Writing YA?

Yes you probably write toward YA because of your age. As you get older and "think" as older people do your writing may gear toward an older age group or it may not. Lots of writers writer only childrens or YA and some write those and adult it depends on the individual.

I understnd about not wanting people you know to read your writing. Sometimes it's easier to get critque or comments from an anonymus stranger online than a person close to you, their opinion might mean more so their critque might hurt more.

This problem will probably take care of itself. One day you'll write something you're really proud of and will then want your friends and family to read it.

By the way, you will probably find that your friends and family generally don't make the best reviewers of your writing. They will mostly either be disinterested, or tell you what they think you want to hear, or can't point out what works in your story, and what doesn't. Other writers make better readers when you want constructive comments on what you've written.

Now, do you want your first little writing lesson? I noticed something in the dialogue you posted that you will need to do differently.

When I was a teenager I wrote YA, because I couldn't imagine anyone over 24 (my boyfriend's age or I dunno) being interesting.

In between being a teenager and 2006 (when I sold my first book) I did a lot of things. But when I wrote my first publishable book it was for teenagers. I love YA. I like all the firsts, I like the coming of age aspects, I like the dialogue, and the voice, and I personally write in present tense which works great for YA.

So, yeah your writing will mature (which doesn't mean it can't be polished and professional at a much younger age than mine was) but your intended audience may or may not.

Good luck!

Abby Dawn said:

Yes please what should I do differently?

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When you're writing dialogue you need to put the punctuation within the quotation marks.

For example:
"I'm not going to the basketball game," he said.
"Why not?" I asked.
"I have a date with Jim!" (By the way, don't use exclamation points too often.)

You will also want to separate the dialogue tags from any action with a comma.

"I'm not your friend anymore," she said, as she turned to leave.

Generally you will probably want to end with the tag and then start a new sentence telling what the character is doing, but sometimes it does work to put an action with the dialogue if it's closely related to what the character is saying. And mostly stick to simple tags (he said, he asked, he replied).

I hope that helps you just a little.

I'm 34 and I still write YA. I doubt I will ever grow out of it, and I don't want to, either.

How can anyone read a book and then type dialogue as if they'd never read it anywhere. It doesn't take much savvy to compare the punctuation one has written to what one has read -no?

It can definitely be hard to show your writing to people you know... I find myself worrying that they will judge me as a person based on what I write. And if I think about it, it doesn't make that much sense, because the people who are my friends and family have known me for YEARS and one novel or short story shouldn't really affect that, but I get nervous anyway.

So if I don't want my friends and family to read what I've written, I just don't show it to them. They can read the book when it comes out!

It's up to you what you want to write. You may decide as you get older to write different kinds of books, you may not. When I was a teenager I wrote adult books. Now as an adult, I write YA and Middle Grade. Write what you want to write!

Your writing will mature, though that doesn't necessarily mean you'll move beyond YA. I don't aim my writing toward any audience but have recently learned that most of my stuff would probably fit quite well in YA (I'm 31). Oh well. If that's the way it is then that's the way it is! Some people are just meant to write for certain audiences whether they plan it or not. (I have other writing which is decidedly NOT YA.)

Regarding showing your work to others, I find your reactions reasonable; with people online there's a certain distance that makes it easier to share things. Unfortunately, my entire audience (such as it is) is online and nobody in real life has ever shown the slightest interest in reading any of my stuff, so all my anxiety about showing my work to real-life people is because I've just grown used to others' disinterest. I used to love trying to show my work off but now even if someone were to ask me I'd shy away from it. I've learned to be too anxious to share. So my experience there is different from yours.

tehuti88 said:

Your writing will mature, though that doesn't necessarily mean you'll move beyond YA. I don't aim my writing toward any audience but have recently learned that most of my stuff would probably fit quite well in YA (I'm 31). Oh well. If that's the way it is then that's the way it is! Some people are just meant to write for certain audiences whether they plan it or not. (I have other writing which is decidedly NOT YA.)

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QFT.

Your writing will mature, but that won't change whether you write YA or not. The two are pretty unrelated. As your writing matures, you'll get better at things like showing and not telling, perfect POV, crafting an intricate plot, and things like this. As your interests change, you may move past YA, you may not. You probably write YA now because it relates to what you find most interesting and what's more familiar to you. As you get older, you may get interested in different things that will fall in other genres, or you might not. Either way, your writing will always get better with practice. Don't worry about what you write, just write whatever you like.

I still get nervous when people I know read my writing. I usually can't be there when they're reading it, or if I am, I'm on edge the whole time. I never let anyone but my girlfriend (my most trusted beta) read anything but a final draft. And I certainly edit it several times before letting her see it, too. I don't know what to tell you.