader happy is a good a way to go with those as anything else.
