I'm not sure whether my manuscript lies within the YA territory

[afif95]

This has been a problem for me since I last came on here and read about the many genres for novels. I did read the stickies, but it doesn't help much, since my manuscript (Bliss) is pretty much one with a lot of things going on.

But first, I wanted to make it clear; I'm 15 in 2010, so I don't mind harsh comments at all. Go all out, yeah? Haha. I don't think age matters in deciding my novel genre since I've been exposed to many different, adult-ish things before.

A summary of this novel I call "Bliss":

It tells a teenager that has the brains, brawns and looks. His strength and intelligence are more than extra-ordinary; it's impossible to be grasped by all human beings. This is probably where the main mystery lies. Now, this isn't your normal everyday good-guy thing, it's a story of a teen-genius who performs as a right-hand of an underground gang/mob. Every week, he's assigned to kill people, usually corrupted people who plays a part in society (Police, politicians).

Aside that, there's also a huge twist; Gang War. It's pretty much a war between rival underground gangs. Currently, Bliss' gang (Black Skulls) are pretty much in the downers right now; they're growing weaker and weaker by the moment. Bliss is going to change that by killing and becoming the leader himself.

Also, welcome White Heart Agency into your life. An agency which is pretty much going into bankrupt for a few reasons, investors are quitting and a weak leader won't be gone anytime soon. WHA plays a big part in the world, as it is the strongest organization, despite it's going into bankruptcy. Bliss, while trying to take over Black Skull and making it a better gang, is also trying to be the leader of WHA. He notices that WHA has a strong potential to be a great role to his future crimes.

Other important roles are Howard and Tom, two agents from WHA that's trying to get Bliss detained behind the bars. Other than that, WHA people don't really believe in Bliss. Needless-to-say, they're skeptical.

Bliss does attend school, but he's hated by many, if not, all of his classmates. It doesn't bother him much though, since he pretty much doesn't need friends. Anyway, as of right now, he's searching for the meaning of life.

Summary over

I don't really know if you can tell whether a story fits into YA or not, but that's pretty much a sum up of my story.

Deaths are a bit of explicit. There's a scene where Bliss manipulates his victim's hands to slit her wrist. There isn't a single hang-rope kind of thing though, as I am against it and I believe the character of Bliss is. There's also a scene where a gunshot is done point-blank to the face.

As to how disturbing the novel actually is, I believe there isn't anything much going on, except a fact where a teenage girl is abused by her father and requests Bliss to terminate him (In which he accepts) and how Bliss' murders got away with people getting framed for it.

Swear words... well, there is some saying of "Shit", "ass", but not to the point of the F-Bomb. If there was, it won't be much of a swear-fight anyway.

The dialogue; mostly composed of intelligence, taunts, conversation, plain friends-thing and some bit of wittiness adding into it.

I believe this should pretty much sum everything about my novel. However, I have two questions to ask:

1)What is a "narrative"? Does it really matter if you're writing from a third POV?

2)Is it better to write in past tense, or present tense? My novel is written in the year 2009.

[Chanelley]

Your story sounds YA to me. Generally, they say if you're main character is a teen, then you're writing for teens. But if you're including a lot of death and gore, it'd probably be edgy YA and that's fine. There are a lot of YA books out there that deal with situations not many would choose to write about.

In answer to your two questions; there isn't one better than the other. People prefer different things. First person. Third person. Past. Present. It all demends on what suits your story. Pick your POV and tense and start writing. If you find that it's not going so well, you made need to switch.

[Momento Mori]

It sounds to me like you'd probably slip into YA, but like Chanelley says, it depends on how violent and graphic the depictions are.

As an observation:

An agency which is pretty much going into bankrupt for a few reasons, investors are quitting and a weak leader won't be gone anytime soon.

This doesn't make a lot of sense to me. What kind of agency is it? If it's a company, then bankruptcy is pretty fatal - they have to pay employees, bills etc - and word tends to get out pretty quickly if a company is having problems with any of that, hastening its demise. If it's a government agency, then it won't go bankrupt - governmental agencies keep going for as long as the government wants them and pays for them.

afif95:
1)What is a "narrative"? Does it really matter if you're writing from a third POV?

Narrative is your story and how it's told. The POV you use to tell your story can help shape the narrative, e.g. Justine Larbelestier's Liar is told in the first person by an unreliable narrator so although she's telling you the story, you don't know how much of the narrative is true.

All that matters in terms of POV is what works for your story and you'll figure that out as you tell it. It's not uncommon to shift between third and first person POVs, but many people prefer writing in one or the other.

For my novel, I tell the flashbacks in first person because it adds to the immediacy, but the rest of the story is in close third person.

afif95:
2)Is it better to write in past tense, or present tense? My novel is written in the year 2009.

Again, it depends on what works for your story. Most books are in past or present tense (mainly because it's v. difficult to write in the future tense) and it boils down to what feels right. Personally, I prefer writing in the past tense because present tense always feels artificial to me (but I use present tense in my flashback scenes to add to the immediacy).

A point to note is that if you're going to submit for publication and you want your novel to be contemporary for the time of publication, then bear in mind that publishers buy books for publication in 2 or 3 years time. For example, if you sold your book in 2010, then the chances are that it wouldn't be out until 2012/2013.

MM

[afif95]

Alright, thanks for your advices Memento Mori and Chanelley. I'll stick with third-person POV and present tense. Though I might as well change my tenses if I find something wrong with it when I finish my manuscript. Edgy YA, huh? Well, let's see what will happen to it then.

To answer your question Memento Mori, it's a choice between a down-falling company or a governmental organization that was abandoned and was left independent, I haven't reach the part where WHA is explained thoroughly yet, so I'm still deciding.