During a recent interview week on the Buzz Blog, fellow Buzz Girl Marley Gibson asked me what made me want to write stories for young adults. My answer at the time? I didn’t. Not consciously, anyway. I just happened to come up with a story idea that needed a high school setting, and OH. MY. GODS. and my career were born. But as I sink deeper and deeper into the world of teen fiction, I find myself never wanting to leave. Why is that, I wonder? What is so appealing or welcoming or fulfilling about writing for teens? Here’s what I came up with:
1. Relive Your Youth
Whether you have fond memories or terrifying nightmares about high school, writing about teens gives an author the chance to relive those emotionally-charged times. And the best part? You get to cast yourself as the hero! Because writing–at it’s best–is a deeply personal experience, it is inevitable that the author’s own experience will play a major role in the story. In high school I was: a) a varsity athlete, b) an honor roll student, and c) a middle rung on the social ladder–not popular, not unpopular, just… there. It comes as no surprise that my protagonists are often athletic, fairly intelligent, and occupy a nebulous level of popularity. It’s what I know, so it’s what I write.
2. Peter Pan Syndrome
Or, more appropriately for someone of my generation, Toys ‘R Us Syndrome. I don’t wanna grow up. I like reading CosmoGirl, Seventeen, and Teen Vogue. I like watching movies about popular cliques, drama queens, and cheerleaders—evil or otherwise. I like trying on crazy glitter makeup and painting my toenails turquoise and thinking about (but not actually getting) pink streaks in my hair. And most of all, I like reading and writing about girls who are still in the process of figuring things about because, even at my rapidly advancing age, I’m still not there. Judging from the number of old adults (the opposite of young adults?) I’ve seen in the teen section at my local bookstores, I’m no the only one holding on to a youthful spirit.
3. Sky’s the Limit
There is an interesting dichotomy in writing for teens. On the one hand, they will be the first to call you on anything you try to pull over on them–whether it’s moralizing your story or arranging for an adult to save the day or having a character act in any way incongruous with their history or with the world they inhabit. On the other hand, they are the most willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, to buy into the world you create–no matter how crazy or convoluted–so long as you make make it believable. They are willing to stick it out with you for far more pages than any adult would.
UGLIES — 448 pages
TWILIGHT — 544 pages
HARRY POTTER #5 — 896 pages!
4. Love of Language
I’m stealing this directly from Scott Westerfeld. In a CBS promo video about EXTRAS, the fourth book in his UGLIES trilogy (yes, I know that seems contradictory), he talks about the teen audience and their love of language. Check out the video:
He makes an amazing point about the evolving relationship between teens and language, and how that translates into the form of ever-changing slang, an appreciation for the writing and reading of poetry, and the memorization of song lyrics. This goes along with what I said earlier, about liking to read and write about characters who are still figuring things out. In the same way, teen readers are still trying to figure out how to express their experiences and emotions through language. That’s why grown-ups can never be up on the latest slang, why the teen vocabulary is constantly changing, and why when teens find a book that expresses a part of their lives they devour it–and any subsequent books in the series or by that author–and embrace it.
A good book can connect with a teen.
A great book can change the way they think and speak.
That is the true power of a book, the true power of writing for teens. With this audience, you have a green light to make up words, to create an entire language, knowing that if you hit the mark, some of your made-up lexicon might become a part of the teen everyday vocabulary.
Knowing that, how could write for anyone else?
Hugs,
TLC
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