Young Protagonist in Fantasy

sammyig · Nov 16, 2006

I have a question. My current WIP has a main protagonist who is 13 years old. Most of the story centers around his past life as a vampire king, but his current incarnation makes up much of the book.

Most of my beta readers feel that it would fit into standard Fantasy over YA. So, my question is, since my main protagonist is so young- will that be a problem?

Shadow_Ferret · Nov 16, 2006

The age of your character isn't what determines if something is YA as far as I know. It's the actual content of the story. Don't ask me to explain more, I haven't been able to figure out what the diff between YA and adult stories are.

Mr. Funktastic · Nov 16, 2006

I don't think the protagonist's age would make it YA. If it's young adut oriented, than it's a YA book. I'd say, at least. I'm not exactly an expert, though.

fedorable1 · Nov 16, 2006

Correct. "YA" implies the target audience is Young Adult, not the character(s). Just like many children's stories actually focus on adult characters - and there is the obligatory creepy little girl in every single horror movie - character age is not the determining factor.

Higgins · Nov 16, 2006

Maybe that suggests a subgenre

fedorable1 said:
Correct. "YA" implies the target audience is Young Adult, not the character(s). Just like many children's stories actually focus on adult characters - and there is the obligatory creepy little girl in every single horror movie - character age is not the determining factor.

In the creepy little girl section of the bookstore. For creepy little girls of all ages.

Tallymark · Nov 16, 2006

Think of Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman--I forget just how old Lyra was, but I'm pretty sure it was under 16 (my mental image for her is around 13/14). It's fantasy, not young adult--even though he's written YA books before. It's more about the content and the maturity of the writing. (And if its sorta inbetween, then it can come down to what the publisher thinks it will market best as).

BiggerBoat · Nov 16, 2006

It's certainly true that you can have an adult book with a YA protaganist. However, I'd say that the expecation of many agents and publishers is that books with YA protaganists are often a better fit in the YA market, and I've read about novels being adjusted (word count and any adult subject matter) to fit that market.

It's just another hurdle to overcome.

sammyig · Nov 16, 2006

The thing about my WIP is that if the adult language were taken out of it- it would completely destroy the credability of my protagonist. He's a 13 year old kid who lived on the streets of NYC for a year. Needless to say- he has a "colorful" way of speaking, because that is how street kids talk. To take that away, and the realism of the character is shot.

Pthom · Nov 16, 2006

sammyig said:
The thing about my WIP is that if the adult language were taken out of it- it would completely destroy the credability of my protagonist. He's a 13 year old kid who lived on the streets of NYC for a year. Needless to say- he has a "colorful" way of speaking, because that is how street kids talk. To take that away, and the realism of the character is shot.

Then it seems to me you've answered your question. If the characterization isn't appropriate for young adults, then you don't have a young adult story. But you might have a really good adult story about a young boy. Nothing wrong with that.

virtue_summer · Nov 16, 2006

This is funny because I've actually been worrying about the opposite. Most fantasy I've run across seems to be either about teenagers or kids or about adults who are single and childless. Meanwhile, my work in progress is from the point of view of a man in his thirties and involves both his late wife and his son. I've been wondering if I'd have problems because my character was too old and tied down to fit into the genre. Crazy isn't it? By the way, while I agree that the age of the protagonist shouldn't determine the genre of the published novel, I do think that a lot of people who sell books think otherwise and so the book might still be shelved in the young adult section of the bookstore. Incorrectly, of course.

Nakhlasmoke · Nov 16, 2006

virtue_summer said:
... Meanwhile, my work in progress is from the point of view of a man in his thirties and involves both his late wife and his son. I've been wondering if I'd have problems because my character was too old and tied down to fit into the genre.

Davis Gemmell had predominantly older characters in his books. He did all right.

Evaine · Nov 18, 2006

Katherine Kurtz's first novel, Deryni Rising, concerned how a fourteen year old prince became king on his father's sudden death. (Fourteen was the age that boys officially became adult in that world, and in, for instance, Medieval Wales). It's often been considered to be YA, but was intended to be adult fantasy (the other main characters are 29 or so).

RedWombat · Nov 18, 2006

virtue_summer said:
This is funny because I've actually been worrying about the opposite. Most fantasy I've run across seems to be either about teenagers or kids or about adults who are single and childless. Meanwhile, my work in progress is from the point of view of a man in his thirties and involves both his late wife and his son. I've been wondering if I'd have problems because my character was too old and tied down to fit into the genre.

Paladin of Souls, which took the Hugo a bit ago, is about a forty-year-old woman. So is, oh, Child of a Rainless Year and most of the Pratchett books about witches are centered around old women, to grab a few examples at random from my bookcase.

While the genre's sort of skewed towards younger characters--s'hard to buckle your swash when the rheumatism's acting up--there are definitely enough exceptions that I don't think any age range is out the window.

Sean D. Schaffer · Nov 18, 2006

sammyig said:
I have a question. My current WIP has a main protagonist who is 13 years old. Most of the story centers around his past life as a vampire king, but his current incarnation makes up much of the book.

Most of my beta readers feel that it would fit into standard Fantasy over YA. So, my question is, since my main protagonist is so young- will that be a problem?

It depends more on the content of your story than the age of your character. One of the manuscripts I'm working on right now has a seven-year-old as one of the protags, and I myself would consider it suitable for an audience of no earlier than 21 years of age.

This is because there are, among other characters in the manuscript, sexual situations and some not-so-wholesome language. These are things that I do not think a younger audience would very highly appreciate.

So even though one of the protags is seven years old, the work is definitely not something I would want a YA audience to read. I think upon review of the said work, an editor would most certainly agree with this assessment.

Jack_Roberts · Nov 20, 2006

Sokal said:
In the creepy little girl section of the bookstore. For creepy little girls of all ages.

Annabelle says "I'll have to look that up." Then she fades into mist.

daoine · Nov 20, 2006

The Belgariad by David Eddings is an adult fantasy series with a protagonist who starts the series at about 11 or 12 and ends the series old enough to marry. While YA readers might enjoy it, it definitely seems more geared towards adults even though there is no need for PG warnings. Eddings has accomplished this more through the use of complex language and length that younger readers might battle with. (But then some kids do manage better than some adults ;-) )

JBI · Nov 22, 2006

daoine said:
The Belgariad by David Eddings is an adult fantasy series with a protagonist who starts the series at about 11 or 12 and ends the series old enough to marry. While YA readers might enjoy it, it definitely seems more geared towards adults even though there is no need for PG warnings. Eddings has accomplished this more through the use of complex language and length that younger readers might battle with. (But then some kids do manage better than some adults ;-) )

Edding's work is childish. It was originally intended for a younger audiance, however elder readers enjoy it aswell. Personally I don't care for Eddings' work. His language and writing style are also the simplest and easiest to read (almost pathetic). To really understand the young protaganist, look into Raymound E. Feist's Magician (sold in paperback as Magician Apprentice and Magician Master), Robin Hobb's Assassin's Apprentice, L.E. Modessit Jr.'s The Magic of Recluce, Mercedes Lackey's Arrows Of the Queen (part one of the Hearalds of Valdemar), and definatly look into C.S. Lewis's Narnia work. Harry Potter could be argued as a good reference of the young protaganist, however I personally do not like Rowling's characterization.

Hope that helps, the young ignorant protaganist is often critisized for be a "fantasy cliche'", and is sometimes frowned apon by well read fantasy readers. An excelent site for debates on fantasy and fantasy reference is www.Sffworld.com. It has an extensive index of fantasy books in every sub genre. Hope that helps,

~JBI out.

Young Protagonist in Fantasy

sammyig

Vampire Connoisseur

Shadow_Ferret

Court Jester

Mr. Funktastic

The name says it all.

fedorable1

Hopeless Romantic

Higgins

Tallymark

BiggerBoat

Just Shovelin' Chum

sammyig

Vampire Connoisseur

Pthom

Word butcher

virtue_summer

Always learning

Nakhlasmoke

yes

Evaine

RedWombat

Runs With Scissors

Sean D. Schaffer

Jack_Roberts

Scribe of my muse, Annabelle

daoine

Lateral writer

JBI