- Joined
- Mar 24, 2008
- Messages
- 944
- Reaction score
- 130
- Location
- The water.
- Website
- www.sarahnicolelemon.com
I'm old-ish (late twenties, married with three kids and a lot of life stuffed into those years). And sort-of successful in writing young adult. I write literary leaning young adult and have never had an issue with my voice--- I let it go as literary leaning as I want, my dialogue is what I hear in my head, my characters are what I see/remember from youth. (aka, I'm never the person asking if this sounds like a teenager, I'm always writing upper YA and I'm confident it sounds just fine). My books/stories tend to be atypical YA, mostly because my teen years were quite atypical and I couldn't write a book where conflict centers around school/friends if I tried. But I've had some success with this (I have a higher caliber agent than my firearm if that makes sense).
I also write literary fiction (in the crime vein). Unsuccessfully. I repeatedly hear "this sounds YA" and I have NO IDEA how to stop sounding that way. Or why. The content is older. The people are older. The problems are different (but just different sides of the same coin usually). My prose? But shouldn't literary YA at least make up decent commercial fiction?
What is the difference between YA and adult voice in literary terms? What would make a crime novel sound YA in a subtle way? How do you exert more control over your voice to get it to do what you want?
I'm already reading. I read widely-- but the ones I read over and over again are Woodrell, McCarthy and Dostoevsky. So, I really have no idea how this is ending up YA.
I also write literary fiction (in the crime vein). Unsuccessfully. I repeatedly hear "this sounds YA" and I have NO IDEA how to stop sounding that way. Or why. The content is older. The people are older. The problems are different (but just different sides of the same coin usually). My prose? But shouldn't literary YA at least make up decent commercial fiction?
What is the difference between YA and adult voice in literary terms? What would make a crime novel sound YA in a subtle way? How do you exert more control over your voice to get it to do what you want?
I'm already reading. I read widely-- but the ones I read over and over again are Woodrell, McCarthy and Dostoevsky. So, I really have no idea how this is ending up YA.
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