I had an interesting conversation with my friend/reviewer the other day, about what level of prose is appropriate for certain age groups. My first manuscript (my first finished novel, with many in progress) has a MC who is 10-11, and is very intelligent, very wordy, and a little strange, attending a private school of similarly intelligent and sheltered kids. My friend said that although she could perhaps come off as a ten-year-old, she doesn't talk like one, and doesn't act like one, not exactly - apparently she comes off, at first blush, more like a twelve-year-old. (The trouble is that this is hard to change... my book has a whole mythos arranged around ages and grades.)
Which surprised me, both because it simply hadn't occurred to me, and because when I was ten, I was probably around the same level of wordiness and maturity (at least when paying attention). She's an odd, clever kid, and in my experience, odd, clever kids are more self-possessed and mature than their peers. I guess my question is this: when writing children's/YA, do you write to what most kids of that age are like, or just what you think this character is like? I usually throw my hands up in the air and try and write books that I would have read when I was that age - I was a weird kid, so I only really feel confident/comfortable writing weird kids - but now I'm slightly (only slightly) worried that this might make my story hard to categorize. Which doesn't bother me overmuch, but might bother editors. Is it a handicap to write books that you know will appeal to slightly geeky, avid young readers, even if it would probably appeal to most kids anyway? Thoughts?
Which surprised me, both because it simply hadn't occurred to me, and because when I was ten, I was probably around the same level of wordiness and maturity (at least when paying attention). She's an odd, clever kid, and in my experience, odd, clever kids are more self-possessed and mature than their peers. I guess my question is this: when writing children's/YA, do you write to what most kids of that age are like, or just what you think this character is like? I usually throw my hands up in the air and try and write books that I would have read when I was that age - I was a weird kid, so I only really feel confident/comfortable writing weird kids - but now I'm slightly (only slightly) worried that this might make my story hard to categorize. Which doesn't bother me overmuch, but might bother editors. Is it a handicap to write books that you know will appeal to slightly geeky, avid young readers, even if it would probably appeal to most kids anyway? Thoughts?
