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Storywriting interrogation tips series#
This is a concept perfectly expounded in the TV series Louie. Unlike a genre such as crime fiction, which can draw on adult themes for titillation or pure entertainment, YA fiction offers its readers a gateway into sincere reflection on these topics.
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The popular Hunger Games trilogy delves deeply into the trauma and dehumanization of war, Harry Potter engages with racism from many different angles, while Little Women draws on the death of a family member for its narrative heft. There’s a long tradition of introducing complex themes in YA fiction. Where topics like sex, violence or depression are broached they should be broached in a way that serves the reader, regardless of any outside pressure. That’s not to say that you have to dive headfirst into adult topics, just that your only thought when writing YA fiction should be what will work for the reader. This can exert a lot of psychological pressure on the YA writer, steering them away from producing the best form of their story, and from giving their readers the tools they need to grow. The formative aspect of the genre means that parents, usually the ones actually paying for the books, are often on the lookout for subjects and themes they don’t want their children to encounter. That’s why the first golden rule of writing YA fiction is… Rule #1 – Write only for your readerĬensorship looms large over YA fiction. The key to producing the best YA fiction, and therefore the best novel of formation, is to embrace the unique qualities of both the genre and the readership. There will always be a huge market for YA fiction, and as with any great number of things, some examples are going to be better than others. While one treasured book might be all you need to get you through a stressful time in your life, adolescents go through such books like woodchippers. The questions they address never really leave us.īecause YA fiction addresses a seething swarm of questions and emotions, it is by nature a busy genre. It’s little wonder that so many of our modern classics, from Lord of the Flies to Harry Potter, speak primarily to the young. YA fiction acts as a vital questioning tool, equipping its readers to tackle times of great upheaval. This is the responsibility YA fiction authors take on when they embrace the genre. It’s a type of fiction that often documents a character’s journey into adulthood, but also offers itself as a tool in the reader’s own cultural and personal development. ‘Bildungsroman’ is a German term meaning ‘novel of formation’ or a coming-of-age story. And, as is so often the case, it’s a journey that starts off in another language.
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That’s why in this article, I’ll be exploring the three golden rules of writing YA fiction, looking at the role it has in its readers’ lives and the implications this has for writers. YA fiction is an important part of this process. So why do young adults – occupying a hotly debated age range of around thirteen to around twenty – need this genre so badly? It’s because adolescence is the most uniformly difficult part of life, the point at which we begin to ask the big questions and find answers we don’t like. In terms of practical use you may claim that children’s books do more for their readers in terms of entertainment you might think that murder mysteries pull their weight in terms of social impact you could make a strong case for sci-fi but in terms of how much a group of readers need their genre of choice, young adult fiction is at the front of the line. There’s an argument to be made that young adult fiction is the most important genre in literature.