Writing a Children's Book

Lesson 5: Beginning your Book.

Specific Level - YA Novels.

YA Novels can be great fun to write. They vary from light-hearted romances and comedies to complex narratives that are scarcely different in themes and content from mainstream fiction for adults.

The major difference lies in the ages of the protagonists, and in the way these characters are depicted. Most YA fiction titles have protagonists in their teens or very early twenties, following the rule of thumb that pre-adult readers generally prefer to read about characters their own age or a little older. The days when YA heroines like Anne Shirley of the “Anne” series by L.M. Montgomery grew up into middle age without losing their girl readers have just about gone.

It’s important when writing a YA novel that you write about the characters as people. It may not be possible to see your teenaged characters as they would see themselves, because most adult writers have matured beyond the self-absorbed state of many teenagers. However, be very careful not to look at them as if from outside. In other words, don’t “write down” to them.

Many teenagers have more formal education, but less experience in the wider world, than adults. They have more experience of the world of modern teenagers. They know more about some things (especially such things as MP3s, SMS and whatever is Hot or Not), but less about things like Latin roots, the anatomy of old films and how to use up and make do and wait for gratification.

Many teens are both cynical about the values their parents hold, and gullible about throwing themselves into causes and fads which appeal to them on an emotional level. It seems they will believe just about anything as long as it isn’t their parents (or any other legitimate authority figure) telling them.

All this seems self-evident, but it is important to understand this kind of thing before you write a YA novel. You are not writing for an older child or for a slightly less experienced adult. If you try to do either, the tone will be wrong and your manuscript will probably be rejected.

This is not to say you need to exactly mimic the way teenagers talk and dress and act. If you did that, they would probably find the whole story ringing false. Not only would it inevitably be the way teens were acting/talking/dressing about eighteen months ago by the time your book is published, but also it would be subtly off key.

Have you ever read a book written and published during your youth and then compared it with a modern novel set in that same period? If so, you will understand what I mean. It doesn’t matter how much research a modern writer does before setting a book in 1969, 1940 or 1985; s/he is still going to produce a stylised picture of the period.

It is easy to pick out the striking events and attitudes of an era while neglecting the many other events and attitudes that provided legitimate counterpoint at the time. For example; while teenagers of my age were Protesting, smoking Pot and experimenting with Free Love in the cities, I was placidly riding my pony, dancing to the record player, reading books and writing short stories. It was the 1970s in country Tasmania. My only real nod to the ‘70s lay in my Indian print skirt and in my choice of music. But what contemporary author would write a YA novel set in the ‘70s and produce a picture of the period that I would find familiar? When writing a YA novel, you need to take a subject that will interest teenagers, and approach it from an angle that they will find either familiar or challenging. Use the kind of language they use themselves, but soften the casual swearing. Most editors don’t like it.

Above all, remember the things the matter to teenagers. Just because they are heavily into animal rights, rites of passage, peer pressure and the painful separation of self from child-of-the-family, doesn’t mean they’re not also bothered by acne, fluid retention and what to wear to the beach. If you can take all these concerns seriously, and never dismiss them in your fiction just because you might dismiss them in reality, you are well on the way to writing a successful YA novel.

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