"Old" People Writing for Teens V

Parametric

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So writing question (it's fun to have one of those again): I'm at the end of First Sight where my female MC confronts my villain. She winds up having to be rescued by the male MC and I'm wondering if this will wind up being problematic. She's a physically weak character (the male MC has been giving her self-defense training but it's only gone on for a couple of weeks by this point) so she has no physical ways to take down another character who is twice her size. She still attempts to in an effort to save other people but it doesn't work out too well for her. She has plenty of other skills and is instrumental in solving the case they are investigating (she is a Seer and helped find the kids they are rescuing), but she just isn't a fighter. Knowing all that, do you guys think it's problematic to have the male MC (who is physically capable of taking on the villain) save her?

It's hard to judge without reading the full manuscript. I'm not worried about female characters occasionally having to be rescued by male characters as long as they take strong action to drive their own story, which may or may not require physical strength or combat skills. It would bother me if it was a consistent pattern of helplessness and rescuing.
 

ManInBlack

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So, what you really have to look at is the time that the books span. Are they each a year long? Then they aren't going to remain in YA territory. If they're shorter timeframes, then think about how fast the books are coming out. Is it a year per book? Your initial audience is going to age out of your target audience age range much faster than your characters age out of it. If you become as big as those authors mentioned above, not a big deal because people of many ages will stick with it and new readers will be sure to be introduced to the first books as the later books are just coming out. If not, it will be a harder sell, the longer your series goes on.
I'm expecting these to come out at a rate of about one per year, so while I can probably play around with that a bit, I figure I should stick close to it.

One thing that factors into it is the second trilogy (originally intended to be the second book) has some more adult themes so it might work out better to move that up to adult as well.
 

darrtwish

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Kailynn, I'm so sorry to here about your dad.


I'd forgotten how much BIC actually accomplishes word count wise. It's nice watching it go up, even though I only have a general sense of where I'm going. This is still a first draft, so I'm not worried too much about jumping around in the story because I know I'm going to fill in later. Right now it's just short scenes but I'm not feeling the pressure to get it right the first time like I usually do, so I'll count it as a win
 

A.P.M.

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Ugh, I'm hitting that "middle of the book slog," part of the story. I have scenes I want to write but I don't know how to weave them in and keep up the pace. Just have to keep chugging along and hope I can fix it during edits...It doesn't help that this is the first YA contemporary I've ever written. I read other authors work and think I can never do the story in my head justice.

Anyway, that's my whining for the day. Back to the grind.
 
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JFitchett92

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Hey guys, long time no see.

I've been plodding away with SL. I've started going to the gym which has massively improved my mental state, so I'm feeling inspired and more motivated than ever before. The fitness is an added bonus too.

Whilst I've been quietly stalking the thread the topic of age has come up which prompted an interesting thought. Is SL actually a YA story? The main character is actually 21, but as she has been imprisoned for 5 years she still sees herself as a 16 year old. The voice of the story is very YA, but the characters are mostly over 18. Would it still qualify as it is aimed at YAs?
 

ManInBlack

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Whilst I've been quietly stalking the thread the topic of age has come up which prompted an interesting thought. Is SL actually a YA story? The main character is actually 21, but as she has been imprisoned for 5 years she still sees herself as a 16 year old. The voice of the story is very YA, but the characters are mostly over 18. Would it still qualify as it is aimed at YAs?

I think it would still qualify, as long as it is YA-relevant subject matter.
 

Parametric

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I'll be over here banging my head against the wall because my tiny brother read my YA UF (thank you, tiny brother) and gave exactly the same feedback as the previous round of beta readers. Which is exactly the problem that I just spent a year trying to fix. *sobs*
 

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Hey, Jack!
Whilst I've been quietly stalking the thread the topic of age has come up which prompted an interesting thought. Is SL actually a YA story? The main character is actually 21, but as she has been imprisoned for 5 years she still sees herself as a 16 year old. The voice of the story is very YA, but the characters are mostly over 18. Would it still qualify as it is aimed at YAs?

My gut reaction is that agents and publishers would say it's not YA. Although we have immortals in a teen mindset who get to be YA (usually they're not the MCs, but sometimes they are), a 21yo who thinks of herself as 16 isn't probably going to cut it.
 

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I feel bad because I was so cranky and complain-y today. I went in to work at 6:30 because we had possibly 6 tests with early deadlines. I was confident that only 2 of the tests would actually need them, but I had backups in place if 3 tests (instead of 1) needed to be done by 8, which is when normally everyone else would come in. I multitasked preparing the meters while checking those 4 other tests, and, yep, they were going to wait until the afternoon, and all I needed to do was finish the meters, warm up the water, do readings on it, and do the test. This was about 7.

And then our deionized water (DI) tank went out. This is the water we use to rinse things, to calibrate meters, and to make our other waters. I had to text back and forth with the guy who deals with maintenance, while finding ways to get around the DI problem and still trying to get that first test done on time (7:50). Two people walked in at 7:30, and by that time I was pretty haggard. I messed up a control water 3 minutes before the test needed to be changed, and I'm pretty sure the time on the datasheet was fudged a few minutes.

Then one of our already-made (with DI and salt) control waters turned out to have bacteria in it! We couldn't use it for the 3 tests that needed it, and we had no way to make any new water the entire day.

By 9 a.m., my ankle was killing me and I was just trying to calm down from running around all morning. I really feel like everyone was looking at me like I was acting crazy. All day, people were going, "At least it happened on a light day," and I never felt anything but rush rush rush until I left at 4 p.m. (which you might notice is not an 8-hr day for a "light" day)
 

Beanie5

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I feel bad because I was so cranky and complain-y today. I went in to work at 6:30 because we had possibly 6 tests with early deadlines. I was confident that only 2 of the tests would actually need them, but I had backups in place if 3 tests (instead of 1) needed to be done by 8, which is when normally everyone else would come in. I multitasked preparing the meters while checking those 4 other tests, and, yep, they were going to wait until the afternoon, and all I needed to do was finish the meters, warm up the water, do readings on it, and do the test. This was about 7.

And then our deionized water (DI) tank went out. This is the water we use to rinse things, to calibrate meters, and to make our other waters. I had to text back and forth with the guy who deals with maintenance, while finding ways to get around the DI problem and still trying to get that first test done on time (7:50). Two people walked in at 7:30, and by that time I was pretty haggard. I messed up a control water 3 minutes before the test needed to be changed, and I'm pretty sure the time on the datasheet was fudged a few minutes.

Then one of our already-made (with DI and salt) control waters turned out to have bacteria in it! We couldn't use it for the 3 tests that needed it, and we had no way to make any new water the entire day.

By 9 a.m., my ankle was killing me and I was just trying to calm down from running around all morning. I really feel like everyone was looking at me like I was acting crazy. All day, people were going, "At least it happened on a light day," and I never felt anything but rush rush rush until I left at 4 p.m. (which you might notice is not an 8-hr day for a "light" day)
I detest going in to work early:rant: Then everything goes wrong on top and you don't even get sympathy! :Shrug: hugs here
 

Beanie5

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Looking for advice, MC is a young Lady ( approx 17 ) I am thinking of doing a small juggle and starting my MS with a scene from when she was 11 or 12 then hitting the a few years later button? What is the general feel to this approach?
 

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In theory, for the sake of the story, there's nothing wrong with that, but it will make it harder to sell to agents because your query will talk about a 17yo MC and your opening pages will have her acting like an 11-12yo. It still may be worth doing, but consider whether the reason behind using scenes from the younger age is important enough to allow the confusion this might cause right out the gate.
 

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JFitchett, I don't think it matters how the MC feels, age seems paramount in setting books in YA genre. It may fit the new NA genre (new adult?) I am not sure where the cutoff is for that. Do not fear. I firmly believe there is a much wider audience for adult fiction. There are more adults;)

Para---Ugh! Thanks tiny brother, and raises fist in rage that tiny brother noted this problem you've been working on to fix. Have you published yet? You have time to step back and work it again if you haven't. I think I reworked my first novel 20 times over. A member of my critique group is launching her second picture book tomorrow. She showed me an interview and her advice was to revise, revise and then revise again. I revise until my eyes want to bleed. You can't take it back after you publish. Well, sometimes you can, but first impressions and all....

Sage, any day that starts at 6:30 am is worthy of complaint. No matter where it goes from there.

I am writing two things now...first draft on a middle grade novel that is going semi-well, and a first draft on an adult short story that is horror. I have never written anything like that, but want to participate in an anthology. It isn't going well. I may fail at this. That, and I believe my computer is failing. It has been having trouble connecting to the internet. It is over 3 years old. I usually burn through laptops in 2 years.
 

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Para! the MS is out with betas. Maybe the will see things differently, or see an easy way to work around the issue!

There are few things as annoying as being the person at work putting out all the fires while everyone else is like "Oh, it's only a little fire" and "I've seen way worse fires..."

Though I'm on the other side of the equation. My schedule just moved later, to being in at 7A. I was 5:30 for ages, and then 6:30 for the last year... Time has lost all meaning for me.

Beanie, at first I thought your MS contained actually juggling, and I was really excited. I realize that is not the case, but I am still a little disappointed. Is what you're showing at 11 so important there is no better way to work it into the MS some other way? Querying, even just people opening the MS to page one are going to be like "wait, I thought this was YA..?"

I've spent the last few days helping build a local Ren Faire. That was new. I was recruited from my robotics work because I can use tools and I do what amounts to a mashup of robotics, cosplay, and stage tech. I don't imagine myself taking a bigger role in the whole thing (this is what I say now) but it's been interesting.
 

KiwiLady

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Para - I agree with Coffeebeans. Wait and see what your other betas say. They might not think there is a problem at all.

JKRowley - you're braver than me. I wouldn't even know where to start with writing a horror!

Coffeebeans - Ren Faire? ...okay, just googled and now know what you're talking about, sort of. Sounds like fun.

I don't really have anything to add, but decided to post instead of just lurking since its been kinda quiet in here lately.
 

Bookgirl2021

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I've spent the last few days helping build a local Ren Faire. That was new. I was recruited from my robotics work because I can use tools and I do what amounts to a mashup of robotics, cosplay, and stage tech. I don't imagine myself taking a bigger role in the whole thing (this is what I say now) but it's been interesting.

I haven't been to a Ren Faire in years, but I love them. I actually worked at my local one the first few summers out of high school. Kind of long days in really hot weather, in costume, but still fun. My favorite time was when I worked at the bounce castle/slide and a little girl came up and asked if I was a princess and if she could take a picture with me. It was so sweet! :)
 

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Got a great compliment last night at chorus. The choreography gal came up to me and my friend and told us that we are always dead on for choreography and she wants us to be her assistants up on the risers to help people figure out what the choreography is. First, it's awesome to be told that you're amazing at choreo (btw, I am a klutz, so this is all hard work. Did I mention the 100 reps I did one week of two of our songs?) and facial expressions, and second, it's so cool to be asked to be part of a team. I haven't been in the chorus for a year yet, so I find it pretty exciting to be recognized and invited.
 

Sage

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Woo, I'm off to an independent bookstore (the first I've found in San Diego since returning) for Cindy Pon's book launch party. Cindy's an old AWer who used to be really active in YA back when the subforum started. She's also really heavily involved in We Need Diverse Books.
 

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I couldn't even wait until I was out of the bookstore before I was reading it. I actually missed out on a good opportunity to schmooze with an agent (literally standing behind me) and a bunch of published or soon-to-be-pubbed authors because I was busy reading and didn't realize who was behind me :e2smack:
 

JKRowley

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I do like hearing success stories for AW'ers.

After talking to a coworker about the manuscript I have cooling (it is "Wonder" for YA, but better), she commented that with "Wonder" becoming a movie, this seemed the ideal time for a story like that. It inspired me to query agents with it. I haven't queried agents in what feels like forever. I hear stories of folks sending out batches of 12 at a time. I thought I would do 5. I just did two, and it took me hours. I can't do anymore, and this took over my writing time today. Bummer, because I am working on two stories, and am under deadline for that blasted horror story.

Maybe something will come from one of those two, or maybe I will sacrifice another night to querying. I hate querying.
 

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Anyone want to help me with a fictional scenario about a teenage YA writer? What is *a lot* of attention on Wattpad? Like is it a million hits, or a hundred thousand readers, or are those numbers way too high/low? I'm working out this scene where a literary agent got involved because the character's Wattpad stuff is so popular. There might even be merchandise. I'm imagining it as like the Very Secret Diaries thing, but I think Wattpad is where it's at today. Thanks for input.
 

JFitchett92

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Hey, Jack!


My gut reaction is that agents and publishers would say it's not YA. Although we have immortals in a teen mindset who get to be YA (usually they're not the MCs, but sometimes they are), a 21yo who thinks of herself as 16 isn't probably going to cut it.

Hey Sage!

I was thinking along the lines of "Edward Cullen is 100 years old, but in the body of a teenager, and that's YA" but this has been on my mind for a while. Could it not be YA but still be aimed at teenagers? I mean, that's the vibe I'm going for. Of course it wouldn't take much to make it a bit more grown up, but part of the early story is Vegas noticing how young everyone is, too young to be fighting in a war anyway. I've heard of NA, but I figured that was more of a "going to college" kind of thing. I might just finish it and see what the betas say :) I'm so close!
 

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NA is definitely not just "going to college," but I do think it's more likely to be romance (genre) than other age groups. It's a pretty hard sell, otherwise.

Is there a reason she has to be 21? (Have we had this conversation?)

---

I wish I still had my writing group. This was the sort of thing I could lament to them and then let go (or we could brainstorm over whether it's a problem while eating cake and drinking things). Two years ago I had an idea for a Bachelorette-like fantasy novel. Bachelorette started up and I started thinking about it for NaNo, and then I finally finished the Selection series...and just so many elements I wanted to use for it were included in one way or another, sigh. I mean, there are only so many unique elements you can add to a dating-reality-show plot line anyway, I know, but some of these did feel unique to me... until now. Okay, that's it, the whole lament. I'm over it. It's not like the magical realism novel that I sobbed for a whole plane ride over.