How much violence is acceptable for YA?

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Ivonia

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In a book mainly intended for YA (intended audience is boys aged 10-16, although I want to write the book so that anyone can read it and enjoy it), how much violence can you have in the book before it starts to become unacceptable?

So far, in my story, some main characters die, although it's sort of "offscreen" (for instance, one character is inside a space station when it explodes, but I don't explicitly say that "character A then died when the station exploded). There are also fights with monsters (think LOTR type stuff) and afterwards almost all battles are either in vehicles on the ground or in ships in space.

Do you think kids can cope with that? No swearing or anything sexual (but there are "tough" characters, who do give the hero a hard time from time to time), just lots of violence (mostly in mechanized war, not much ground fighting) from time to time, but it's because a war is going on in the story.

The violence level would probably be on par with some Star Wars stories, but nothing too graphic (other than the hero killing two bad guys with his sword, but I just say they fall after he swings his sword. I don't mention that he chops off limbs or blood starts to spurt from them after the hero cuts them both).

I would think that with the kinds of things kids are exposed to today (such as the war in Iraq, or reports of homicide on the news), as well as some rather violent video games, songs, and movies, my story probably wouldn't be too much for them to handle (heck, I handled violence pretty well growing up in the early 90's, when games like Mortal Kombat came out, but I was smart enough to realize that it's not real life). If anything, I want to try and help them cope with stuff like that, that it's not the end of the world because of violent things.

And to counter all that bloodlust, I do have peaceful characters too, who aren't just total wusses either (in fact, the hero's girlfriend doesn't fight, and keeps the hero from becoming a bloodthirsty killer). Also, I want to try and show that although the bad guys are rather brutal most of the time, not everyone of them is a warmonger either.

Do you think kids would be able to handle my story? Above all, I am trying to make it entertaining (because if it's boring, I committed probably the worst sin for writing hehe), but I also want to hint at morals and that fighting isn't always the best answer to every solution (I try not to explicitly say it, but I do want them to start wondering about things like that), and sometimes unfortunately, you may have no choice but to fight (again, keep in mind that a war is going on, and both sides increasingly hate each other as it goes on). Any tips/advice you can give would be nice.

And if it is too violent, I guess I can always just say it's intended for age 18+. But I would like to have kids read it and enjoy it too.
 

Zolah

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If you say it's for 18 plus, then you're saying you've written an adult story! Don't say that unless you think your story IS for the adult market.

It doesn't sound like too much violence for YA to me. There's a lot of quite explicit sex and violence in teen books these days - it really depends on your treatment of it. You have to be moral in the way you portray characters who are the victims or perpetrators of violence. That doesn't mean that you have to take a definite moral stance and have characters wagging their fingers at each other, but it does mean you you should show the implications of violence and the impact it has on the day to day life of your characters, how it affects them for better and worse.

To be honest, it doesn't sound like the violence you've written about is that explicit anyway - not up to adult levels anyway. But a good rule of thumb is that if there's anything in there that makes you feel uneasy (or that you wouldn't let a kid of your own read with a happy conscience) then you should think about the way you've written the scene and maybe try to show it from a different angle (or cut it).
 

CalissaLeigh

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Doesn't sound bad. Even little kid's books sometimes have charachters dying in them.

Basically, no details. Don't talk about blood spurting and guts spilling out and eyeballs rolling across the floor. (My husband just has to insert those comments for me while I'm trying to watch Snow White. :p ) But kids get the idea. A bit of horror is okay.

Your 10 - 16 range is pretty big though. Is that the right market? I was reading Christopher Pike and VC Andrews (actually, VCA books are considered adult so I guess that doesn't count) at 12 - 13.

Books for ten year olds include Harry Potter and Inkheart, 12 and 13 maybe like the Keys to the Kingdom from Garth Nix and 14 and 15 is like the Hobbit. If that gives you some guidelines as to what violence to use for what age group. (Each one contains some sort of violence at some level so pick an age group and start reading. :p)

Um... yeah I spend way too much time in the kid's book section. But it sounds like a good book! Sci-fi is so cool!
 

zeprosnepsid

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I think a lot of 16 year old boys read LOTR. You compare your violence to it at one point. So if you are on par with that then it's probably ok. There's some violence in a book like Ender's Game, also big with the 16 year old boys. I would just use perennial favs like these as a measuring stick. Good luck!
 

WhisperingBard

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Even the Harry Potter books have characters dying in them. It sounds like you're safe.

I was just reading Harold Underdown's book Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Children's Books and he had this to say about it: "Don't censor your writing for a teen audience. Adults sometimes underestimate the sensitivity and self-awareness that teens possess...."
 

Kida Adelyne

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As long as your not glorifying the bad guys, or violence, it's generally Ok. Your stuff sounds fine.

There is a slight confusions with the age thing though. 10 year olds don't read the same as 16 year olds, except in a few cases (such as Harry Potter and The Hobbit).

Boys (and girls) change drammatically in taste in those years. At ten I was reading survive in the wilderness books, and other stuff like that, and wouldn't touch fantasy for money.(Thats what happens when your parents try to tell you to read LOTR at the age of twelve) Now (at sixteen) I am the Harry Potter and LOTR master in my group of friends. Big difference. Just keep this in mind, but it's not a big issue. It's writen for whoever ends up reading it.

Hope this helps.

-Ally
 

katiemac

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My two cents:

The kids can handle the violence just fine. I've never met a child at that age who couldn't appreciate a story with violence and differentiate the "scary moments" from reality.

The parents, on the other hand, are the ones to bring up the fuss. You never hear a child complaining about a story. Harry Potter, Huck Finn, on and on... it's ALWAYS the adults.

That's not meant to sway you in any way, but I whole heartedly think that if you're writing children's books, you should be writing for the kids.
 

Zolah

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Just something else to add: I'm currently reading 'Abhorsen' by Garth Nix. This is for 12+ and includes descriptions of the rotting bodies and grinding bones of zombies, as well as people being ripped limb from limb and eaten alive by the Dead. Compared to this quite a lot of adult stuff seems pretty tame! But no one has complained about them as far as I can ascertain, because Nix's descriptions are finely and sensitively done and they convey the horror of violence, rather than glorifying it.
 

Ivonia

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Thanks for the replies! Yeah, I guess my age bracket is kinda high, but I'm trying to write one of those "universal appeal" stories, that anyone, anywhere can read and still get the same idea out of it. I know it won't be easy, but if I can do it, then I'll be glad :)

Yeah, I'm not going to glorify violence in my book. Although the bad guys might "enjoy" it a little, I will give backstory to that because they have been brainwashed into enjoying fighting as much as possible, so hopefully peeps can understand things from the bad guy's point of view. There will be violence, but most of it will be geared towards the monsters anyway (again, kind of like LOTR. Apparently it seemed to be more acceptable that the heroes were fighting hideous monsters rather than other people most of the time in the books/movies).

Of course, the hero will only fight because he has no other choice (I prefer good guys that don't go out looking for trouble, rather than one that's always causing it. I think most of you would agree with me).

And again, most of the violence is when ships are fighting each other, rather than ground battles, and I pretty much let the good guys get their butts kicked until the end since the bad guys are so powerful, but I make up for it with a pretty happy ending overall (ala a major victory in an important battle), so that hopefully readers won't be too mad at me for making my characters go through all those losses earlier.
 
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DiscoDan

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To decide if it's safe or not, just watch a PG-13 movie. You can have almost anything in those nowadays--even a rare F word--so I wouldn't be too worried about it being to violent. The kids will be able to handle it, but if it becomes popular the parents won't. Don't worry about that though, anything popular for kids nowadays will always be considered to have evil motives. Harry Potter, Goosebumps, etc.
 
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