Young adult fiction, sometimes called “YA fiction” has suddenly risen to fame over the last decade. YA fiction, which are books aimed primarily at teenagers as the audience, can be often tricky to write if you’re an adult yourself. Are you facing similar problems in writing a story for young adults? Do you want to know the secrets that will make your YA fiction better than others? Read on.
Think like a Teen
Have a teen as the main protagonist of your story, and make him/her face teen problems. You need to look at your story through a teen’s eyes. Imagine yourself as a teenager. Think of all those days where you were too drunk to stand straight or too lazy to attend college, those are real teen problems! Writing young adult fiction is all about writing books or stories that speak to the teenagers. They should be able to relate to it and connect instantly with the characters.
What may even help you more is getting input from actual teenagers. Talk about your story to your teenage friends, relatives, or children. Get to know what they think of your story and what they expect from it. Take their feedback seriously and make changes accordingly, after all, they are your target audience!
Make it Brisk
Make your story move at a brisk pace, make it exciting and have a good flow to it. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to make it straightforward and sort of “dumb it down” for a younger audience. Teenagers are perfectly capable of understanding complex writing, so don’t be afraid to write a complex story with shades of darkness in the narrative, but make sure you don’t become repetitive or stall a lot. Make the story unfold at a fast pace. Also, have a lot of conversation between the characters. Keep in mind that “short and crisp” books will go a long way in young adult fiction.
Role of Adult Characters
Since this is a teen novel, your main characters should be teens. But, it doesn’t hurt to have adults as supporting characters, or maybe even villains. This may be of help because many teens go through a phase in life where they perceive adults to be a giant roadblock in front of them, which stops them from living their teen life to the fullest. Teens may connect with the idea of adults being the negative characters.
Also, don’t be afraid to make the teens in your story sound like adults. They may be teenagers having teen problems, but they can think about them in a more mature way. There is no rule that states teenagers are not intelligent enough! Keep in mind, though, that at the end of the day, they must act like teens, well, because they are teens!
Content is King
Finally, young adult fiction is not just a place where you can throw in a couple of teenage characters and hope for success. It is like any other form of writing, where a good story is of prime importance. No matter what the rules, it is about storytelling, and a good story is always a good story, no matter what the setting. Work on your content, take your time, and think about the best story that you can tell, and tell it with teenagers in it. Write a killer story!
Image credit: chiesADIbeinasco on flickr and reproduced under Creative Commons 2.0
Pranay Kanagat is a freelance writer who has a love for writing on various subjects. In particular, he enjoys creative writing. He is also studying for an Engineering degree.