Novels for young adults, or in short, YA novels, are among the most popular ones in the market of all time. Why? It’s hard to tell, but probable it’s its willingness to take us through exciting self-discovery plots.
But, here’s the question, how can you catch the attention of the YA public? How can you write a novel without falling into a YA cliché? Simple: How can we write YA?
Let’s get started!
What is a YA novel?
It’s a novel that has been written originally for readers aged 12 to 18 years. So, YA is an age category and not a genre, as many people think. Although, the truth is that half of its readers are adults.
YA was initially written to link children’s and adult literature, turning YA novels into more accessible and fantastic stories. They usually deal with topics such as friendship, first love, identity, and social relationships in general. One of its purposes is to make life’s problems easier for young people to understand. They can recognize themselves in these situations and stories.
There are several points to take into account before writing a novel for young adults, let’s take a look:
- It must transmit experiences and values to young people, who know how to recognize the good and the bad in the actions of each character.
- Young people tend to be very demanding, and they have a wide diversity of subjects to choose from, if they don’t like something they just skip it, therefore, keep up the quality of your work.
- The evolution of a character should not risk being as deep as it would be that of an adult story.
- Conflicts must be adapted to the age of the readers, be careful with this factor, as it is not very interesting for a teenager to debate the struggle of a businessman to achieve a better position. or yes? Who knows…
A trick, if you want your YA novel to be successful you must make the reader feel identified, there is nothing more important for a teenager than finding the answers to their questions about their identity, being able to see themselves reflected in a character. Therein lies the magic of this type of novel.
Protagonist
Creating a protagonist is not just about giving them a good name and appearance, or fascinating qualities. It goes much further.
First of all, you should focus on the fact that people are imperfect, especially in their teenage years. We are basically unfinished humans with hormone issues. So, our main character should also be imperfect. Its age should be similar to the audience you want to catch, between 12 to 18 years old. He is a growing figure. With a personality not yet formed, without a defined temperament. Your story should show how it grows through its experiences.
If you want to create a teenager you must feel like one, at this age you still didn’t know who you were, or who you were going to become. You had simply forged a goal in your future, what you longed to achieve, even if you did not get there, how nice it would be to read about someone who does, teach the reader that, if you can achieve what you want, that, even making mistakes, even with your imperfections, you always have to get up after having stumbled on a stone.
But… it is not as simple as it seems.
Your protagonist must have some uniqueness, such as Ron’s freckles and reddish hair in the Harry Potter saga, or the curls of Alice in Wonderland. Something that makes it stand out from the rest. But, this should not only be physical. The quirks are great, and in adolescence, these tend to be stronger, and OTAKU or a Star Wars fanatic, a video game nerd, or perhaps a growing designer, you never know what might come out of there.
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Word count
YA books usually stretch between 50,000 to 80,000 words, and this will depend a lot on the genre you choose, because if your book is fiction or fantasy, then it will cover much more description and much more world-building, so they can sometimes get to100,000 words. But, if you are a first-time writer, wanting to publish the traditional way, be careful not to exceed the 100 000 word limit. Publishers are very cautious about the money they can risk losing publishing books. And 100 k can be too much.
Remember that these word counts are based on books that have already been published, but each author does not have the same style and performance. So, do not get frustrated with the Word count, there are more important elements to solve before.
Anyway, if you want to learn a bit more about the world of Word count, take a look at this article.
POV
If you have chosen to write juvenile novels you have probably read books like The Hunger Games or The Fault in Our Stars. One particularity of these books is that they are written in the first person, that is, the story is narrated using “I” instead of ” him ” or ” her”.
The fact that this point of view is more commonly used to tell the story has to do with the intimate relationship that is established between the reader and the protagonist. The reader can have an immersive experience in the story, as they will be able to access the protagonist’s thoughts and emotions.
However, this will make our narrator unreliable, why? Because you will only know their version of events, and judging the other characters will be more difficult since we won’t know their true actions.
If your goal is to make the reader feel immersed in the life of your protagonist, then First Person POV is your choice, mainly since young people seek to identify themselves, and what better way than to be the protagonists of the story.
Let’s talk a little about POV in the third person. Some stories need to be told in the third person, especially when they are set in a fantastic world full of wonders. This POV is ideal to show the reader this world. It will involve much more narration and description, and less dialogue. You may not be able to delve as deeply into the thoughts of the characters, but you can allow the reader to analyze and judge their actions.
The disadvantage of this POV, and why it is not used more in YA books, is the fact that the reader cannot identify properly with the protagonist. And this connection is the soul of YA books.
Also, feel free to use the POV with which you feel most comfortable.
If you want to know more about POVs, as well as some tricks to use them. Click on this article.
Watch your language.
First of all, buddy, you’re not a teen anymore, (or maybe, you are?). Don’t try to sound like them. It’s s not okay. Trust me, getting slang right can be a difficult task and you’ll end up making a fool of yourself.
Use simple language, don’t overcomplicate things, don’t dumb things down.
In YA novels, the vocabulary should be entertaining and simple for the reader. You are dealing with a young audience, you should not be so formal, but not so childish, they are no longer children.
You should not speak their language, but enter their environment, the interests of young people, their hobbies, their concerns, insecurities, and fears, what they consider popular or not.
Do not try to give the impression of being a cool writer, using street slang, not all readers will like this, rather they will find it a foolish attempt to get their attention.
Focus on making them feel at home, in their safe zone, then you’ve won them all.
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Create three-dimensional characters
First, a three-dimensional character is one that you can visualize as a real person, and not as a fictitious creation. Let me explain. If when you read a book you can think, -I would like to have him as a friend- or – I wish he could leave the book and invite me to dinner – that, my friend, is a three-dimensional character.
But how to create them? How to get them out of the book?
Don’t put limits on them: what makes a character interesting is how unexpected their actions can be, they should not always be shy, or funny, or very arrogant, from time to time they can get out of their comfort zone and of their role. A person with the right impulse, a fight, a break, a goal, can get out of their typical character.
Create emotional conflicts: The mental debate about being or not being is an inevitable quality in the human being, why not bring it to your characters as well? Any belief no matter how strong it may be, with just the slightest doubt can create a torrent of emotions, to the point of doubting whether it is really that true or not.
Reflect their emotions in their physique: Very subtly, leaving it up to the reader’s imagination. Reflect on the emotional states of your character through their appearances. Do not say “he was depressed”, let the reader draw their conclusions when they begin to see his messy hair, all day in bed, moving away from his social circle.
Take advantage of your experiences: There is no better source of inspiration than what you find in your daily life. There is nothing more realistic than reflecting it in the experiences of your characters. For example, if your character is going through a breakup, you can tell how it felt to lose that first love, and how you rebuilt the pieces over time.
Give them a sense of being. Even if they have not yet found themselves, during the story things will happen to shape them as people. Objectives, and goals will be traced. For example, being popular in school, going through the labyrinth, hunting the monster in the cave.
If you are just starting to write, you might need a beginner's guide to write the perfect novel, please take a look at it.
Summing up…
We were all teenagers at one time. We know well the set of emotions, ups, and downs, dramas, fails, and mistakes that this involves. Therefore, it will be easier for you to understand your characters, since you can reflect your life experiences on them.
Remember that the objective is to overcome and search for the identity of the reader. Give them what they want. Make them feel part of the story, give them a unique character, and you will have won their hearts forever.
See you next time, good luck!
