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The Ultimate Guide To Writing YA Fiction [2022]

September 28, 2020 12 min read Character Fiction Guide Mackenzie Belcastro Publishing Tips YA Young Adult 5 Comments

how to write ya fiction

This is a comprehensive guide to writing young adult (YA) fiction, designed to help you form your thoughts into a shape that will hook your readers and keep them flipping the page!

In today’s guide you’ll learn:

  • What YA fiction is
  • How to make your readers care about your story.
  • The role of character progression and growth.
  • How to write authentically for young adults, even if you aren’t one.
  • The 1 ingredient your story’s ending MUST have.

In short: if you have a story that’s bursting to get out into the world, you’ll love this guide. 

Unlike other guides to writing YA, we’ll be using detailed examples at each step. 

 About the Author

how to write ya fiction

Mackenzie Belcastro is a freelance writer and the author of the low-fantasy, YA novel The Play House. 

About So You Want to Write

Affectionately acronym’d SYWW, we are a member-led, professional development community of writers established in January 2017. 

We partner with literary agents, editors, and published authors to create great content & workshops, and offer coaching that helps writers improve their craft and publish.

Chapter 1: The basics

While many of you may be seasoned writers, well-versed in the publishing world’s lingo, we also know that some of you are bound to be brand new to this world. If you’re part of the first camp, feel free to skip ahead. 

If you’re in the second group—you’ve stumbled on this guide because you have a stellar story bouncing around in your head, but no idea if you’re even writing YA—don’t fret. You’re not alone. So many writers started where you are, in total darkness when it comes to industry terminology. Stick with us here as we pull you out, and get you crystal clear on what YA fiction means.

What The Heck Is Young Adult Fiction?

YA fiction is a category of fiction written for and about teens between the ages of 12 and 17. When compared to adult fiction, it’s quicker-paced and more plot-driven. 

Young readers tend to have a short attention span. They crave immediacy. Keep this in mind with every word you lay down on the page. There’s no room for lofty contemplation here. Save any waxing and waning for your adult, literary novel. 

Tip : writing in the present tense will feed that sense of urgency teens are hungry for.

As a rule of thumb, a YA book excludes any insight that a typical teen would not yet have. This is to maintain the integrity of the character. 

Imagine if Leigh Bardugo wrote in  Shadow And Bone  that Alina Starkov had the wisdom of a senior citizen. It wouldn't make sense, given Alina is a teenager. (Unless, of course, this was a part of her story, and she was, for example, aging backward, à la Benjamin Button .)

So, what about those novels written from the perspective of an adult protagonist reflecting back on his/her youth? Those are considered adult fiction. 

Take Stephen King’s novella The Body , for example. This is a story about a group of 12-year-old boys that set out to find a dead body. It is told through the lens of Gordie, one of the central characters, all grown up. Reflecting back on this adventure, Gordie breaks the storyline here and there to insert thoughts from his adult perspective. 

While this is appreciated by an older reader, it wouldn’t fly with a teen. Think about it. Teens do not read novels to be verbally slapped on the wrist by a “wise narrator.” They read to understand their friends, their frenemies, and, most of all, themselves. They’re looking to become empowered in their personal stories through story. 

YA writers take note: your goal should be to empower teen readers, not patronize them.  

Now that we know what YA fiction is, let’s get clear on…

Why The Label Matters

In a nutshell: sales. 

When your book goes to market, your publisher will need to be able to define your audience clearly. This is so they can go on to target it effectively, and sell your books!

Many writers say they "don't care" about sales, that they're only concerned with the art, and that if their books are meant to find an audience, they will.

And while that may be the case for you (how could I say otherwise?), most writers, when they face the music, do care about sales. If not because they want to be the next Victoria Aveyard, then because they want their stories to reach as many readers as possible. 

This can be scary to admit, because as long as you put it out there that you want your book to sell well, therein lies the possibility of failing to accomplish said goal.

But fear should never prevent you from going after what you want. 

Plus, who says you'll fail?

Labelling your book appropriately will help ensure the opposite effect: your book's success.

Yes, there are adults that read YA, and teens that read adult fiction. But those will be the outliers—the readers that are coming to your book through recommendation, not targeted marketing. 

In order to get your book into the hands of the readers that will most appreciate your story, it needs to be labelled appropriately.    

A Note On Word Count

On average, YA fiction lies somewhere between 47,000 and 80,000 words. The only genres where it’s considered “acceptable” by most to write past 80K are science fiction and fantasy, because of the world-building required. 

Writing above 100K is a risk, especially for debut authors. Unless you have a large platform that can be leveraged to help you sell your book, or social proof through Wattpad that your story is a page-turner, prospective publishers are going to be weary of investing in your book. 

This isn’t because they’re bad people. It’s because publishers are the ones shelling out for each page printed. The lower your page count, the less of an upfront investment it is for them. Remember, you want to make your book an easy sell. So, steer clear of whoppers. 

At least, until you build your cult following. 

And on that note…

Chapter 2: How to make your readers care about your story

For readers to be invested in your story, they need to be able to see themselves in your characters. Books with characters that are too perfect or too flat are usually abandoned. 

They don’t resonate. Teens are experiencing all sorts of difficulties in their day to day lives—from bullying, to gossip, to drugs, to assault, to deep depression, isolation, and so on. They don’t want overly polished plots and people. They want the messy, real deal.

Think of  A Court of Thorns and Roses .  Sarah J. Maas's main character Feyre is far from the polished, prototypical female lead. She is tough. And not just tough in the heroic sense. Tough, too, in the I-have-a-dark-side-so-you-better-not-mess-with-me kind of way. Us readers are exposed to her underbelly. And we are drawn to it, because we see ourselves reflected in it. We're not perfect, and neither is Feyre. We love her for this. 

Avoid Stereotypes

The first step in creating characters that your readers can relate to is in the details. Dig well past stereotypes until you find traits and backstories that take your characters into the grey zone.

Here’s what that means.

Rather than paint your antagonist into a two-dimensional black hole (think: an out-and-out psychopath), give your antagonist some redeeming, even likeable qualities.

Like, for example, as  Sarah J. Maas did with her character  Manon Blackbeak in her novel   Throne of Glass . Manon is, at the outset, ruthless, killing men to drink their blood. But, over time, readers come to see she has a rather tender heart—exposed when she risks everything to save  Elide, Asterin, the Thirteen, and Dorian . 

On the flip side, when it comes to your protagonist, you'll want to give him or her deeper flaws. These will have your reader questioning their own support for your protagonist.

Look to Caroline Kepnes. She does this well in the book You . Readers are at once sympathetic to Joe Goldberg and disgusted by his behaviour. They can't figure out if they're on his side, or not. Confusion aside, it's virtually guaranteed, when you do this, your readers will be intrigued. And glued to the page.

Quit Protecting Your Characters

If your characters still aren’t connecting to your readers, you may be “protecting” them. That is, you may be keeping them from getting too hurt. This is a problem because what that translates to is you are creating lives too shiny for readers and their gritty reality to identify with. This causes a disconnect, which leads to a lack of interest for readers.

Guilty of this? Don’t kick yourself. You’re in good company. Early drafts of Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian were, well, boring. Characters were indifferent when they should’ve been angry, and overly generous when they should’ve been selfish.

So, how did McCarthy write the lean nightmare that we know and love today? He stopped steering his characters away from the dark alley. He let them stumble and feel pain.

Follow his lead. Take your characters to a place that scares you. You probably already have something coming to mind right now as you read this. Don’t you?

Focus On Emotional Truth

Teens want to read stories that show them they aren’t alone, but this doesn’t mean they need to lead the exact same lives as the characters in your story. They just need to see their struggles in the characters. 

Look at Mateo Torrez in Adam Silvera's  They Both Die At The End , for example . Many of us can relate to  his having  anxiety, and his resultant decision to spend the majority of his time in the blogosphere.

And, I'd venture to bet, we can all , especially in the day and age of the Pandemic, relate to Mateo's parallel feeling: that the online world isn't enough, and that he needs to socialize in the real world, in spite of his anxiety.

So, while we may not all receive calls from  Death-Cast telling us we're going to die today (let's keep our fingers crossed on that one, anyway), we can relate to Mateo's feelings, his emotional truth. 

Or, look at Harry Potter . Most of us can relate to Harry. Even if we’ll never be involved in a duel with Lord Voldemort, we can still understand his pain. We’ve all lost people we’ve loved and have, at some point or another, felt like a misfit.

Take note: most teens struggle with identity. They’re asking, either consciously or subconsciously, all the time, “Who am I?” “Who should I be?” “How should I behave?”

If this doesn’t resonate with you, think about what does. What are some pain points you’re familiar with? You’ll be powerful when you can zero in on these.

Don’t be afraid if they’re “heavy.” Embrace challenging subject matter. As long as you’re not trying to be “edgy” or create cheap shock value, you should be well received. Come from a place of honesty. If your mind is drawing a blank on your past struggles, stay tuned for a number of techniques you can use.

In sum, the key to making sure your readers care about your story lies in exposing the full spectrum of your characters’ emotional truth, and allowing them, like any good parent, to fall down, get hurt, and then get back up again. 

Authors come off as authentic and likeable to YA readers when they accurately capture their readers’ range of thoughts, feelings, and experiences in their day to day lives.  

Chapter 3: The role of character progression & growth

Personal growth is a big part of what differentiates YA and adult stories. Why? Think back to when you were a teen. For most, this was a period of exponential growth because life was a minefield of firsts. 

Throughout your book, your protagonist should be growing up, actively transforming in front of the reader. As he or she learns, grows and changes, because of the events experienced in your book, your reader should be gaining insight, too.

How do you highlight this growth in your plot? Create complications and then use these as opportunities to facilitate your protagonist’s learning. If you need ideas, think about where tension came from when you were young. Common culprits are identity, but also relationships and change.

A fight with a friend, for example, can be insightful for your character—especially if it’s caused because your character blew a comment out of proportion, and is forced to reflect on why he or she did that. This can unroot a suppressed pain point your protagonist now has to confront.

Or, you could have a character that meets another character that mirrors back what they've been unwilling to look at in themselves. For instance, maybe your main character is queer but has been hiding from this truth. Having said character meet an out and proud queer character will encourage your character to, perhaps unconsciously at first, begin to discover this hidden aspect of self. 

Another example is your character being forced to change schools. Moving away from friends is a trigger for many teens who tend to use this as an opportunity to “start fresh”— to consider how they want to show up in their “new life” and reflect on who they want to be.

Scenes like these are powerful for your readers. They show how a collection of moments like those plotted in your storyline make an impact, shape us into the people we become.

With that eye opening, readers are encouraged to look inwards, at themselves, at what the plot points of their unique lives look like, and who they’ve become as a result. This is a large part of the power of story.

Don’t forget to be concise with your character’s reflections. Remember that YA is meant to be plot-driven. To ensure you’re keeping your story from getting too fatty, ask yourself of every scene:

  • What does this bring to the overall story?
  • Is this conversation/reflection necessary for the development of my characters?
  • How can my characters develop here? What are they learning?

Chapter 4: How to write authentically for young adults (even if you aren’t one)

As mentioned earlier, a YA novel cannot be told from the point of view of a wise, full blown adult. It has to be told from the point of view of a teen(s) to maintain integrity. 

If it's been a long time since you've been a teenager yourself, read on. The following is what the authors of the best YA books nail, which keeps their fanbase intrigued, loyal, and growing.

Embrace Your Inner Drama Queen

Most teens exaggerate. A lot. Like, one thousand times a day. Teens live in a heightened state of emotion, and exaggeration showcases that, compounded by their tendency to blurt things out before first thinking and putting them into perspective.

Say Adios To The Grammar Police

Dialogue not only can run, be cut short prematurely, or repeat senselessly in YA—they actually should . Teens aren’t precious with their grammar. Reflect that.

Be mindful of adjusting to your target. If you’re writing for younger teens, shorter, more declarative sentences work best, split up into many small paragraphs. For the older set, complex sentences and longer paragraphs are fair game.

Embrace Immaturity

We mentioned it once, but we’ll say it again. Avoid infusing any adult wisdom/analysis into your YA novel. Though typically self-absorbed, teens aren’t often too self-aware, nor do they consider why others may be acting the way they are. Portray them honestly. 

For example, your character would likely have an emotional reaction to her friend ignoring her. She’d get angry or feel hurt. She would not thoughtfully ponder what may be wrong in her friend’s life causing her to behave this way. 

If you’re feeling unsure of your portrayal of your characters, get in touch with your young, awkward, vulnerable self. The one that felt unsure, insecure, and/or naively invincible. If you can find a memory that cracked you open and made you see the world in a new light, dig into it. Write from this place. Let this experience show up in your work.

If you have them, unearth old diaries and read your entries. If you don’t, try people-watching. Studying teens out and about can help you remember what it’s like to be one of them. At the very least, take notes and put them to use.

Choose Simple Words

Lots of authors resort to slang to connect with their readers. Don’t. Slang dates books. Instead, use simple words. Ask yourself if a person the age of your characters would really talk in the way you’ve just written, and if a reader who’s your protagonist’s age would be able to understand. 

Chapter 5: The 1 ingredient your story’s ending MUST have

Ah, the kernel of hope . 

While no teen today wants to read a book with a boring, fairytale ending, optimism must exist in your book’s close. For instance, while your main character may not sky rocket from an anti-social leper to being the most popular kid in school, you’ll want to give him/her a friend or two by the end. 

Consider the popular School For Good And Evil series. It opens portraying Agatha as grumpy, friendless, and insecure. Over time though, we see the humour in her grumpiness. We see her find a friend in Sophie. And, slowly, we witness her gain self-confidence, too.

Another example is found in Thirteen Reasons Why . The story ends with Clay being unable to save the protagonist from ending her life. Although we feel his intense regret for not having tried harder to help her, there is a silver lining.

On the novel’s final page, Clay encounters another classmate that he is worried about. Unlike before, he doesn’t let the chance to help slip by. Motivated by Hannah’s story and his hope for a better outcome, he seizes the moment, and saves a life.

This optimism is crucial because your readers are impressionable. As an author, you’re a figure of indirect authority in their lives. It is your duty to give them a reason to wake up tomorrow, to know that although things get difficult, there is always light at the end of the tunnel.

Chapter 6: Final Words

We hope you found this guide insightful and actionable. Now, it’s time to gather your notes and take a well-deserved break. 

After that, don’t hesitate. Take what you’ve learned here and apply it to your story. If you need more direct help with your particular book, we’re here to support you. 

Here’s how we at So You Want to Write? can assist:

  • Enrol yourself in one of our intensive  coaching programs 
  • Take a  workshop , or 
  • Arrange a  1-on-1 meeting with one of our literary experts

Or, if you’re just in need of regular motivation and helpful tips, you can start simply by joining our  email list .

Either way, we hope to hear from you soon.

5 Responses

Tom Brooks

May 09, 2022

I’m new. Very new. I’ve only begun to write what I hope will become a shed out YA series. I am writing from several characters points of view and want to use one of the main characters father as one of them. He isn’t very well spoken or a genius or anything and I wanted kids read something from an adults perspective and learn why we may do the things we do. Is this wrong?

Anna Black

January 19, 2022

Can an entire chapter of 6.5 pages have only narrative or should there be dialogue in each and every chapter of a YA novel? There’s lots of action, it’s just described in narrative. There’s a tiny scene of dialogue at the very end. Is that okay or should I rewrite it to have way more dialogue? Thanks.

So You Want To Write

So You Want To Write

January 06, 2021

Thanks for your questions. In response…

1. The reason people say 1st person, present tense is “best” comes down to the fact that most of the time this creates greater immediacy, which young readers (esp. these days with the shortening of attention span) typically prefer. 

That said, some prefer third person, past tense for the richness this style can lend. We see this more in the European markets, especially with readers who grew up on classics.

So, it isn’t cut and dry. It does depend ultimately on your market. Go with your gut, and with your editor/beta readers/agent’s feedback.

2. Yes, this is acceptable. There are lots of YA books that do multiple POVs, including the School For Good And Evil series, Six of Crows, Eleanor and Park, A Step Toward Falling, An Ember In The Ashes, etc.

Some things to ask yourself: Why am I writing in multiple POV? Does the story necessitate this? If so, all good.

If not, ask: Why have I structured my story in this way? Am I too scared to dive into the one character’s POV? Why?

Jim Lee

January 05, 2021

Thank you for the helpful advice. I have two published novels and one finished but not yet published novel, all in different genres. I am working on the third draft of my first YA novel. I have two questions: (1) I have been told that typically a YA novel is first person and present tense. Does that mean my MS with third person and past tense is less marketable? (2) My YA protagonist is a fifteen-year-old girl with the dominant point of view, but the story is told from several points of view. Is this acceptable in the YA marketplace? Jim Lee

Laurayne Bryon

Laurayne Bryon

October 26, 2020

I was on the fence about whether my trilogy was YA fiction. After reading this wonderful guide, I know I’m closer to the mark of YA fiction than I thought. Thanks so much for this. It is a light in dark places.

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how to write ya fiction

How to write YA fiction: Detailed guide

Young adult fiction, also known as YA, is a very popular fiction category. Learn how to write YA fiction that is age-appropriate and inclusive.

  • Post author By Jordan
  • 9 Comments on How to write YA fiction: Detailed guide

how to write ya fiction

Young adult fiction, also known as YA, is a very popular fiction marketing category (rather than genre). Read this detailed guide for info on what makes a book YA, what YA readers look for, and what to avoid in writing for a young adult audience:

What makes a book YA?

Young adult fiction is read by readers (and YA writers) of all ages. A YA book typically:

  • Appeals to readers between the ages of 12 and 18 (and is matched to reading norms of this age range in terms of complexity)
  • Features a protagonist around 14 to 18 years old
  • Explores themes, subjects and challenging issues typical of this age group (moving towards independence, balancing freedom and responsibility, developing identity and extra-familial social bonds)
  • Blurs genre boundaries (hence YA fantasy, paranormal and other genre/category hybrids)

YA is a category, not a genre

YA is a marketing and age-based category that aids bookstores, librarians, teachers and parents in choosing books, but a YA book can belong to any genre. That means a YA novel might be fantasy, science fiction, mystery, romance, horror, thriller or mainstream.

Consider the popular YA novels The Giver by Lois Lowry (1993), a young adult dystopian novel, or the  The Fault in Our Stars (2012) by John Green with its frank, touching exploration of teen cancer.

These are very different types of books, yet they are still YA fiction: the same reader might enjoy reading them as they are similar in terms of protagonists’ ages and the simplicity of language used.

Some YA writers cite the freedom to move more freely between genres as one aspect of writing YA fiction they love. Says author and YA librarian MK England:

There’s no shame. Read romance, read sci fi, read literary, read horror—the culture of judgment just doesn’t exist in the YA world to the same degree it does in the adult world. MK England, ‘Why I write YA’, March 20, 2017

How to write YA fiction

Put growing young adults in challenging situations, stay inclusive – ya helped broaden publishing, think beyond how old ya characters are, know ya vs middle grade differences, don’t write down to younger readers, avoid or reinvent overused ya clichés, understand typical ya pov, learn what young adult audiences want.

Change is the lifeblood of stories . It’s the origin and end-result of conflict and is particularly marked crossing from childhood to (young) adulthood.

Many young adult novels deal frankly with ‘adult’ topics such as sex, romantic relationships and issues such as drug use or difficult parental relationships, because the boundary-pushing teenaged years are when many young people encounter said topics for the first time.

Thumbelina by Andrea Koenig (1999) for example deals with topics such as teen pregnancy and foster care.

As YA author England says in ‘Why I Write YA’:

Teenagers are at the greatest point of change in life, and that makes for fascinating characters to explore. Throw someone who is growing and changing and forming their identity into challenging circumstances and watch the magic happen. Many adults are quite set in their ways. Teens are more likely to be adaptable, fierce, open-minded. England, ‘Why I Write YA’

Using conflict and change agents in YA novels

Challenging situations encountered during teenage years may include:

  • Navigating a first big love
  • Tension between desiring independence and still being dependent upon guardians
  • Issues at school (bullying, challenging friendships, social dynamics, academic performance)
  • Identify and the impact of growing self-awareness and individuation (such as prejudice around race and sexuality)

What challenges will bring internal and external conflict to your own YA characters’ lives?

How to write YA fiction infographic with 8 writing tips

Many young adults and readers in their 20s (Generation Z and so-called ‘zillenialls’) are strongly invested in social justice.

This is part of why YA has driven the broadening of publishing, the championing of more diverse voices.

It’s common to find articles championing YA novels that include BIPOC (black, indigenous and people of color) characters, those who are differently abled, or LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, intersex, asexual and other) meaningfully. Read a detailed blog on how to avoid stereotypes when writing LGBTIQ+ characters.

‘Cancelling’ authors who exclude, misrepresent or tokenize marginalized communities is also a common social media phenomenon. J.K. Rowling’s commenting on trans rights and issues is an example of how badly it can go wrong when one does not listen around sensitive issues.

Why inclusivity in YA matters (and in other categories too)

There are multiple reasons to be inclusive in YA:

  • Representation matters – young adults, like people of all ages, like to see themselves in the characters in a story and to be able to relate rather than be ‘othered’ or excluded
  • Marginal does not equal minority – not appealing to a broad swathe of the population by never representing (or misrepresenting) a specific demographic could mean less sales to this demographic and their allies at best (and negative press at worst)

YA author Nicola Yoon says , when asked about diversity in YA:

I think it’s very important! […] We tell stories about ourselves. It’s how we know who we are. And if you tell the same story to a kid, if you tell them that “all gay kids are, whatever ” or “all black kids are this other thing ” then they’re going to start to internalize and believe that. We have to tell a variety of stories, and we have to put a variety of people into stories. Nicola Yoon, ‘Interview with Nicola Yoon on love, representation, and writing outside the box’, Books-A-Million

The flipside of this to avoid is ‘tokenism’, having a single character who shoehorns in X identity (for example the trope of the ‘gay best friend’).

Inclusive representation in books shows people in all their individuality and heterogenous personality, values, and more.

YA fiction quote by Sherman Alexie - YA is the garden of eden of literature

A Young Adult book has a young person as a protagonist, but that in itself is not enough to make your book YA.

Examples of books that are not aimed at young readers despite having a young protagonist include two of Donna Tartt’s novels,  The Little Friend  (2002) and  The Goldfinch (2013) and Emma Donoghue’s  Room (2010).

YA novels tend to be immersed in the young person’s point of view. The reader is invited to identify fully with the protagonist.

Language is an important aspect, as award-winning YA author and Now Novel writing coach Nerine Dorman shared in our webinar on writing YA .

YA’s language is accessible and easy to understand. You can use an online language checker tool such as Hemingway to check how your writing compares to age norms.

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Stay accountable, in a structured program with writing sprints, coach Q&As, webinars and feedback in an intimate writing group.

Now Novel group coaching

Given the close age between Young Adult and Middle Grade readers, it’s easy to mix up these book categories. In writing YA vs Middle Grade, remember these categories differ most in length, age reading norms and tone/subjects.

Even though middle grade fiction may have older readers just as YA does, there are a few significant difference between the two:

  • Middle grade protagonists tend to be around nine to twelve years old – the ‘tween’ years – so these books are aimed at a slightly younger demographic. YA protagonists are generally mid- to older teens.
  • Middle-grade books are often shorter with a word count around 20,000 to 50,000 words while YA books are around 50,000 to 70,000 words, though some run well upwards of this.
  • Middle-grade books tend to be less complex in general and deal with fewer controversial issues.

When asked about writing dystopian fiction for middle-graders, Maze Runner author James Dashner told Publishers Weekly :

I really love middle-grade. Middle-grade books have a little more of a magical, light-hearted feel. You can be a little bit more quirky, you can have a little more humor. It doesn’t get so dark and deep. James Dashner, ‘Q&A with James Dashner’, Publishers Weekly, August 2nd 2012.

If there’s one thing younger people (and readers) dislike it’s being talked down to, treated like a child (especially when they are 13 going on 30!).

This is great advice courtesy of Young Adult author Seth Fishman, who says:

‘Young Adult’ does not mean stupid. It doesn’t mean ignorant. The major constrictions on YA are age of protagonist and cursing and violent/sexual content. Depending on the book, the latter two constraints are already becoming commonplace. So basically, YA really just means a teen protagonist. […] When you write for teens, don’t patronize or condescend. Seth Fishman, ‘How to Write YA’, Publishers Weekly, February 27 2014.

Some people may assume that because they are shorter or because they are not for adults, YA novels are easier to write, but this is not the case.

In fact, YA novels have a number of requirements that might not apply to adult novels. YA novels must have an economy of language and strong pacing.

Writers cannot assume that they can fall back on plot clichés simply because they may be writing for younger readers. A YA novel requires the same amount of skill as writing for any other audience.

YA writing advice quote by Seth Fishman

There are exceptions to every rule, and if you can reinvent a cliché (or parody it brilliantly), more power to you.

Young Adult clichés from YA fantasy and other young adult genres include:

  • The protagonist is the chosen one. This is a time-honoured trope in fantasy fiction, yet almost every other fantasy book uses it.
  • The protagonist is an orphan. This is a convenient way of getting parents out of the picture and making a protagonist more vulnerable, but again, it’s been done so often that it has begun to feel tired.
  • The protagonist is caught in a love triangle. Readers swooned over Edward and Jacob in the Twilight series and cheered for either Peeta or Gale in The Hunger Games trilogy. To some readers, the main character caught between two love interests may feel overdone or outmoded (given the increasing normalization of other relationship structures such as polyamory ).

Some people love clichés , though – the predictably familiar can also be fun . One Twitter user wrote, ‘I know it’s a trope but you can prize enemies to lovers’ (a familiar YA romance trope) ‘…out of my cold, dead hands.’

What are some of the most frustrating YA novel clichés, in your opinion? Or are there any you secretly hate to love? Let us know in the comments below.

One thing writers may begin to notice is that the typical YA voice tends to be first person, present-tense, chatty and heavy on dialogue.

This does not mean that all YA novels need to be written in this voice, and indeed, writers might set themselves apart by using a different approach altogether.

But it does provide a hint to the breezy, casual yet intimate manner of narration many YA readers want.

If there’s any readership that will not hesitate to leave a cutthroat, GIF-filled Goodreads review takedown, it’s YA.

Fortunately, you can learn a lot from hanging around YA forum discussions such as this Goodreads poll about the YA tropes readers are sick of .

Read often and widely within the Young Adult category and within subgenres relevant to your subject matter for this age group. Popular genres within YA include:

  • Science fiction
  • Social issues
  • Art, music and photography
  • Religion and spirituality

This will not only give you an idea of what’s current and trending but what’s oversaturated in the market, too. It will help you determine things such as:

  • How to approach more adult topics in YA such as sex
  • How much profanity is too much (and which curse words get more of a pass)
  • Which books would make great comp titles to mention when querying

Tips to get to know your Young Adult audience

Many YA authors (like MK England in the article linked above) have direct connection to younger readers. Some are parents. Some are librarians, teachers or others who interact with children in the YA target audience range due to their vocation.

To write convincingly for younger readers in the YA age range, spend time with younger readers in your family or friend circle. Ask things like:

  • What are you reading (at home or in school)?
  • What do you like most about the story?
  • Who are your favorite writers? Why?

Social platforms that skew younger (e.g. TikTok and Tumblr) are also useful for finding YA conversations and what teen readers love.

From a marketing perspective, remember that many book buyers in the YA category are parents, grandparents or other older friends to teenagers (such as family friends) looking for something suitable. Nerine Dorman raised this in our webinar on how to write YA.

So think about his audience – people who want to encourage young readers – in how you market your YA books too.

What do you love most about YA fiction? What type of YA are you writing? Let us know in the comments.

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how to write ya fiction

Jordan is a writer, editor, community manager and product developer. He received his BA Honours in English Literature and his undergraduate in English Literature and Music from the University of Cape Town.

9 replies on “How to write YA fiction: Detailed guide”

I disagree with the statement that there isn’t much that’s taboo in YA these days. I actually read a book marketed as YA the other day that was brimming with sex/sexual references/sensuality. I went to the comments section on Goodreads and had a difficult time finding a single positive comment. Even if the reader liked the book, they stated they could have done without the sexuality. Leave sex out of the YA books. There’s enough stress and difficulty in our age bracket without encouraging this too.

Thanks for the insight, Cori. Good point that even if writers are doing it, readers aren’t necessarily loving it (i.e. it might not seem taboo from a writer’s perspective but from a reader’s it certainly can be). Are there any particular YA books you’d recommend?

I recommend a book by Jim West called Libellus de Numeros (The Book of Math) that my 11-year-old daughter just finished reading. The story is about Alex, a young precocious girl, who mysteriously gets transported to a strange world where Latin and Math combine in formulas and equations with magical effects. With a cruel council leading the only safe city of its kind in this world, she will have to prove her worth to stay as well as help this city as it is the target for two evil wizards who seek to destroy the city and its ruling council. To help the city and also get back home, she will need the help of the greatest mathematician of all time, Archimedes. In a world where math is magic, Alex wishes she paid more attention in math class.

A Goodread 5-star review said:

“The storyline inspires a hunger for knowledge and a ‘can do’ attitude – a strong message of empowerment for young readers. I’m sure that this book will be interesting to read for both, boys and girls, as well as adult readers. Libellus de Numeros means ‘Book of Numbers’ and it’s a magical textbook in the story. Math and science are wonderfully incorporated into a captivating plot: Latin and math are presented as exciting tools to make ‘magic’ and while Latin is often used as a language of magic the addition of math is definitely a fresh approach.

“The main heroine Alex is a very relatable character for young people, especially girls. I love that she has her flaws and goes through struggles all too familiar to a lot of young people. Alex is an authentic female role model – a very courageous girl, who is not afraid to stand up for herself and others and who is able to learn fast how to use knowledge to her best advantage.

“She can definitely do everything that boys can and I find this to be a very powerful message that is needed in our modern society. Furthermore, it was a pleasure to read through the pages of a well-formatted eBook. Highly recommended!”

Thanks so much for the recommendation, Tamara. Sounds like a fantastic premise and also a great idea for instilling a love for mathematics in this age group. Will definitely look the book up.

I’m always thankful when someone clarifies that YA is a marketing category, and not really a fiction genre. I go crazy when someone just says “I like YA novels”. What, mystery? Urban fantasy? No, don’t tell me, you’re talking dystopian or paranormal romance, aren’t you?!

It’s true. Although I suppose what people might identify as genre characteristics are more stylistic – i.e. age-appropriate style and so forth. There are so many different terms and categories to keep track of.

I never really thought about YA being anything but a genre, but after reading that, everything seemed to click.

I’m guilty of saying I like YA novels, but only to give a general idea of the type of books I’m interested in. I view YA as a category, just as children’s books is a category.

[…] Prominent children’s writers include A. A. Milne, Roald Dahl, Dr. Seuss, Madeleine L’Engle, Diana Wynne Jones, Anne Fine, and Peggy Parish. Here are 10 tips for picture book writers, and here is advice for YA novelists. […]

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The Write Practice

4 Essential Tips On Writing Young Adult Fiction

by Ruthanne Reid | 55 comments

Young Adult fiction, or YA, is one of the most vibrant, fun, emotionally engaging genres out there.

4 Essential Tips On Writing Young Adult Fiction

Young Adult explores topics many genres won't touch; it joins on the journey of personal growth and Bildungsroman  (read: “coming of age”) that we all struggle through. It doesn't hurt that it also sells like hotcakes, movie deals included.

Do you want to write Young Adult fiction? Well, there is no magic formula, but that's the bad news. The good news is I'm going to share four effective tips on writing Young Adult fiction to make your story more successful and relatable.

Tip Number One for Writing Young Adult Fiction: Language

Most of you are not, in fact, teenagers. (For those of you who are, let me know if you agree with the point I'm about to make.) And obviously, if you're not a teenager, it means you do not think or speak the same way your protagonist will because YA books showcase teenagers (with a couple of years' cushion on either side) as protagonists, and teenagers do not sound like adults.

Ah, but the key to this isn't slang—which, by the way, I HIGHLY advise you avoid, unless you're inventing it yourself, or it's slang that has stood the test of time, like “cool.” If you try to make your book sound current via slang, you guarantee that some young person will pick up your book in short order and laugh at how silly it sounds.

(No, really. This is a thing . To quote the article, “Yesterday's cutting-edge is today's ho-hum.”)

How then do you make your kids sound young, hip, and relevant? Two ways:

  • See how it's done by someone who does it well, like Holly Black. I suggest The Coldest Girl in Coldtown — not because it's everyone's cup of tea (because it really isn't), but because it's an excellent example of modern teens who sound and feel modern without feeling so current that they won't feel modern in five years. They're smart; they're wrestling with current issues; they lack the experience to judge what might or might not happen. They're three-dimensional and fantastic, but undeniably young.
  • Just have your characters speak like people (*gasp* teens are people? I know, right?). The thing that sets them apart from adults is a lack of experience, and therefore, a different grasp of consequences. Young people are often portrayed in media as… well, stupid; they're not . Yes, they can sound defiant in the face of what adults think is good sense, but that's not stupidity; that's courage—a courage many adults lack because they've gone through the consequences of sticking to their guns. Teenagers have the confidence so say what they think, and to think things adults might not. That isn't stupid. That's experience.

Tip Number Two for Writing Young Adult Fiction: Brands and Bands

That tip to avoid the most in-style thing actually goes beyond language. Of course, being a smart author, you're already being really careful about what brand names you use . This makes it easier still: either don't use them, or just make them up.

You don't know what will be popular in five years. Your fourteen-year-old may love that brand of jeans right now, but they might not even exist five years from now—and twenty years from now? It's not impossible that the next generation will think of those jeans as being “mom-jeans.”

The mom-jeans thing is a good example, actually. High-waisted jeans were HUGELY popular once, but then the generation that loved them grew older, and… well. Time makes fools of us all.

Mom jeans

(P. S. – mom-jeans, after being out of style for three decades, are coming back in . Pfft, fashion.)

Tip Number Three for Writing Young Adult Fiction: Maturity and Decision-Making

This is a tough one when it comes to writing people younger than ourselves. We all, in a way, suffer from what C. S. Lewis called “chronological snobbery:” we assume that anyone or anything who came before was primitive compared to us.

Whether that's true about generations past is a whole other discussion. I'm here to tell you it's not true of your teenage protagonist.

I've said this before, but it's important: there is an enormous difference between intelligence and experience, and teens are far from stupid . Yes, they make decisions that adults feel are stupid, but guess what? Adults make decisions teens feel are stupid, too.

When your teenaged protagonist makes decisions, you can be easily tempted to make them idiots for the sake of moving your plot along. Don't. Even the nineteen-year-old boy who drives like a fool is actually thinking about it; he's not stupid. He assumes he won't he be hurt or hurt anyone else because he hasn't yet, or he's gotten away with it. He's prideful or selfish, but there's a far cry between that and idiocy.

The mistake/growth pattern that comprises most solidly good YA books is the development of maturity , not intelligence.

We all gain maturity as we grow older. We learn by doing and experiencing things; we learn from consequences, good and bad. So will your teenaged protagonist. The decisions and choices that character makes must be generated by an intelligent but potentially ignorant person—someone who doesn't know what will happen if they press the button, or hopes it won't happen to them. Not someone who is an idiot, but someone who hopes for a specific outcome, and has no life-experience to tell them whether or not it will work.

Tip Number Four for Writing Young Adult Fiction: World-Awareness

I hang around on a little site called Tumblr, and I don't do it for the memes. I do it for the people: the average age of a Tumblr user is far lower than the age of users on other social networks (apart from things like Snapchat), and I can genuinely say that they are well-informed, invested in world-events, deeply moved by social issues, and highly critical of politicians. (Heck, if you want to see the current distribution-by-age via social platform, you can read about it here .)

I'm not saying to go to Tumblr for your news. Very often, these enthusiastic young people miss the point of what happened, or make assumptions about trouble in the world. However, they're aware of what happened, and that's the point.

These kids read the news, or watch it.

These kids are aware, informed, and deeply passionate about multiple real-life issues.

And many of these kids are still too young to vote. That doesn't stop them from knowing what they're talking about when they compare politics or health-care systems.

See, this is what it's like to be a teenager today: the world is at their fingertips. It's common for a seventeen-year-old young woman in New Jersey to be informed and angry about issues affecting Melbourne, Australia.

If you're writing YA before the internet age, this won't be the case. If you're writing YA set anytime after the internet became a household thing, this is the reality. Your young people will be aware of what's going on outside their own country.

Above All, Remember Young Adults are People Too

Your teenage protagonist is a person—a person with growing to do, a person who may not yet know who they are or what they want, but a person.

Teenagers are people. If you keep that in mind and don't try to create your characters based on some weird “This Is Teens” algorithm, you will be fine.

Has this impacted your view of YA? Let us know in the comments section .

It's time to put this into practice. Your task today is to write a modern teenaged protagonist having a conversation with an adult. It can be about world events, about some decision the teen wants to make that the adult doesn't like (but make sure to include the teen's reasons), or even just a confession about what happened at school.

Take fifteen minutes  and dive into the rich thought-life and emotional tapestry of your young character. When your time is up, post your practice in the comments section . If you post, don't forget to comment on someone else's work.

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Ruthanne Reid

Best-Selling author Ruthanne Reid has led a convention panel on world-building, taught courses on plot and character development, and was keynote speaker for The Write Practice 2021 Spring Retreat.

Author of two series with five books and fifty short stories, Ruthanne has lived in her head since childhood, when she wrote her first story about a pony princess and a genocidal snake-kingdom, using up her mom’s red typewriter ribbon.

When she isn’t reading, writing, or reading about writing, Ruthanne enjoys old cartoons with her husband and two cats, and dreams of living on an island beach far, far away.

P.S. Red is still her favorite color.

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Ultimate Guide for Writing Fiction for Young Adults (With 10 Tips)

Last Updated on September 24, 2022 by Dr Sharon Baisil MD

Introduction

Books written for readers aged 12 to 18 are commonly referred to as young adult fiction. It softens the shift to adult fiction by being the next level of reading material after middle-grade imagination. It provides tales that are more emotionally and intellectually sophisticated in general.

The genre of YA isn’t a genre at all but a label for books targeted toward teenagers. It comes in various genres, such as Fantasy, mystery, and science fiction, representing a certain demographic’s reading level, worldview, and maturity.

The majority of teenage books focus on youngsters in their struggle to become adults. They discover hidden characteristics about themselves, resolve personal issues, and gain control of their behaviors. As a result, coming-of-age tales are another name for YA tales.

You’ll find out what makes a successful YA book here and the components of young adult fiction (also known as YA fiction).

Top 10 Tips for Writing an Excellent Young Adult Fiction

Good YA literature is often found in nearly any genre that would make for a good adult novel. YA books are distinguished by the qualities that elevate all great works:

  • Powerful viewpoint
  • Emotional authenticity
  • A relatable primary character
  • Entertaining secondary characters
  • Efficient language usage
  • A plot worth investing in 

Generally, a reimagined version would resonate as a young adult novel if a book succeeded as adult literature. Horror, thrillers, and dystopian sci-fi are prevalent among teenage readers because they respond to a certain level of edginess.

There are several distinct YA subgenres available:

· Science fiction

· Sports novels

· Thrillers

· Coming of age stories

Top 10 Tips for Writing a Compelling Fiction for Young Adults

1 – write for 3d characters.

Just because you’re writing adolescent characters, don’t stereotype your characters ; give them depth and dimension. Multi-faceted characters are the most fascinating. Reading (and writing ) about protagonists who are too good or antagonists with no redeeming qualities is dull. Ultimately, how can a person who isn’t well-rounded and relatable connect with a reader?

2 – Focus on genuine moments in the story

Remember that a teen perspective is almost always present in YA literature. Rather than using the knowledge and practiced vocabulary of an adult looking back on her teenage years, we should be experiencing your adolescent protagonist’s environment as she experiences it at the moment. Authenticity goes beyond a character’s unique voice. It’s also worth noting that story development must include a convincing ring of truth. 

3 – Take insights from real teenagers

Rainbow Rowell had no intention of becoming a YA novelist. However, in Eleanor & Park, a teenage love tale set in 1986, she used the same technique to write younger characters. Attachments were her first book, and it was written for adults.

She only found out it would be YA after the book was finished, and even then, she disagreed with the choice. Several readers and commentators questioned if the YA designation was appropriate since Rowell encouraged her to begin writing for adults, and the tale’s realism challenged many adult notions of a “teen novel.”

Yet, according to a fellow novelist, the fact that the central characters were teenagers was just one of what made Eleanor & Park a YA novel. That was because the story allowed them to see things through their eyes.

4 – Take references from pop-culture

Hazel is a sucker for America’s Next Top Model marathons, which makes her seem relatable to YA readers. In addition, the references to Hazel’s long-running reality program, Tyra Bank, provide insight into her as a person and a teenager that Green did not pretend for.

Rowell isn’t afraid to use pop culture to anchor her tales in reality, but she understands that references may not age well and may not behave as one would anticipate.

5 – Consider the right age for characters

Your YA novel’s protagonist should be between 14 and 18. So, about high school age, think about it. In reality, there are numerous adult books featuring adolescent protagonists. The fact that the novels are published with an adult readership makes these publications most often viewed as adult literature.

Two prominent examples are Curtis Sittenfeld’s Prep and Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Virgin Suicides, both of which feature adolescent protagonists reflecting on their teenage lives from an adult’s perspective.

6 – There’s no harm in writing about a heavy subject

When creating a YA book that is accurate and relatable, it’s vital to write with purpose rather than just being edgy. It is necessary to approach serious subject matter (or at least avoid it). Remember that your target audience is exposed to sex, drugs, terrible language, and any other Big Bads you can imagine throughout their everyday lives. The teenage experience is the focus of writing young adult fiction.

7 – Show some emotional honesty without being too quick

Some describe it as teaching, while others describe it as didacticism. Please don’t patronize your YA reader by whatever name you choose. We’re referring to the fact that you should never make your main character fall to teach them a lesson. Your YA book will be in trouble if your teenager reader can smell the study a mile away.

Writing YA is about the experience of writing a book, not about how it ends. An actual, relatable human being in flux and figuring things out is the subject of this journey to emotional truth. ARA readers appreciate your heartfelt honesty. They deserve real characters whose emotions connect with the audience, rather than people whose sole purpose is to convey moral high ground or life lessons.

8 – Write something robust and firey

Avoiding the opportunity to choose your topic material based on a recent Publishers Marketplace transaction that went for a “significant deal” might be challenging. Trends in young adult literature, on the other hand, are fickle. The movement may have passed you by the time you buy your book.

Writing about something that ignites you on fire is the most proper technique to make an agent, editor, or reader fall head over heels in adore your book . Regardless of the trend status of the topic, you are ecstatic to write about it every day. There’s nothing more infectious than your passion and creativity, and they’ll come through.

9 – Give readers at least a little for hopeful endings

Endings should be written creatively. Notwithstanding whatever dark events may have occurred before, most young-adult novelists instill optimism in their readers. While dealing with the same concerns, adult novels may leave readers downright melancholy, even bereft. However, there appears to be a responsibility in writing for young adults to allow for the possibility rather than drill in lessons and give warnings. Let your audience believe that they have an ultimate say in the matter.

10 – Always look for the ideal protagonist’s voice

The personality of your principal character, which emerges via the words they use to convey their tale, is best characterized as voice. Unfortunately, many new writers believe that voice is solely determined by how your character speaks in their literal conversation, which seems to be valid — but when we talk about voice, we mean every word on the page.

The belief that adolescent voice automatically equates to snide and sarcastic is one of the most significant errors we see YA authors make. Of course, such characteristics are viable options, but don’t confine yourself to just one voice; there are a limitless number of representatives worldwide.

In the novel “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” author Stephen Chbosky uses first-person narrator Charlie as a representation of all teenagers. They are rapidly growing, developing, and changing individuals who have to find their way in life through mistakes and lessons learned from trial & error while going through high school. 

The narrator’s point-of-view is unique because it shows how awkward he is but depicts his growth by sharing his thoughts with an adult reader throughout the book. 

Final Words

Over the years, the popularity of young adult fiction has increased. It’s a perfect genre for anyone who wants to explore different worlds and experience life from a new perspective. To help you write a captivating young adult novel, we’ve put together ten tips to help you create stories that will indeed engage your readers! So, what are you waiting for? Start writing today and see just how great your imagination can be! Thanks for reading!

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Hi, I am a doctor by profession, but I love writing and publishing ebooks. I have self-published 3 ebooks which have sold over 100,000 copies. I am featured in Healthline, Entrepreneur, and in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology blog.

Whether you’re a busy professional or an aspiring author with a day job, there’s no time like now to start publishing your ebook! If you are new to this world or if you are seeking help because your book isn’t selling as well as it should be – don’t worry! You can find here resources, tips, and tricks on what works best and what doesn’t work at all.

In this blog, I will help you to pick up the right tools and resources to make your ebook a best seller.

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How To Write Young Adults Novels: 6 Best Tips For Your Next Work

  • December 30, 2022

Young adult novels are among the most popular categories of fiction today. 

Modern examples include Stephanie Meyer’s The Twilight Saga , Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games Series , and classic YA fiction such as J.D Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye and S.E Hinton’s The Outsiders . They show just how impactful a successful work of young adult fiction can be. 

In this article, we’ll look at the elements of successful YA fiction to help you how to write young adults novels that will surely be a hit with young readers.

How to write young adults novels

When writing your young adult novel, it helps to know what makes a good one. 

What are the core elements of a successful YA novel? What do YA readers want and expect from the category? What should authors remember when it comes to crafting authentic characters? And what themes can be explored within the young adult category?

Below we’ve included six valuable tips on writing young adult fiction that readers will enjoy, covering:

  • Decide on the Narrative or Point of View 
  • Develop authentic characters
  • Keep it simple 
  • Be bold in choosing your theme
  • Embrace change and challenges
  • Raise questions, don’t answer them

How To Write Young Adults Novels

Tips for writing YA fiction

1. decide on the narrative or point of view .

One of the most crucial elements to get right in your YA novel is the point of view (POV). 

The POV is the standpoint from which your readers engage with your story, so it should offer a unique, engaging, and immersive perspective. 

Young adult readers want to connect to their protagonists, experience what they go through, and learn from those experiences. 

Often, the protagonist of YA fiction is in the first person narrative , or at least the objective narrator is heavily focused on the protagonist, so you still feel close to this leading character. 

When writing young adult fiction in first person POV, readers experience the story’s world through the biased perspective of the narrator/protagonist. This perspective immerses readers in the story, helping them feel like they can be the protagonist and offering insight and emotional awareness through the character’s experiences. 

Growing up as a teenager is inherently tumultuous and confusing, so connecting with your readers through shared experiences helps you stand out and gain a positive reputation as a young adult fiction writer.

Again, YA readers typically want a hero, a protagonist, to follow through the story. The same applies to many types of readers but is especially true for the young adult genre. 

Engage your YA reader with a character that has a strong voice. Strong in this context does not necessarily mean powerful or assertive but rather a well-defined voice. 

The voice should help the reader feel connected to the character in an intimate way. 

Third person narrative

Some YA novels are written from the third person narrative, such as J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Series or John Green’s An Abundance of Katherines. 

YA stories written in the third person allow readers to follow multiple characters throughout. 

Harry, Ron, and Hermione play our main protagonists in the Harry Potter series, but we meet many other characters throughout the series. 

Despite multiple characters of various ages and backgrounds, the story is still centered around teenage Harry and his friends’ experiences and worldviews.

Whether a story is written in the first or third person, the most critical element is that readers connect with and care about the characters.

2. Develop authentic characters

A young adult novel is not just about teens or young adults. It must be written from the emotional truth of these young characters. 

Stories about teens written from an adult perspective miss the point. YA readers want to connect with the emotional truth of their characters, so if the story is written in retrospect as an adult remembering their teen years, then that matured adult perspective will dominate and isolate the young reader from genuinely connecting to the story.

When writing young adult fiction, authors must enter the mindset of the young characters, telling the story as it would be understood and told by them. 

If you know teenagers personally, talk to them, listen to them, and get feedback on dialogue and perspectives. See what resonates with your teen reviewers to know what works and doesn’t. 

Alternatively, reconnect with your sense of being a teenager. We don’t altogether leave behind our past selves. Our inner child and teen still exist within us and can offer us valuable information on their perspectives if we know how to reconnect and listen.

Don’t rely on hindsight and adult perspectives on teen issues and experiences. Events, emotions, experiences, and perspectives should be immediate and in the moment, not explored from a place of reflection. 

This is one of the trickiest parts of writing young adult fiction. As an adult, you have a mature, less biased understanding of the world. 

Teenagers are still learning about the world and their place within it, so things that make sense to your young character don’t have to make sense to you as an adult, and vice versa.

3. Keep it simple 

In YA novels, plot and character development are driving forces. These are the reasons why books in this category appeal to their readers. 

Plots and characters are so crucial that YA writers who get them right need not worry about intricate, complex prose. 

Some writers like to boast their skills with intricately crafted thoughts and descriptions, but the young adult audience is not the audience to impress with these skills. 

Shorter, concise sentences that move the story or scene forward are more suitable to YA novels than long, drawn-out explanations and descriptions.

How To Write Young Adults Novels

4. Be bold in choosing your theme

Be bold and tackle big themes when it comes to writing YA books. 

Just because you’re writing for and about teens and young adults doesn’t mean you must avoid taboo or controversial topics.

If you’re writing for younger readers, such as middle-grade fiction, then such issues as drugs and sexuality may best be avoided, but the young adult audience is open to anything.

Teenagers are exposed to a lot of subject matter in daily life and on the internet, and acting like they’re any less savvy or aware than they truly are is a surefire way to damage your reputation as a YA writer. 

Your young readers will respect and appreciate your taking on big ideas and topics.

Your readers may be facing a whole host of personal, social, familial, and sexual issues in their real life and maybe turn to fiction to find something or someone to relate to or to learn from. As such, don’t shy away from topics such as sexuality, depression, suicide, rape, bullying, abuse, parental divorce, and domestic violence.

Consider John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars . The book centers around teenage cancer and the gritty truths everyone involved faces. 

Jennifer Castle’s  What Happens Now  ventures into the depths of self-harm, depression, and first love in a raw look at the realities of teenage mental health. 

These are tough topics to even think about, but such is the reason behind their success. Tough and emotionally heavy subject matters make for riveting stories. Good writing, too, is key. 

Don’t expect major success by sacrificing quality writing for trending themes.

5. Embrace change and challenges

Many young adult novels feature a coming-of-age story arc. 

In this genre, protagonists typically undergo significant life changes associated with being teenagers/young adults. It precedes and follows conflict and usually ends with the protagonist(s) entering a new stage of life. 

Since the average YA protagonist is young, they are already going through age-related changes and challenges. Placing them in the context of a more significant challenge makes for great storytelling. 

The teenagers/young adults archetypal to the genre are more open to change and adaptation than their adult counterparts, and these changes often take the plot spotlight.

Ordinary and rich circumstances in which characters face significant life changes and challenges include:

  • Romance, first love, break-ups
  • Desire for independence and still living with parents/being in school/dealing with authority
  • Social struggles such as bullying, friendships, pressure to perform academically
  • Navigating personal identity, individuation, developing self-awareness
  • Dealing with unhealthy dynamics in the home

6. Raise questions, don’t answer them

Young adult novels typically end on a positive note or at least leave things open for interpretation. You don’t need to write happy endings exclusively, but there should be some sense in the reader that there is a future for the characters. 

Even if the only positive aspect is a sense of hope for the future, that’s generally better than an ending that leaves the reader worse off than when they started reading.

It’s best to avoid answering questions and preaching to the audience about the moral lessons the characters learned. Instead, ask questions and leave things open to interpretation. 

Allow your reader to wonder and reflect on the characters and plot . Too much preaching makes the reader feel you’re telling them how to interpret the story or the characters, so avoid lecturing. 

Again, young adult readers want to connect to the story and characters, so if you end the story by ‘talking down’ or preaching, you create distance between the narrator and the reader.

If you want to write YA fiction that creates a real impact on your reader, the best advice is to read as much young adult fiction as you can. Get to know what makes a successful YA novel. 

Remember that young adult fiction is not a condescending, dumbed-down version of adult fiction. Teenagers are more emotionally intelligent than many adults give them credit for. That means they can tell when an author is speaking down to them or playing on trends and tired tropes.

Craft authentic characters, explore real issues that affect young people, and don’t be afraid to cover touchy subjects.

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how to write ya fiction

How to Create a Setting for Young Adult Fiction

how to write ya fiction

Tension-filled high school hallways or dystopian landscapes? Captivating fantasy worlds or historic battlefields?

The fun of writing young adult fiction is that you’ve got options. You get all the fun of exploring a character’s coming-of-age without having to steer clear of worrisome settings the way you would with middle grade fiction . 

Your characters are almost adults. Your readers are, too. That means they’re ready for almost anything, from the wildly imaginative to the challengingly real. 

But that doesn’t mean writing young adult (YA) fiction is exactly the same as writing adult fiction. The age of your audience still deserves consideration, even as you create the setting of your story.

You’re about to learn:

  • What readers want from YA novels
  • Worldbuilding techniques to simplify the story planning process
  • What elements should be included in YA worldbuilding
  • How to describe a setting
  • Examples of YA novels that really nail worldbuilding
  • Final tips to help you create an unforgettable setting

Let’s start with the topic that matters most.

Understanding Young Adult Readers

A teenager sits on a stool in an art studio between two paint easels.

You probably already know that understanding your readers is essential if you hope to find a literary agent and/or sell a ton of books . But this is an especially tricky feat when it comes to writing YA novels. 

Connecting with teenage readers requires more than keeping track of their favorite tropes and paying attention to genre trends. You also have to meet them where they are developmentally.

Sounds important for character development , conflict, and themes , right? But what does it have to do with setting?

Well, the settings of YA books actually contribute to their theme, characterization, and plot. And it’s not just the setting itself that matters—it’s the aspects of that place that you choose to share with the reader.

Huh? I know. Let me explain using Harry Potter .

When Harry first arrives at Hogwarts, he’s a middle grade character in a middle grade novel. Hogwarts is a place full of magic, secrets, new friends, and suspicious characters. These elements give Harry a chance to explore what it means to belong, learn how to be a good friend, and be brave in unfamiliar situations. Very middle grade stuff.

When Harry and the gang mature into teenhood, their surroundings take on a very different vibe. The magic of their world isn’t just mountain trolls and broomsticks. It’s mind manipulation and horses you can only see if you’ve witnessed death.

Instead of navigating the creepy and unfamiliar, Harry’s finding his way through spaces that are sinister and evil. He and his friends face larger questions about prejudice, trauma, identity, and sacrifice. And that’s very YA.

Same place, different details. That’s why we need to take a minute to get acquainted with the inner lives of YA readers.

The Importance of Knowing Your Audience: Who Are Young Adult Readers?

Two teenagers sit in a room in front of vintage computer screens with 1980s video games on them.

It’s true: all ages read young adult novels. Nevertheless, everyone who comes to this genre does so to read about the inner lives of teenagers. Plus, teen readers are your primary audience, so we’re just going to worry about their psyches right now.

The age range of a YA protagonist is 13-19, though most of them fall in the 15-18 range. Your readers will be in the same range, plus a little younger. Kids often gravitate towards protagonists who are a little older than them, so YA readers can be as young as 12 or so.

If you want to really dig into the hearts and minds of teenagers, we have a whole article on YA character development . But here’s the short version of what this demographic is looking for in a novel:

Characteristics of YA Fiction—What Young Adults Want to Read

A teenager sits on a couch reading a novel on a tablet.

Books that resonate with teenage readers tend to:

Explore challenging topics - Successful YA novels don’t shy away from subjects like death, social injustice, mental illness , drugs, and other heavy topics. In this phase of life, teenagers are becoming aware of these issues for the first time ever. They crave honest depictions of the challenges they and their friends face.

Experiment with adulthood - Give your teenage protagonist opportunities to test their adult-ability. Whether it’s that they get a car, start a job, or take their friend to the emergency room in the middle of the night, let your characters operate with some autonomy and responsibility. 

Also create spaces where they exist without supervision (even if they’re not supposed to).

Take teenage issues seriously - One day, Lara Jean Song Covey might look back and realize that she didn’t actually love all those boys before. But at sixteen, love is the best word she has for the very real feelings she feels. It’s also a word that makes sense to a YA audience.

So Jenny Han embraces and honors Lara Jean’s interpretation of events when telling the story. As a YA author, you never want to minimize the issues that loom large for your readers. 

Creating a World Young Adults Want to Explore

Two teenagers talk under a ferris wheel.

So what does that mean for the setting of your YA novel? What do you readers want to see?

A bigger world than the one they know - If you write fantasy YA, this could mean an entirely new universe. But even if you write grounded contemporary YA, you can give your readers access to new experiences and perspectives. Let your characters explore a different part of their city, take on a unique hobby, or have close relationships with people of other cultures.

Familiarity and novelty - Find the balance between a world that’s relatable and one that invites your teenage readers to imagine an entirely different life. Even fantasy and sci-fi writers can pull this off just by applying human tendency to an extraordinary reality. What does ghosting look like when everyone communicates by hologram? 

More reality - While you want to be mindful of the fact that teenagers still have impressionable, developing brains, you don’t have to be as delicate with them as you might be with younger readers. You can show them a messy world, from dark alleyways to corrupt political systems.

Glimmer of hope - All YA fiction ends with at least a note of optimism. So even if you write dystopian YA, put something in that world—an underground rebellion, a reformed villain —that gives readers a reason to hope for a better tomorrow.

Worldbuilding Techniques for Young Adult Fiction

A small globe levitates over a person's open palm. A mountain and lake are in the background.

Time to get down to the nitty-gritty. How do you go about creating the setting for your YA novel?

How to Plan Your Worldbuilding Process

Step one is to accept that worldbuilding is going to get messy. This goes quadruple if you’re writing sci-fi, fantasy, or historical YA fiction.

Then, as you prepare to create your YA novel’s setting, gather all the information you currently have about the story you intend to tell. Who are the characters? How will they grow? What themes do you plan to explore? What conflicts will arise?

It’s fine if you don’t have all the answers yet. Writing YA—or any other genre—is a process of exploration. But if you begin worldbuilding with a solid grasp of whatever answers you have , you can design your setting to serve your story.

Creating a Unique World

Teenagers skateboard beside a vintage camper.

So how can you make sure the world of your YA novel is one your reader will be excited to explore? How do you make it feel one-of-a-kind?

The strategy depends on what kind of world you’re creating. Is this a full-blown fantasy world ? A dystopian version of your own hometown? A neighborhood that either really exists or is a fictionalized version of a real place? Are you working with a real historical setting?

If your world exists in our reality, zero in on the aspects of the setting that drew you to it as a setting for your novel. Whatever intrigues you will likely intrigue your reader, too, especially if those details serve a purpose in the story.

The same thing applies if you’re building this world from scratch or adding fantasy/sci-fi elements to an existing setting. What elements would most contribute to the conflict or themes of your YA story? Make them the focus.

If you’re not sure what I mean by “elements,” hang in there. We’re about to talk about that. First, I want to cover a larger concept:

Establishing the Rules of the World

Scrabble pieces spelling out "RULES" stand on a tabletop.

Every environment comes with rules, both spoken and unspoken. 

If you write fantasy, sci-fi, or paranormal YA, you have to think about the physical rules of your world. What is possible under the influence of magic or advanced technology ? Who has special powers and who doesn’t? Under what conditions can one wield the magic or tech available to them?

If you write contemporary or historical YA, you don’t have to worry much about the physical rules. If you drop a glass, it breaks. Try to walk through a wall and you get a concussion. Everybody knows the rules here.

But no matter which YA genre you write, you must consider the cultural rules of your universe. How are people expected to behave? What’s considered shocking? What’s considered sacred? Do the rules change for the teenage protagonist as they move between home and school, between school and the larger community?

Rules matter to YA readers because young adults are constantly questioning the boundaries of their own lives. So as you build the societal structures and values of your fictional YA world, consider the boundaries that come with the package. How do they affect your characters’ lives?

Worldbuilding Elements for Young Adult Fiction

A teenager in a long, white dress sits beside a pond in the forest.

Okay, it’s finally time to dig into the details of worldbuilding. We’ve got an extensive guide on this subject right here . For now, here’s the quick list of everything you want to consider when you create your YA setting. 

Geography and Climate

Weather and landscape can serve as symbols highlighting a theme , create conflict , or even just make the world feel more real to your reader.

If you’re writing reality-based YA fiction, consider what aspects of geography and climate might be relevant to your storytelling. If you’re creating an entirely new world, ask yourself how you can shape these elements to serve your novel.

Architecture and Technology

What are the human-built aspects of your setting? How do the innovations of this world influence the way your characters physically navigate their world and connect with one another?

If this seems like a small detail, just think about the role smartphones, social media, and internet access play in modern YA books. Whether you’re working with innovations that exist or ones you dreamed up, consider what those conveniences (or inconveniences) mean for your characters.

Social and Political Systems

This is a huge consideration in dystopian YA books, but you’ll want to give it some thought even if dystopias aren’t your jam.

Who holds the power in the world of your YA novel? What does it mean to hold power—politically, socially, or both? What cultures coexist in this setting and how do they interact? Do the systems that define this setting work in your protagonist’s favor or against them? Or both? 

Also consider things like cultural values, religious demographics, any relevant history, and more. 

Magic and Supernatural Elements

Our resident fantasy expert has written an excellent guide on creating magic systems. So check that out when you’re ready to work out the details of your abracadabras. 

For now, just know that your readers need to know what’s impossible as well as possible. What are the limitations of magic? When can your characters use magic? When can’t they? 

And what does it cost your characters to use their powers? What does it mean to be powerless? 

Writing the Setting for YA Fiction

A writer sits at an outdoor cafe table, writing in a notebook.

You’ve got the details of your YA world nailed down. Now let’s bring the setting to life for your readers.

Description and Sensory Details

When you’re writing YA fiction, you can get away with a little more scene description than you could if you were writing middle grade. But you still don’t want to be all lit-fic about it. Skip the page-long descriptions about the rolling hills at dusk.

Instead, choose a small handful of details that either create an atmosphere or support the story.

Also remember to use all the senses when you set the scene for your readers. Draw them into the moment with sounds, smells, textures, and tastes in addition to good ol’ fashion sights. For tips on establishing a setting, check out this article .

Using the Setting to Develop Character and Plot

How do your characters relate to the setting of your YA novel? Does it force them to grow in any way? Is any aspect of the conflict made worse by the setting? Could the conflict exist only in this world?

Consider everything from physical obstacles—like the muttations in The Hunger Games —to psychological obstacles—like the obligation to kill in order to survive the Hunger Games.

Creating Atmosphere Through the Setting

Think about how you want your reader to feel when they read a specific scene. Are they supposed to be anxious? Angry? Charmed? Chilled?

Highlight the details that will spark those feelings. Take them to the abandoned fairgrounds and let them hear the sun-bleached ferris wheel seat creaking in the wind. Or let the heroine swear she can smell funnel cake when her crush pulls her into the broken-down tilt-a-whirl for a pretend ride.

Bottom line: there’s more than one way to experience an abandoned carnival. 

Examples of Effective Settings in YA Fiction

A beach at sunset.

Okay, I’ve shoved a lot of concepts into your writer brain. Time to solidify these ideas with some actual examples from successful YA books.

Popular Young Adult Novels and Their Settings

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas - This is a great example of the relationship between character and setting. 

The teenage protagonist, Starr, lives in a primarily Black inner-city neighborhood of Garden Heights but attends a primarily white private school. Between these two environments, she’s constantly code-switching, confronting questions of identity, and ultimately forced to make a decision between speaking out or blending in.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - You can read this dystopian YA novel (and series) for a solid example of turning a familiar world into a devastatingly unfamiliar one. 

Collins provides background on how Panem came to be without boring the reader with excessive backstory. And it’s clear how political and social structures affect Katniss on a personal level, even before she sets foot in the arena.

Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman - If you want to see an example of historical fiction written to connect with modern teens, this is it. 

Set in 13th century England, this story is hundreds of years removed from the world YA readers know. But by focusing on both the mundane and remarkable aspects of Catherine’s setting, Cushman manages to make a character today’s young adults can relate to.

Comparison of Different Settings and Their Effect on the Story

Teenagers wear 3D glasses as they watch a movie in a dark theater.

Still struggling with the question of how you can make the setting feel like it plays an essential role in your story?

Honestly, the best way to discover your setting’s purpose is to just start brainstorming. You can even start writing. As you go, you’ll uncover elements of your world that enhance your plot or reveal deeper levels of character.

But just in case it helps, here’s how specific types of settings tend to play out in YA novels:

Dystopian - Horrifying dystopian landscapes typically come about because someone (or something or a group of someones/somethings) has too much control. This is a great setting for exploring themes of injustice, environmental issues, and the power of the common person .

Sci-fi - This genre asks big “what if” questions. The world of a sci-fi novel can easily be set up to discuss questions of power, irresponsible innovation, justice, and equity.

Fantasy - Almost everything about a fantasy setting is extraordinary, making this a great YA genre for leaping headlong into themes of heroism, courage, personal responsibility, and power (there it is again).

Historical - This setting is based on something that YA readers know is real while also being very removed from their own experience. That makes it ripe for exploring questions of progress and where we fit into the greater timeline while also acknowledging the timeless experiences of friendship, struggle, and belonging. 

Contemporary - Contemporary YA novels ground their readers in a world that’s fairly familiar. This setting is perfect for more intimate coming-of-age themes like identity, love, friendship, community, and purpose.

Tips for Creating a Memorable Setting

Three teenagers sit on a green couch floating in a lake.

Now for some final tips and tricks to give your YA novel a setting that really stands out.

Avoiding Common Worldbuilding Pitfalls

Worldbuilder’s Disease - You’re most susceptible to this affliction if you write sci-fi, fantasy, or historical fiction. Worldbuilder’s Disease happens when you get so wrapped up in designing your setting that you never get around to actually writing your book. It’s often caused by a fear of getting started . 

If you find yourself listing all the different species of spiders in your story’s universe—and spiders are irrelevant to the narrative—stop. You’re done. Start writing.

Forcing the story to fit the world - Writing YA fiction that’s inspired by a setting is perfectly fine. The trouble happens when you focus so much on coming up with an “interesting” setting that you sacrifice the story to make it work. Let the place serve the plot.

Every place can be interesting. It’s all in how you write it. 

Neglecting novelty - This is more of a contemporary YA problem. Realistic settings are fantastic for connecting readers to the story and inviting them to see themselves in your characters. But everybody loves the occasional departure from the ordinary.

Whether it’s an impossibly hip hang-out spot or a class trip to a bustling city, toss a little novelty in there.

Making the World a Character in Your Story

My husband and I just started reading Frankly in Love together. Early in this YA book, the teenage narrator describes driving through his part of Southern California—how he’s not just passing through neighborhoods, but through cultures. Mexican-Americans, Chinese-Americans, Korean-Americans, Black Americans, white Americans—one right after the other.

The multicultural nature of Frank’s world seems to sit in every room with him. The question of what it means to connect across races tags along in his relationships with friends, crushes, and even family like an uninvited third wheel.

What makes the setting feel so alive is the fact that we as readers understand immediately how Frank is affected by it. He describes driving through the neighborhoods as he’s listening to his parents discuss other cultures and reflecting on his own relationships. There’s a clear connection between where he lives and the challenges that surround him.

And that’s my final tip on creating worlds for YA novels. Let the setting matter to your protagonist. Show the reader how this world is part of the protagonist’s identity or a threat to their sense of belonging. A challenge to overcome or an opportunity to seize.

Make it more than a place.

Oh Wait! One More Tip!

Use Dabble to create your worldbuilding bible and draft your YA novel! That’s my real final tip.

Seriously, the Story Notes feature of Dabble makes it so easy to keep track of all the people and places that make up your fictional world. Even better: all those handy notes are just one click away as you draft and revise your masterpiece. 

A screenshot showing a worldbuilding bible in Dabble.

Not a Dabbler yet? No problem! You can try it for free for 14 days with zero commitment. You don’t even have to enter a credit card. Just click this li’l link and start building some worlds.

Abi Wurdeman is the author of Cross-Section of a Human Heart: A Memoir of Early Adulthood, as well as the novella, Holiday Gifts for Insufferable People. She also writes for film and television with her brother and writing partner, Phil Wurdeman. On occasion, Abi pretends to be a poet. One of her poems is (legally) stamped into a sidewalk in Santa Clarita, California. When she’s not writing, Abi is most likely hiking, reading, or texting her mother pictures of her houseplants to ask why they look like that.

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Emily Barr, author

How to write young adult fiction: A practical masterclass with Emily Barr

In this interactive masterclass, the award-winning author Emily Barr will give you the skills and inspire you to plan, develop, write and publish your own novel for young adults

Online workshop Date: Thursday 19 May 2022 Time: 6.30pm – 9.00pm (BST)

This course has now passed, but you can be the first to know about the next one - and other workshops like this - by signing up to our newsletter here .

You need only pop your head into a bookshop to see that young adult - or YA - fiction is one of the most popular commercial genres in the world. There is a good reason for this: people aged 12 to 18 tend to want fiction that captures much of the imagination and escapism of children’s books, but with more grit, more reality. They want to see the sticky or difficult parts of their lives reflected back at them. They want to feel seen.

In this highly practical creative writing masterclass with award-winning author Emily Barr , you will learn about the fascinating - and short - history of YA as we know it, as well as what differentiates it from novels targeted at other age groups.

Through writing exercises and looking at other texts, you will gain a solid understanding of what makes good (or bad) YA writing, to give you the skills to begin drafting your own ideas. Emily will guide you through the importance of your character’s journey, and how to write for a teenage audience without being patronising. She will also provide you with tips for strengthening specific writing tools: setting, dialogue and space.

Emily will also be joined by special guest Ruth Knowles , a book editor at Penguin Random House Children’s, who will offer insights into the YA publishing process, and give you the opportunity to explore your own potential publishing journey.

This is an unmissable masterclass for anyone who wants to begin planning and developing their own YA novel, with a view to gaining the necessary tools and insights to publish a debut.

This course is for …

Anyone with an interest in writing YA; no experience is necessary

Course content

What is YA fiction?

How does it differ from writing for adults?

Coming of age: the character’s journey as the crux of your book

Writing for and about teenagers without being patronising

Setting, dialogue and pace

Insights into the YA publishing process

Emily’s latest YA novel Ghosted is released on 12 May 2022. If you live in the UK, you can purchase a book and ticket for the combined price of £72.63 (plus £3.91 booking fee).

Tutor profile

Emily Barr is an experienced creative writing tutor and the award-winning author of 19 published novels, including five YA novels. Her first book for young adults, The One Memory of Flora Banks, was nominated for the Carnegie medal and published in 27 countries. The Girl Who Came Out of the Woods, published in 2019, was also nominated for the Carnegie. Her next YA book, Ghosted, is published in May 2022.

Ruth Knowles is the publisher of the 6+ list at Penguin Random House Children’s. She and her team edit and publish across all genres in fiction and nonfiction. She has worked with Emily on all of her YA novels. Ruth also works with the likes of Philip Pullman, Malorie Blackman, Lucy Hawking and Susie Day.

Date: Thursday 19 May 2022 Time: 6.30pm – 9pm BST Price: £65 (plus £3.56 booking fee); £72.63 (plus £3.91 booking fee) with a copy of Ghosted

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Re:Fiction

How to Write YA Fiction Like a Pro

how to write ya fiction

Young Adult Fiction, also sometimes called YA Fiction, is a hot market to be in right now.  It’s estimated that  more than 10,000 new young adult titles were released just in the year 2012. Among these were “The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green, “Insurgent” by Veronica Roth, “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe” by Benjamin X and “Curveball: The Year I Lost My Grip” by Jordan Sonnenblick.

I’ve taken a closer look at common tropes and elements found throughout Young Adult fiction to help you write it.

Internal Dialogue

Internal dialogue is a common part of YA fiction, but there’s nothing more painful than seeing internal dialogue written badly. Readers want to see something realistic, so never try too hard to sound “cool” or “young” or “hip” or  anything , really. Most of the time, teenagers talk just the way adults do, give or take a few slang terms. Just make sure your language is right for this decade.

If you feel out of touch, read other YA fiction (see the resources at the end of this article) to find out how other writers are approaching it, read through message boards and social media (this is how people tend to  really  talk) and interview sources – as a writer, surely you can find someone who is around nineteen who can tell you if teenagers really still say that.

Internal dialogue allows you to get under the skin of your characters more, and expose the character’s innards more to your readers. Use it.

Drugs are a very real thing, and it’s something that most people will encounter at some point in their teenage years. This is something you have to touch on carefully when you do: There are a lot of stories that don’t mention or allude to drug use at all – and they don’t really need to.

If you  do  touch on drug use, then represent it realistically. Realize that most of the information people have had in their head about drugs have been inaccurate, and a lot of research has changed. Check up your current facts first, and speak to people who have actually  taken  the drugs – and we don’t just mean people who advertise themselves as reformed addicts.

It’s a hard topic to write about, so approach it the right way if you’re going to approach it at all.

For writing about drugs, go to the effort of conducting the interviews and looking up the research, the facts, the usage and the slang terms.

Parental Conflict and Divorce

Do you remember how you felt about  your  parents as a young adult? For most people, it’s a normal emotion – and it’s generally something part of YA fiction. This creates a lot of natural conflict. Some parents and teenagers get along just fine, others don’t – but keep this in mind as you write your characters and your plot.

Divorce is another very real statistic that can add to the parental conflict that’s seen in a YA story, and it’s commonly seen in plenty of YA books as a plot device – just because it’s a real-life thing that affects a large percentage of people.

Relationships, Romance and Sex

Relationships and sex have their place in YA fiction just as they do in real-life, though it’s a subject that you should approach with care when it comes to writing YA fiction – because it  could  turn out to be illegal.

You want to represent sex and sexual development  realistically  – as do you the internal dialogue about it. Sometimes this means saying four-letter words, other times it doesn’t. It’s up to your story, your characters and the reader you’re aiming the story at.

Sex in YA fiction has been the subject of plenty of controversy.  It can be a very useful plot device, but should not be approached from an overly erotic standpoint for YA fiction – in blunt terms, you’re not writing YA fiction to get teenagers off.

This article in  USA Today  references a study which found that about half of friendships made during high school didn’t last for a full academic year. This is something that reflects in real-life, and something you should bring through in your fiction.

Some friendships will last a lifetime – most won’t. People form friendships, people lose friendships, some friends are trustworthy and others aren’t. There’s not a fiction book on this earth that did not have relationships between people, friends and enemies as plot points – and it’s worth a lot when you’re penning your fiction.

Relocation and Disruption

Relocation and disruption of routine are common topics that show up in YA fiction: How many of the Goosebumps books started off with a character moving to a new house or neighbourhood? This was for more than just the purposes of it being great for horror.

Relocation, moving from one house to another, is something that happens to a lot of people during their teenage years, and it’s something that sticks out – so naturally, it’s also a common plot point, and for many writers it’s a great way to kick off their story.

Psychologically, moving house is one of the most traumatic things that can happen to someone, next to the death of a loved one and a divorce. It’s bound to  disrupt  friendships, routine and life – represent this accurately in your work.

Sexual Orientation

Sexual orientation is a topic that comes into focus when people enter puberty. This is the point in time where people start to question what their sexual orientation is in the first place, and where teenagers start to explore their sexual identity more.

Love, sexual orientation, sex and confusion all go together while you’re still trying to find your feet in life. You don’t have to make a character’s sexual orientation the focus of the plot, though you would be a fool if you wrote an entire story without considering characters and their sexual orientations first.

Peer Pressure

Peer pressure is often dealt with in YA fiction, though you want to make sure that you deal with it in a realistic way. Again, presenting peer pressure in fiction is something that can easily come across as trying to preach to the reader if you’re doing it with some kind of “moral lesson” behind the story.

The best approach you can take to peer pressure is the fact that it happens from several different fronts, including friends and parents, and it’s up to you to decide how your characters will handle it.

Make it  realistic , and if you’re having trouble defining this, then ask someone you know how they would react in a situation like that, or put yourself in your character’s shoes.

Death and Loss

Death and loss is a common element seen in YA fiction. Sometimes the story only touches upon a near-death experience instead. Why? Death and loss are as common in real-life, too, and most people remember starting to understand grief for the first time at some point during their teenage years.

It’s the time where you might experience a friend dying for the first time, or even a parent or grandparent: This, and the emotions surrounding death, loss and grief are common in YA fiction for this reason – but should never be overused or dramatized to the point where characters are dying on every second page of the story.

Destroying YA Fiction Completely: How Not To

A lot can be said for YA fiction that doesn’t achieve what it sets out to do. You want to avoid that as a writer.

If you’re setting out to write YA fiction with some kind of moral lesson in mind at the end, stop right there. Real life doesn’t come with moral lessons to keep you away from stress, drugs, promiscuous sex, and neither should your books.  Cause and effect  is as moral as you should go when you pen your plot, anything else will seem preachy.

YA fiction that tries too hard to make a conversation seem “young and cool” will backfire. Want to know how kids and teenagers talk? Then go out and talk to them. Everyone’s got a nephew, a friend with a kid, something relatable  – and sometimes they also make great beta readers.

More about the Market

According to  Amazon.com , the best selling Young Adult fiction titles of all time are “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”, “The Hobbit”, “The Outsider”, “The Little Prince” and “The President is Missing.” This should tell you either that Amazon’s system has no idea what constitutes what young adult fiction is – or that young adult fiction is a very broad genre.

What do young adults read, and what falls into the realm of Young Adult fiction?

Well, what the heck did  you  enjoy reading at that age, and in retrospect, what kind of thing do you wish you could have read at that age? This is a great starting question for plenty of writers who are still finding their feet in the genre.

Simply, young adults read the same thing as older adults. They want a good story about topics and characters they give a damn about.

Resources for YA Fiction Writers

Need some more resources for writing YA fiction? Take a closer look at some of these articles and websites.

  • The 100 Best Young-Adult Books of All Time (Time Magazine)
  • Writing Young Adult Fiction for Dummies (Amazon)
  • The Most Popular Authors in “Teen & Young Adult Books” (Amazon)
  • The Young Adult Library Services Association   (YALSA)
  • YALSA Book Finder (YALSA)
  • The Canadian Young Adult Book Award (Canadian Library Association)
  • A Brief History of Young Adult Literature (BBC)

About the author

Alex j coyne.

Alex J Coyne is an author, freelance journalist and language practitioner. He has written for international publications and blogs, been featured on radio and appeared in NB Publishers’ Skrik op die Lyf, an Afrikaans horror collection. Visit his website and get in touch at http://alexcoyneofficial.wordpress.com.

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How to Write YA That Sells

How to Write YA That Sells

Taught by: Blair Thornburgh

Have you ever wanted to write a YA novel — and actually sell it to a publisher when you're done? From tracking trends to targeting the right audience, the process of writing sales-worthy YA can get pretty complicated!

Luckily, you're about to get all the info you could want on how to write YA that sells.  In this course, YA author and editor Blair Thornburgh guides you through what YA really is, who reads it, how to tackle tough topics in YA, and more. By the end of lesson 10, your YA novel will practically have written itself!

What you'll learn in this course:

  • What YA is and who your target audience should be
  • How a YA novel gets sold to publishers
  • The many genres of YA and where your book fits in
  • How to effectively use YA tropes while avoiding clichés
  • How to cover tough and taboo topics in YA

Brought to you by Blair Thornburgh

Blair Thornburgh is a published YA author and editor. As Senior Editor at Quirk Books, she edited a variety of fiction and non-fiction including the Goodreads Choice Award finalist Geekerella . She received her MFA in Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults at Hamline University. To learn more, visit her Reedsy profile .

What are people saying about this course?

"The topics for each day were well-focused. They gave me food for thought throughout my day, and I often took a moment to write myself a note based on my thinking process."

"It points out the foundation of making a successful book in both marketing and composition, which is much appreciated for newer writers who wish to publish. It's interesting to realize that you cant simply write whatever you wish and still believe that somehow it'll market like nothing.."

– Joshua R.

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10 Tips on How To Write YA Fiction

10 tips for writing young adult (ya) fiction that's true to the adolescent experience.

Young adult (YA) fiction is a unique, modern form of narration that appeals to readers of all ages. Since its establishment, YA narrative has grown in popularity to become a commonly read and appreciated category of novel. But what exactly is young adult? And how do you write a YA perspective in an  authentic, marketable way? 

YA stories are told by or about protagonists between the ages of 12 and 18 in a way that would be appropriate for readers of the same age group. The genre is unique in its accessibility to a wide audience because, while the content often interests adults, the language and perspective are written for adolescents. But with  finesse and a good understanding of what is appropriate for young audiences, the subject matter can take on any topic. 

Let’s discuss 10 tips to help you write a great young adult novel and how to write an authentic YA perspective, even if you’re well past the age of 18. 

Young adult novels require a protagonist between the ages of 12 and 18, but it’s not enough to make their age match. To write an authentic YA perspective, the conflict has to be relevant to adolescent struggles. Whether your hero is traversing the continent to save the world or working through the everyday adversities of what it takes to be in high school, universal challenges teens all face include death, growing up, first love, and establishing a moral compass. These are important to reflect within the YA narrative no matter how extraordinary the circumstances of the adventure. For example, even while Harry Potter faces an imminent confrontation with Lord Voldemort, he lives with abuse from his aunt and uncle and must cope with the inexplicable loss of his parents. 

2. Point of View

When writing young adult, choose your point of view carefully. First-person present tense is the most common POV because it allows a more immediate, limited point of view that excludes the adult perspective. This allows for a subjective viewpoint that young adults have due to their lack of life experience. Close third person perspective is also a common point of view in YA because it serves a similar purpose while offering a bit of distance between the reader and narrator to allow for a broader perspective. Suzanne Collins utilizes the first-person present-tense narration beautifully to demonstrate Katniss’s immediacy of thought and action with less reflection over the course of events.

As you set the pace, consider your timing. Time feels different for younger people. One year can seem like a long time when that makes up a twelfth of your life. As such, the timeline of your story should match the age group. If your characters get into an argument, they might not talk to one another for weeks. But very few teenagers would maintain a cold shoulder for years. Same goes for attraction. A relationship that lasts more than a month in high school could be considered long term. In “To Kill a Mockingbird,”   by Harper Lee, Scout remarks that a day is 24 hours but feels much longer.

4. Language

Consider your use of language, both in formality and propriety. Teens are less concerned with proper grammar, so employing a casual tone will make your narration more authentic. But also consider your vocabulary. Young adults are less likely to use graphic and explicit language because they are still being taught to avoid curse words and speak politely. That being said, curse words can become more potent within the YA narrative, demonstrating an extreme emotion or the character’s rebellion to societal expectation. In “The Outsiders,” S. E. Hinton exemplifies both the casual language of a teenager as well as the type of inappropriate language they might use or refuse to use depending on their personality. 

5. Complexity

Make your characters complex. Just because they’re young doesn’t mean your protagonist should have any less depth. In truth, adolescent narrators can be less consistent in their desires or logic because of their growth and adaptability. Developing complex characters with convoluted or fluctuating needs and responses will make them more true to life. Think of Holden Caulfield in “Catcher in the Rye.” While he’s cynical and jaded, he’s also sensitive and can be quite kind. Character Growth

Personal growth of young adult characters is key to the concept of the YA category. “Coming of age” is a consistent theme in these books, and with that comes growth and development. No teenager is the same person at 18 as they were at age 12, and as such, part of what makes the YA perspective so interesting is how much the characters can grow. The eponymous Artemis Fowl, for example, in Eoin Colfer’s books,  is a brilliant young criminal who finds his moral compass while uncovering the reason behind his father’s disappearance. 

6. Past Experience

Stay relevant to your characters’ experiences. These dictate their perspective and worldview, which can be skewed because of a teenager’s lack of experience. Nonetheless,  their reality  is what matters, so keep in mind what your character might know or not know when they confront situations. Stanley Yelnats from “Holes” is a wonderful example of a character whose perception shifts as his experiences alter his life’s course. 

Delve into emotional truth. The world of a teenager is largely driven by emotion and emotional responses. Young emotion can seem far more potent before you experience something multiple times and know what to expect. That’s true for a lot of different experiences, and developing the emotional response your young adult characters have is important to understanding the YA point of view. Think of “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” by Stephen Chbosky, where each character experiences the pain and joy of young love and growing up. 

Every YA book should have an optimistic, hopeful ending. Of course, not all turn out happy, but the resilient perspective of the young mind lends itself to hope for a better future. This means finding the good in things even when taking on challenging content, like  Louise Gornall does in “ Under Rose-Tainted Skies.” 

When writing YA, use words economically . Descriptions are often less verbose and the story more plot-driven because the intent is to be succinct and engaging. With younger readers especially, attention spans can vary, so part of appealing to a wider audience entails telling the story in a more fast-paced, thrilling way. Young adult novels tend to range from 50,000 to 80,000 words while adult novels average around 70,000 to 120,000 words. 

10. Content

It might be tempting to keep the subject matter lighter and less potent for a young adult audience, but it’s okay to take on the heavy stuff. YA literature has taken on topics ranging from the Holocaust to cancer, child abuse to suicide. No topic is too dark, so long as it is handled in an appropriate way. It’s about interpreting the event through young eyes. Markus Zusak does a wonderful job of this in “The Book Thief.”  

In young adult literature , it’s important to see the world from an adolescent perspective. Think about their interpretation of the world and how that might differ from an adult’s. YA is good for challenging expectations as well as provoking readers’ thoughts because you can address poignant issues through the eyes of more innocent and emotional characters. Consider these 10 tips when developing your young adult perspective. And don’t hesitate to find your inner-teen. Think back on your experiences and draw from those.

Struggling to write from a young adult perspective? HotGhostWriter can help! Our staff of skilled ghostwriters can guide you through the process of developing complex, engaging young adult characters for a book your readers will love. Check us out at  HotGhostWriter.com , and get started today.

Amanda Kruse

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The 8 Habits of Highly Successful Young-Adult Fiction Authors

Best-selling writers including John Green and Veronica Roth share their strategies for crafting authentic, relatable teen characters—even in fantasy worlds.

how to write ya fiction

Young-adult fiction, commonly called "YA fiction," has exploded over the past decade or so: The number of YA titles published  grew more than 120 percent  between 2002 and 2012, and other estimates say that between 1997 and 2009, that figure was closer to  900 percent . Ask a handful of young-adult fiction writers what exactly makes a YA novel, though, and you’ll get a handful of conflicting answers.

At their core, YA books are for and about teenagers and pre-teens, usually between 12 and 18 years old, but sometimes as young as 10. Yet more than half of all YA novels sold are bought by older adults 18 or older, and certain titles published in the U.S. as YA are considered mainstream fiction for adults in other countries. Some authors believe the intent to write for young readers is a prerequisite of YA fiction; others don’t even realize their books will be labeled as YA until after they finish writing.

Many successful authors say there’s no secret to writing for teenagers. Good writing is good writing; believable characters and compelling plots are crucial regardless of who’s picking up the book. But many YA authors will also tell you there’s something particularly fulfilling and rewarding about writing for teenagers, who often respond to stories they identify with more intensely and gratefully than adult readers do. I asked eight writers and editors how they create characters and stories that feel real to teenagers, even when their world—and the world of the YA books they read—can feel like another planet. Below are eight of their most successful strategies.

Think Like a Teen Rainbow Rowell never set out to be a YA author. Her first book, Attachments , was for and about adults, and though Eleanor & Park is a teenage love story set in 1986, her approach to writing younger characters was the same. It was only after the novel was finished that she learned it would be YA, and even then, the decision was debated. Because Rowell got her start writing for adults—and because the story’s relatability defied many adults’ expectations of what a “book for teens” was—some readers and reviewers questioned whether the YA label was applicable.

But what clearly makes Eleanor & Park a YA book, a fellow author told Rowell, wasn’t just that the main characters were teens. It was that the novel actually saw the world through their eyes. “The perspective was so firmly rooted inside of these teenagers,” Rowell says. “You’re not looking back or looking down. The narrator is not observing things the people themselves are not.” It’s the same quality—a lack of narrative distance —that’s led many writers to call J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye the seminal YA text: Readers experience Holden Caulfield’s version of events solely through his jaded, smart-alecky point of view.

“I think everyone’s got a little teenager inside of them still, and you just have to work to help yourself access that teenager,” says Veronica Roth, the author of the Divergent trilogy, whose final installment, Allegiant , is out now. “Every now and then I find myself having a character make a decision that feels very adult without having them earn it, and I have to go back and make sure I’m letting the characters make mistakes they would in real life at that age, like a parent.”

When the adult perspective creeps its way into a YA book, readers notice, too. “It’s a huge red flag,” says Rachel Cohn, the author of the acclaimed Gingerbread series, who says she’s vigilant about editing out the grown-up voice in early drafts of her writing. Cohn, who is often asked to review other YA books, calls this distance one of her biggest pet peeves.

“The books I turn away are when the dialogue reads false to me,” Cohn says. “It’s not that the words are wrong, because that’s subjective, but the feelings are wrong to me. It’s like an adult observing something.”

Find the “Emotional Truth” of the Teenage Experience John Green’s hilarious and heartbreaking The Fault in Our Stars is not a post-apocalyptic, dystopian novel like Divergent or  The Hunger Games . But the lives of its protagonists, Hazel and Gus, hardly mirror the lives of their readers, who probably don’t have cancer and generally don’t fly to Amsterdam to track down reclusive, alcoholic authors. And yet, the book has been a New York Times bestseller for 46 weeks . “I get emails every day from people who are like, ‘I’m just like Hazel, except I don’t have cancer, I’m not 16, I’m not white, and I’m not female,’” Green says. “I’m like, ‘Well, you’re not just like Hazel.’”

Readers also probably don’t directly identify with A, the main character of David Levithan’s Every Day , who wakes up each morning in someone else’s body and is defined only by the thoughts in his head.

But they don’t need to. “The defining characteristic of YA literature is emotional truth,” Levithan writes in an email. “Even if we’re not the same as the characters we read, they are all dealing with things—issues of who they are, who they should be, what they should and shouldn’t do—that we all deal with, in their own ways. With The Hunger Games , even if we will never be in Katniss’s shoes, the decisions she makes make emotional sense to us—even when she makes the wrong ones.”

That might be why readers find themselves so drawn to Hazel and Gus, whose relationship and health struggles offer avenues for teenagers to examine the bigger ideas they’re grappling with in their own lives. “Maybe some of what’s universal is the intensity of the experience, the intensity of falling in love for the first time, the intensity of asking questions about mortality and meaning for the first time,” Green says.

But even if YA books aren’t tackling issues of life and death, the best among them still capture the gravity of the teenage and pre-teen experience, whether it’s the sparks of a first crush or lunchroom gossip and bullying. “When you’re in that time in your life, the trials and tribulations of friendships, romantic relationships, it's all very crucial and vital,” says Kristen Pettit, an executive editor at HarperCollins. “That is one way the author presents themselves as authentic to the YA community, by nailing that keenness of feeling and emotion and high-stakes nature of the interactions they have with people every day.”

A Good Pop-Culture Reference Goes a Long Way One reason The Fault in Our Stars ’ Hazel feels so familiar to YA readers is the fact that she, like so many of her peers, is a sucker for America’s Next Top Model marathons. But Green didn’t include multiple mentions of Tyra Bank’s long-running reality show just for fun—the references teach us a lot about Hazel as a character and as a teenager. In the book, she’s obsessed with An Imperial Affliction , a made-up, highbrow novel very loosely based on David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest , yet her taste in TV shows is anything but sophisticated.

“One of the things I love about teenagers is they don’t make those distinctions between high culture and low culture like we do as adults,” Green says. “It’s not uncommon for teenagers to list their two favorite books as Gossip Girl and The Great Gatsby . They don’t think its weird to say, ‘I love Toni Morrison, and I also love Justin Bieber.’”

Rowell uses pop culture to ground her stories in reality, too, but she also knows the references don’t always age gracefully, or in ways that can be predicted. Attachments came out in 2011, but it takes place in the 1990s, where a Tom Cruise reference means Tom Cruise the movie star, not Tom Cruise the Scientologist divorcé of tabloids. Rowell’s latest book, Fangirl , about a prolific fanfiction writer who goes off to college, includes references to Taylor Swift, the Twilight series, and Kanye West, whose public perception, though she only wrote the book in 2012, has already changed significantly: He’s engaged to Kim Kardashian , his music took a dark turn, and his select interviews are more colorful than ever.

“I try to pick things people will recognize four to five years from now,” Rowell says. “I don’t think it hurts to add those. It adds to our cultural literacy. It adds to what we know about ourselves.” Technology and Internet culture, however, change even quicker than our pop-culture lexicons, so Rowell says she avoided references to Tumblr, Fanfiction.net, and some of the fanfiction community’s terminology—like shipping and slash fiction —out of concern that too many brand names or esoteric details would trip up unfamiliar readers.

Green, on the other hand, is confident America’s Next Top Model will be a timeless reference: “Even if you haven’t heard of the show in some beautiful utopia 30 years from now, the entire show is encapsulated in its title,” he says. “You know everything you need to know from the four words used to describe the show.”

Get Input From Real Teenagers New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult has written close to two dozen novels, many of which—like My Sister’s Keeper and Nineteen Minutes —focus on memorable teenage characters. But it wasn’t until last year that she wrote a book specifically for young-adult readers, Between the Lines , which she co-wrote with her teenage daughter, Samantha van Leer.

“Having a co-writer who was a teenager was like having a built-in B.S. meter sitting next to me,” Picoult says. “Every now and then, Sammy would say something out loud that was such an apt metaphor. It wasn’t something I would have thought of, but it was something she was living every day because she was in high school when she was writing this book. The example I always think about is a group of popular girls in the book who are described as being like a bunch of grapes because, honestly, do you ever see just one of them alone? I thought it was hilarious because it was so true.”

It’s not the first time Picoult used a real-life teenager to make her writing more accurate. When she was writing The Pact , a 1998 novel about a teenage suicide pact, she picked up some pizza and soda, called up her babysitter, and interviewed her and her friends. “I just listened to them talk to each other and tried to hone in on where their minds were about that topic,” Picoult says. “I think if you’re a writer, you do your research and do your due diligence. It sounds funny to listen to teenagers as research.”

Not every writer takes this approach—Rowell didn’t need to investigate online fan communities when crafting the characters of Fangirl . “I’m addicted to Tumblr, so when I was writing, I had read so much fan fiction and spend so much time in fandom places on the Internet, a lot of it I had internalized,” says Rowell, a former newspaper columnist. ( Fangirl , unsurprisingly, was the first pick for Tumblr’s official book club ).

But Rowell did draw on those communities when she needed feedback. “I had friends in fandom who I would say to, every once in awhile, ‘Tell me how you feel about this, does this ring true to you, talk to me,’” she says. “I write from what I know, and if I write something I don’t know, I’ll go out and talk to them. It doesn’t feel like an expedition to find out what the teens are doing. Because I was a reporter for so long, it makes sense to me.”

Use Slang Words at Your Own Risk The more authors try to capture the exact idiosyncrasies of how teenagers talk, the more they risk alienating or distracting readers.

“The problem with that is your book has a shelf life of two to three years,” says Kathryn Reiss, a veteran YA author who also teaches young-adult fiction-writing classes at Mills College in Oakland, California. “It won’t be a classic because the coded language of teens changes every four years with every high school generation.” Unless they’re aiming for historical fiction—in which case, bring on the groovy! and the radical! —authors who pepper their YA writing with “modern” vocab can easily seem like they’re out of touch, or, worse, trying too hard.

Some writers can pull off slang successfully: Rachel Cohn’s debut novel, 2002’s Gingerbread , introduced readers to punk-rock protagonist Cyd Charisse, whose youthful vocab brought her to life on the very first page and made her one of the most memorable YA voices in recent years:

My so-called parents hate my boyfriend, Shrimp. I'm not sure they even believe he is my boyfriend. They take one look at his five-foot-five, surfer-shirt-wearin', baggy-jeans-slouchin', Pop Tart-eatin', spiked-hair-head self and you can just see confusion firebombs exploding in their heads, like they are thinking, Oh no, Cyd Charisse, that young man is not your homes. Dig this: He is.

Though the book earned plenty of praise, not every critic was charmed. “I remember at the time being really offended, reading that it had an overuse of slang and made-up words and was just ridiculous, over the top,” Cohn says. “I remember being so offended on behalf of my character. ‘Screw you! You don’t know what you’re talking about! That’s the way I talk!’”

But when she reread the book five years later, Cohn had a slight change of heart. “It was kind over the top! I like it, but I think as I’ve evolved, I wouldn’t write it that way now, for better or for worse. And probably for worse.”

Keep It Moving When Goosebumps author R.L. Stine went to a recent YA reading, he noticed far more 20- and 30-something women in attendance than teenagers. He was puzzled, so he asked Pettit why this might be. “I said it’s because of the way [these books] read, because of plot,” Pettit says. “So much of adult literature has become so precious that sometimes what you just want is the ride. I think YA authors are freer to take you on a ride instead of constructing overwrought sentences and impressing you with their skill.”

One of the enduring misconceptions about YA fiction is that it’s dumbed down, that writing for young readers means writing in a way that’s easy for them to comprehend. Cohn estimates that about 60 to 65 percent of YA fiction is written in the first person and present tense, but not because YA readers can’t handle complexity—take a look at the average high school or AP English reading lists for evidence to the contrary—but because the simplicity and immediacy of that particular style helps writers develop the voices of their characters.

“You settle down in a character’s head and just go,” Cohn says. “I do some teaching, and I always recommend changing the tense, changing the perspective, see what happens. If I’m stuck, and I’m not writing in first person present, I’ll start writing in that because it’s easy to tap into.”

Similarly, Roth describes the process of finding the voice of Divergent ’s heroine, Tris, as a writing exercise. “I had been trying to write in this more poetic, flowy sort of way, and I was noticing I wasn’t doing as well as I wanted to in terms of controlling my language,” says Roth, who was inspired to write Tris after reading a line (“My will is mine, I will not make it soft for you”) from the Greek play Agamemnon . “Tris came [to me] at a really big point in which I needed to work on being more concise, and her voice was concise—a little repetitive, but definitely stark and straight-forward.”

It’s Okay for YA To Get Dark There’s nothing off-limits when it comes to YA fiction, which frequently dives into unsettling territory like death, drugs, and rape across all of its genres and styles. Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why is about a high school girl who commits suicide and mails cassette tapes to classmates explaining her motives and who drove her to it; Francesca Lia Block’s 2003 novel, Wasteland , features an incestuous relationship, and it’s one of a handful of young-adult books that do so.

For Picoult, who has written about murder, abuse, and school shootings in her books for adults, this was news. “I went into the domain of YA fiction completely unschooled,” she says. “I assumed that if we were going to be gearing it to a younger reader, it should have a feeling almost like a Shrek fairytale. Sammy was the one who said no, it should really be dark so Happily Ever After has much more at stake.”

How authors present that subject matter depends somewhat on which ages they’re aiming for. A number of YA books take place during the Holocaust, for example, and they all take different approaches to the subject matter: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak—marketed for ages 12 and up, but published as an adult book in Zusak's Australia—is narrated by Death; The Devil’s Arithmetic , marketed for ages 10 and up, takes a modern-day teen back to Auschwitz through time-travel as a way of somewhat removing the reader from the horrors of that time period. Depending on the author’s audience, putting some distance between the characters and the issues they examine can be an effective way to address difficult topics.

“ Go Ask Alice [a fictional diary of a drug-addicted teen girl], a book like that, it’s a safe way to have the experiences that are in that book, a way of exploring the darkness out there without being in danger or acting irresponsibly,” Pettit says.

Find the "Kernel of Hope." Not every book has a Happily Ever After. For example, S.E. Hinton’s YA classics, The Outsiders and That Was Then, This Is Now , which deal with drugs, drinking, and gang violence, don’t offer easy answers to the questions they raise in the end. Today, decades after they were first published, they’re still taught in schools. But there's almost always an underlying optimism in YA, an identifiable maturation or development that Reiss calls “the kernel of hope.”

“There’s a sense that it’s worth waking up tomorrow,” Reiss explains. “Things are dark, things are terrible, but tomorrow’s another day. Ninety-nine percent of books for teens have that at least at the end.” This change doesn’t always unfold in ways that are explicit or conventionally heroic. In The Hunger Games , Katniss ends up winning the deadly, titular tournament she enters, but it’s not the victory itself that’s important—it’s more about how she wins on her own terms of integrity and empathy. In realistic YA fiction, a friendless, social outcast may not become the most popular kid in class, but it’s unlikely he or she will stay a total loser for a whole novel.

Including this perspective isn’t sermonizing or making an after-school special of what young readers experience as they grow up, as these authors see it. Rather, it’s just part of presenting an authentic story.

“That's life, isn't it?” Levithan says. “Shit hits the fan. The abyss opens up. But then you get through it. You wrestle it down. You find a way to survive. YA only reflects that. It’s not about being preachy or pragmatic to say that most people find a way out of the maze of adolescence. It’s only being accurate.”

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How to Write for Young Adults (Even If You Aren't One)

So, you’re writing a YA novel, but you want to do it without:

A. Embarrassing yourself

B. Wasting the reader’s time

C. Falling prey to stereotypes, misconceptions and flat storylines

D. All of the above

Well, you’ve come to the right place.

When you’re writing for a teenage audience, you have to strike a balance between relatability, emotionalism and universal truth. These are the three most important elements in YA.

That’s because young adults respond best to relatable characters with whom they can identify. And, it’s the emotional journey your characters take that resonate the most with young readers. If you can accomplish the first two elements, it’ll be easy to share a universal truth with your readers without coming across as preachy or condescending.

Sounds like a tall order, doesn’t it? Don’t worry, it’s not as hard as it sounds. Let’s discuss what to focus on when writing for the young adult reader.

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Define Your Target Audience

how to write ya fiction

Defining your target reader is good advice for any author, but it’s essential when you’re writing for the YA crowd. You need to know your YA reader.

Let me take a moment to say that YA is a hopelessly basic term that applies to a wide range of genres (horror, fantasy, dystopia, romance, mystery, etc.). There’s no such thing as “one size fits all” when it comes to YA. Remember this, though: YA is not a genre, it’s an age group. And, lucky you, you get to define both the genre of your story and the age group of your target audience.

So, what’s the age of your ideal reader?

Psst: it’s not enough to say, “Teenager” .

While your YA reader is probably a teenager, there’s a huge difference between 13 years old and 19 years old. Even though YA spans an audience of only six years in age, one end of the spectrum is absolutely dissimilar to the other in terms of maturity, exposure, interests and point of view.

To figure out the age of your ideal reader, look at your protagonist. Your story’s protagonist should be the same age as the reader. This goes back to the element of relatability. One guaranteed way to create a relatable character is to make him or her the same age as your ideal reader.

Also keep in mind that YA readers will read books with protagonists who are older than they are, but not younger.

Get Familiar With What Else is Out There

As a writer, it is important to develop a fanbase-- an audience that sticks around to read your next novel. To do this effectively, you’ll need to create stories that fit into the genre of your choosing. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel and create an wacky story that doesn’t abide by the rules of the genre.

To write a satisfying romance, there needs to be genuine love (even if it’s not a happy ending). To write a nail-biting mystery, there needs to be red herrings.

While the YA reader is young, that doesn’t mean he is unsophisticated. He picks up a novel of a particular genre expecting to check off certain elements, so don’t disappoint.

It’s important to see what other books interest your target reader. Study the best sellers for your intended genre to figure out what they do successfully. Perhaps it’s pacing, plotting, or characterization. These are general elements that you can incorporate into your own writing to create a book that resonates with your audience.

Learn to Censor Yourself

You’re a writer and you hate censorship. I do, too. But, when you’re writing for a YA crowd, get used to it.

Your intended audience may be teenagers, but teenagers have guardians in the form of parents, librarians and teachers-- any of whom can say “no” to your book. Unlike adults, teenagers are not free agents who can decide for themselves what they read. So, your book needs to get approval from one of these guardians before ever reaching a teenager.

Although there are exceptions to every rule, books that describes orgies, gratuitous violence and prolific drug abuse probably won’t make the cut.

But teenagers have sex and do drugs, you say . They use profanity, too .

All of that’s true, but it’s also true that many parents don’t want to expose their children to these things in literature. Or in movies, which is why we having ratings.

If you must write a book that tackles these topics, do so delicately (and probably not in detail), knowing that you’ll need to convince the guardians, too.

Avoid Stereotypes

When you cross over from teenager to adult, something magical happens instantly: all teenagers become whiny, know-it-all brats.

You weren’t that way, of course. Just youngsters today.

Bu,t remember that when we group all teenagers together like that, it’s so easy to condescend. If you’re not extra careful, that lofty attitude can color your narrative and create unsympathetic, unrealistic characters that your reader won’t be able to relate to.

If you write from the posture that “kids today don’t really get it”, you’ll alienate your audience.

Not all teenagers are filled with angst. It would be a mistake to write a novel that way.

Make a list of the qualities your protagonist has that only a true friend would know about. Is your protagonist intuitive, passionate, protective and kind? Don’t just scratch the surface with what a stranger can see, but go beyond to what can’t be seen.

This is how you build characters that your reader can connect to -- remember, your YA reader is likely much more emotional than an adult reader. The reader is able to connect to the protagonist through his or her emotional journey.

Be Careful with Cultural References

OMG, whatever you do, don’t get careless with slang and cultural references. That’s hot, that’s bad, that’s rad -- none of it’s cute.

While an occasional nod to pop culture may be okay, you don’t want to litter your novel with such references. Hopefully, you’re creating a novel that future generations will want to read. Will a reader 50 years in the future understand your relatively obscure slang from today? Or will it distract the reader from your story?

Use slang thoughtfully. Let your book to stand the test of time and be understandable and relatable to teenagers years from now as it is today.

Find Your Inner Child

Don’t roll your eyes just yet. What I mean is that you were a young adult once, maybe not too long ago. Get in touch with that vulnerable side of yourself-- the part where you felt unsure, hopeful, hopeless, open, insecure, invincible, etc.

The most poignant part of growing up is when you crack open and see the world anew-- what you see may not be beautiful, but the experience of maturing certainly is. Make that evident in your novel.

One of the distinctions of YA is that the character grows up during the process. The protagonist isn’t looking back and reminiscing about his life-- he’s actively and continuously participating. The protagonist transforms in front of the reader. The reader is able to gain insight as the protagonist matures.

Instead of writing as an adult looking back, remember yourself as a teenager, access those emotions and write from that perspective. It’s a small but significant shift that will help you connect with your audience.

Don’t write from the perspective of wisdom and adult logic. Remember that you’re writing as a teenager to other teenagers. They’ll be able to tell if you’re not coming from an authentic place.

Don’t Shy Away From the Hard Stuff

how to write ya fiction

Life isn’t rainbows and fairy tales, and your teenage reader (no matter how young) already knows that. It’s okay to tackle the gritty stuff. Just remember that the ending should be thought-provoking with an ultimately hopeful message.

No matter how bleak the subject material, the story should empower the young reader.

Additional Resources

Check out these related posts:

  • A Guide for Researching Your Dystopian Novel
  • Are Your Characters Under-Developed? Here's a Helpful Guide to Find Out
  • How to Plan a Book Series

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The Daily Yonder

Q&A: How to Write Rural Historical Fiction, With Tiya Miles

Editor’s Note: This interview first appeared in  Path Finders , an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each week, Path Finders features a Q&A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Like what you see here? You can join the mailing list at the bottom of this article and receive more conversations like this in your inbox each week.

Tiya Miles is a public historian and the Michael Garvey Professor of History at Harvard University. She is the author of seven books including the novel “ The Cherokee Rose ,”  a work of historical fiction about a three-woman quest to uncover the surprising origins of a Georgia plantation. Her 2022 book “ All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, A Black Family Keepsake ” was, among other accolades, a National Book Award winner and New York Times bestseller. 

Enjoy our conversation about out-of-the-way archives, exploitative Southern ghost tours, and the sense of shelter offered by a good tree, below.

Olivia Weeks, The Daily Yonder: You’ve written that one of the characters in your historical novel  “ The Cherokee Rose ” came to you as an apparition, and that you subsequently realized you might be able to do her more justice with your imagination than faithful adherence to the historical record. Imagination is clearly a powerful tool even in your nonfiction work, notably in your recent material history. Does the balance between narrative creativity and adherence to what’s cite-able feel as delicate to you as it might seem from the outside?

Tiya Miles: It is indeed a delicate task to work with evidentiary sources as well as the imagination to interpret the past, but I would argue that historians do this all the time. We always bring our creative mental faculties to bear when reconstructing the past. We draw inferences from sources, speculate about cause and effect, and envision times and places that we can never experience directly. Some scholars (and I count myself among them!) enjoy the challenge of pushing this process further to write history in intentionally narrative ways and even to write fiction based on historical knowledge and primary sources.

DY: I imagine you combing through small-town libraries and genealogy rooms for your research. How big a part of your method is that kind of work? What kinds of lessons have you learned from using archives not meant for academic historians?

TM: Your imagination would be spot-on in this case! A crucial part of my research process is traveling to visit historic sites (that often have records and archives of their own), local libraries, museums, cultural centers, and visitor’s centers. The most interesting, surprising, and revealing materials are often hiding in these tucked-away places. I’ve also found that reading the posted flyers, pamphlets, self-published booklets, genealogy papers, cookbooks, and other materials on the ground in these small towns helps me to understand the area better and contributes to my ability to make meaningful links between the past and the present in my writing.

DY: What’s your favorite memory of encountering a rural public history? 

TM: My favorite memory is of doing place-based research at the  Chief Vann House State Historic Site  in Chatsworth, Georgia around eighteen years ago. I had infant twins at the time, so my husband accompanied me on my travels to help care for them. We stayed in a rented cabin up a steep mountain road not far from a fellow researcher and friend who had translated nineteenth-century German language diaries produced by people who had once lived near the site. At a country store along the road, I bought a beautiful wind chime made by a local artist who refashioned old, multicolored glass. I can look outside my window right now and see that chime hanging from an apple tree in our yard. It brings back wonderful memories of the research trip. These Georgia mountains and rural towns are the setting of my latest book, “The Cherokee Rose: A Novel of Gardens and Ghosts,” in which the main characters travel that same road.

DY: Your book “Tales from the Haunted South” is all about sensationalist and exploitative tours meant to shock audiences with horrific tales of slavery and the ghosts it left behind.  Ghost tours are an obvious enough example, but do you have advice (for historians and non-historians) for telling which public-facing histories of slavery are and aren’t trustworthy?

TM: During my research on ghost tours in the South that included slavery as a theme, I found that many of these tours had characteristics in common, such as the romanticization of relationships between enslavers and the enslaved, the diminishment of the sexual abuse that enslaved Black women endured, a gratuitous focus on violence, an exoticization of Black faith traditions, and a demonization of white women. I would say that if tourists hear narratives about slavery that sound too easy-going to be true or too grotesque to be respectful of people’s lived experience, they are probably listening to exaggerated or fabricated narratives crafted to increase revenue rather than to educate the public. Before I travel, I like to read a solid history of the place to ground myself. I know that people on vacation don’t always have that much time or might decide to visit a spot at the spur of the moment. In cases like this, I would recommend that visitors check out the National Park Service website (you can even download and travel with the  NPS app ), where numerous historic sites are described more accurately. Visitors might also check out  The Clio , a public history project that showcases crowd-sourced descriptive walking tours vetted by a historian and professor.

DY: Your love for trees comes up a lot in your writing. I’m curious what draws you to them — what do you see in a wooded landscape?

TM: Looking back, I can see that for every phase of my youth there was a significant tree in the picture. Because I grew up in the city, these trees often stood alone rather than being parts of forests. I sought out special trees because they held a sense of time, presence, and stability. They were calming in their naturalness and inspiring in their beauty. I noticed and loved the ways they sheltered animals and imagined them as alternate shelters for me. As an adult, I have moved around for my schooling and career, and I have often pinpointed special trees in yards where I lived or in open landscapes that I revisited while spending time with my in-laws in Montana. Forests deserve a special mention in this response. I do love the woods, although I am a tad bit afraid of their power. Woods are brimming with variety, mystery, and sensory prompts, and of course, with fascinating non-human creatures. They create a surround of mindfulness and adventurousness simultaneously and take me out of my hustling-bustling daily life.

DY: What are you reading this summer, historical or otherwise?

TM: First, I’m reading a book about reading! It’s titled “Reading Territory: Indigenous and Black Freedom,” by Kathryn Walkiewicz. I’m reading “The 272” by Rachel L. Swarns, “We Refuse to Forget” by Caleb Gayle, “The Agitators” by Dorothy Wickenden, “Book Lovers” by Emily Henry, and “The Ministry for the Future” by Kim Stanley Robinson.

This interview first appeared in Path Finders , a weekly email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each Monday, Path Finders features a Q&A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Join the mailing list today, to have these illuminating conversations delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.

The post Q&A: How to Write Rural Historical Fiction, With Tiya Miles appeared first on The Daily Yonder .

Traveling to historical sites, spending hours in local libraries, and finding old documents hidden in unexpected places are all part of bestselling author Tiya Miles' process to writing historical fiction that accurately reflects the time and people featured in her work.

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