Complexity of speech and words in YA? What is speaking too simply?

It depends, of course.

Depends on the book. There's room for everything. Sometimes I feel like a simple book, sometimes I feel like something more challenging.

But it's worth keeping in mind that teenagers probably read a lot of dense books in school and sometimes just want a fucking break. But again, that depends on the teenager. Some of them love those dense books and want more.

I'd say just write what comes naturally to you and what fits that particular story. You can't please everyone, so please yourself, as the song says.

Density of language doesn't necessarily correspond to target reader age. It's noticeable that some less recent children's books are denser - Leon Garfield's Black Jack, for example, first published in 1968, which I reread a few years ago, is MG but it would be quite a bit more demanding than many YAs published nowadays. Renaissance Learning gives it a book level of 6.5.

Some would call this evidence of dumbing down, though I would be more hesitant to suggest that.

nitaworm:
I wrote several chapters of my upper YA (14 yrs +) in high tech sci fi big words and speech. The kids hated it.

The majority of them stated, 'Although we read at a high level, we don't want to read big smarty words when we read for fun. Keep it simple and plain."

Click to expand...

It depends on what you're writing and the way you're writing it. For example it sounds like your book may have a lot of scientific terms and jargon. Even if you're breaking concepts down to their simplest level, that may well be too much for a teenager to take in, regardless of whether they prefer to read to a more mature/complex level normally because they think they're getting a science text book rather than an adventure story or romance or whatever. I don't tend to read a lot of 'grown-up' SF for that reason.

MM

i don't want to be patronised as a reader.

Momento Mori said:

It depends on what you're writing and the way you're writing it. For example it sounds like your book may have a lot of scientific terms and jargon. Even if you're breaking concepts down to their simplest level, that may well be too much for a teenager to take in, regardless of whether they prefer to read to a more mature/complex level normally because they think they're getting a science text book rather than an adventure story or romance or whatever. I don't tend to read a lot of 'grown-up' SF for that reason.

MM

Click to expand...

This was my thought. It might not be that you're making the writing too mature, but that there are just too many unfamiliar science related words and it starts to feel like school. Since sci-fi has a lot of unfamiliar words anyway, sometimes it's easier if you don't take it too far with the technicalities. It has nothing to do with intelligence or reading level or any of that, but just not wanting to be bogged down.

The Bartimaeus Trilogy is quite dense. There are some really complex sentences and big words in it. Yet, it did well in terms of sale and popularity. So, my advice: just write the way you know how to

nitaworm said:

I always wondered how simple to make the writing in my YA novels. I did a beta test bed sorta. I wrote several chapters of my upper YA (14 yrs +) in high tech sci fi big words and speech. The kids hated it.

Click to expand...

I generally don't like simplified writing in YA, and I actually enjoy seeing that kind of thing, but my parents are both scientists, so whenever they want to talk about their work, I get a lecture in biology, so I'm kind of used to it. However, last time I read a book with that (the "high tech sci fi words") it made the universe seem so much more real to me, it was amazing.

If I were you, I'd see if it's possible to stick a dinky little one sentence explanation somewhere in there if you want to make sure everyone gets it (like, if it's crucial to plot) or if you don't want to send them looking for an encyclopedia. (I'm doing the same thing in my WIP).

Since you're an engineer and it's about science fiction terms, I wouldn't say that anything goes--that's a very specific set of jargon and if you spend too much time on it it'll bog down the narrative, confuse your readers, and alienate them as well.

I'm pretty sure YA sci-fi is generally lighter than adult, in terms of technobabble. It also needs to be faster paced. Now, I don't know your book, but if you've written several chapters in that type of voice, it might be time for an edit. The vast majority of YA readers aren't into hard sci-fi enough to understand it.

Are those chapters essential to the narrative? Is there another framing device you can use, having one kid who is techno-savvy explain it to one who isn't?

How much is required for the narrative, how much is interesting, how much is entertaining, and how much needs to be in that specific voice?

Generally, advanced vocabulary is not the same thing as jargon or technical vocabulary.