why YA?

a fellow writer and friend of mine recently asked me about the boom in young adult literature.
now, i haven't been around these parts long enough to know if we're seeing a boom or just a trend in media attention or what. but i do think the reason he asked is interesting.

he writes adult historical fiction. one agent flat-out asked him if he'd consider making one of his stories YA. another agent encouraged him to read an author with a similar writing style, and at the end of that author's book, there was an ad letting the reader know said author was about to debut a new YA novel, after years of writing adult fiction.

so this writer friend of mine asked me, in so many words, why YA is so hot.

here's my two cents:

1) Harry Potter.
i really think that series did something that transcends other popular children's book series. instead of being the kind of story that adults remember fondly and pass down to future generations... it was the kind of story that made adults feel like kids again themselves. it had us waiting in line at midnight release parties and staying up late to read just-one-more-page, even though we had to get up early the next day. and there was no stigma. no one blinked at an adult reading a children's book in a coffee shop or on the subway, because it was Harry Potter, and everyone - even the non-bookish - knew Harry Potter was an exception.

i think what HP did was give people permission to read books aimed at younger audiences. (and by people here, i mean the casual reader - not book nerds like us who have always read across all age groups.)

2) Universal Experience/Appeal.
after HP paved the way, adults started opening up a few more young adult and middle grade titles and found something in those pages they could relate to. we're not teens anymore, but FUN FACT: every single adult on this planet was once a teenager. no exceptions.

YA lit taps into memories, fond or not-so-fond, of our own teenage experience. we can relate, even if we no longer walk the halls of high school or stress about who's going to ask us to prom - at one point, most of us did. and we can empathize with young adult characters.

3) Pace.
i have a theory that YA lit is gaining momentum in part because of the fast-pace society we now live in. we want information now, and we want it in 140 characters or less. we can't wait for the reporter to spend a full minute and a half telling us a story on TV. if we see something interesting, we open up our laptops and get the story immediately.

we, as a society, are devouring and processing information faster than ever. and i think books are no exception. the casual reader looking for a little literary enrichment may be turning to the YA section of the bookstore, because there's a good chance any book they pick up will be a fast-paced read they can finish in a few days. (exceptions abound, of course, but i'm speaking generally. i find more "fast" books in the YA section than the adult section.)


those are just a few of my thoughts.
i also think YA books focus on that very small window of time when we transition from childhood to adulthood. it's a time period kids can't wait to get to and many adults wish they could relive. there are only a few precious years when we get to be teens, and those years being so few makes them more valuable.
finally, i believe series like Twilight and Hunger Games have kept the momentum going - kept the media tuned in to YA lit, and kept the publishing spotlight on YA a little longer.

but here's what i DON'T know:
i don't know whether YA will remain a hot commodity. is it just a trend/fad that YA is getting so much main stream attention? or is it a permanent shift? will YA lit go from being thought of as books "for" young adults to books for everyone but "about" young adults?

what do you think?

write what you want to write

"I want to write a book about vampires, but all the agents say vampires are over."
"I want to write a contemporary YA, but all the 6-figure deals are for dystopian stories."
"I have this really great idea, but I just heard about a book with almost the exact same concept."

but.. but.. but NOTHING!

i see all of the above lines and many more from authors lamenting how the story they want to write, isn't what they should be writing, if they want to get published.
well, here is a huge, not-so-secret-but-hard-to-believe fact i have learned: the #1 way to get published is to write the best book you can.
and in my opinion, the best book you can write is the one you want to write, have to write - the one with the characters who keep you up at night. even if they ARE vampires.
that's the good news - freedom to write the story you want.
here's the bad news: you're right. it might not get published. this post is about why that's OKAY.

JM Tohline put together a great blog post today on the biggest mistakes writers make when querying agents. (when you're done here, go check it out. he got excellent input from tons of agents and compiled it all in one neat post for you.)

one of the agents JM quoted on his blog said something that really resonated with me:

Cameron McClure (of the Donald Maass Agency) added this: "Most writers query too soon – either before the book is really ready to be read by an industry professional, or with a book that is a learning book, or a starter book, where the writer is working through the themes that will come out in later books with more clarity, getting things out of their system,making mistakes that most beginners make, finding their voice."
the bold is mine. i wrote that book - that "starter" book - and it was everything McClure says. it was my training ground for the kind of themes i wanted to write about, for practicing plot and pace, for learning whether 1st or 3rd person worked better for me and above all, for finding my voice.

fortunately, i never made the mistake of querying that novel. during the year i spent pecking away at it, i also learned a lot about publishing. by the time i was done, i could see all the reasons it didn't work. so i recognized it for what it was - a book i had to write for me, and not for anyone else.

one of the first conversations i had with my agent was about this very thing - about the books you have to write versus the books you might actually want to sell. we were talking about my other WIPs/ideas, and i was asking what kind of stories she'd like to see... and she told me she would never discourage a client from writing anything, because there are stories in us that just have to be told - even if we only ever tell them to our laptops.

i guess it's impossible to know, when you start a new manuscript, whether it's one of the stories you'd be proud to put out in the world or one of the stories you need to learn something from. but i would argue: it's equally important, either way.

if i hadn't written LOSERS, i'm 100% certain i never would have been able to write BUTTER.
i have started taking lines and scenes from L and working them into new manuscripts. i basically stole one of the characters and made him the MC in BILLY D.
i will probably keep deconstructing L until there is nothing left but the concept, and then i might steal that too, and write the whole thing over again from scratch.
for all of these reasons, i know, without a doubt, that my time was not wasted on that first manuscript.

if you feel compelled to write something - write it. the story that never gets published may very well be the most important one you ever write.