Teen/ Young Adult set in the 90's

Kimmie

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Hi,

I hope I'm posting in the right area. I've written what can basically be described as a teenage romance with a twist. It's not just a simple boy meets girl, there's a lot of self-doubt/low self-esteem aspects to the story as well as lots of references to life in the late 90's/early 2000's as that's the time it's based in. Early internet, calling from phone boxes etc. Plus, it's easier to write about my own era!

What I'm not sure about is who I should aim the story at. Either modern day teens who may be fascinated how we used to do things before social media, or they may not be able to relate at all. Or people my own age (mid 30's) who will be able to relate to the early 2000's stuff, but may find the story line too childish.

Any thoughts or ideas will be much appreciated.

Many thanks, K
 

FletcherHavarti

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I hope I'm posting in the right area. I've written what can basically be described as a teenage romance with a twist. It's not just a simple boy meets girl, there's a lot of self-doubt/low self-esteem aspects to the story as well as lots of references to life in the late 90's/early 2000's as that's the time it's based in. Early internet, calling from phone boxes etc. Plus, it's easier to write about my own era!

What I'm not sure about is who I should aim the story at. Either modern day teens who may be fascinated how we used to do things before social media, or they may not be able to relate at all. Or people my own age (mid 30's) who will be able to relate to the early 2000's stuff, but may find the story line too childish.

If the story would appeal mainly to a teen audience, then that's your target. I bet some kids that age would be interested in seeing what life was like in the olden times. (Of course plenty of adults might be entertained by it too, but based on your last sentence, it sounds like they are not your primary audience.)
 

Kimmie

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If the story would appeal mainly to a teen audience, then that's your target. I bet some kids that age would be interested in seeing what life was like in the olden times. (Of course plenty of adults might be entertained by it too, but based on your last sentence, it sounds like they are not your primary audience.)

Thank you for your response. The reason I'm struggling with this is because the two stories that inspired me to write it were 'The Perks of Being a Wall Flower' and 'Normal People', both of which I enjoyed as an adult. I suppose I'm just not sure what would be considered as too 'childish'.
 

Brightdreamer

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Adults do read a lot of YA but they/we don't really require separate consideration during writing IMHO

+1

As an obsolete teen who sometimes still reads YA (and MG, and even children's) stories, I'm aware that I'm not the target audience... but I have been the target's age.

Also, if teens could only read and enjoy modern stories set in 2020 or thereabouts, there are an awful lot of YA classics and historical titles (and fantasy and SF) whose popularity would be inexplicable. Do not underestimate your audience - but do keep in mind that, to them, it is (more or less) "historical." Consider it as you would consider worldbuilding, to drop sufficient context clues about the era without slamming on the brakes to hand-hold and explain,"well, see, kids, back then Twitter didn't exist. And we had these things called 'pay phones'..."
 

ChaseJxyz

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Look at all the 80's nostalgia lately with stuff like It and Stranger Things, there's definitely a market for "historical" fiction that doesn't feel like history for many of us. I think today's teens would be interested in what dating/romance was like without texting or the Internet. If you can get any sort of gen Z kid to beta read for you, I think that'll be great to help you realize what bits of knowledge they don't have, like what a big deal making a mix-tape was.
 

NealM

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I got an agent off of a middle grade novel set in 1989, which was the year that I was the age of the protagonists (like you, I felt setting it back then would make it not only easier to write but also more honest). The agent wanted to rep me on one condition, I revised the novel to set it in the modern day. Because of the nature of the story this wasn't actually very difficult to do, so I did it. It ended up losing some nostalgia moments for me personally but overall it had minimal effect on the story and probably made it ten times more marketable.

Cut to today: I'm currently writing a YA about a group of teenagers. Based on my past experience I figured I should set it in the modern day as opposed to the early 90s, when I was the age of the protagonists. I was really cruising along and very much liking the story and the characters and the twists and turns. But I wasn't liking the setting. I know very little about modern teens. I don't know what music they like, what shows they watch, what they like to do, where they like to go, how they talk. I know almost nothing about social media and technology. Etcetera. I was really digging my novel, but I had to fake a lot of stuff, and I'm sure I got a lot of it flat out wrong. At the 100K word mark I said screw it. I stopped writing and reread everything I'd written with an eye toward how difficult it would be to reset it in the 90s. There were a couple areas where I needed to be creative (not having characters be able to communicate with cell phones was a problem that came up dozens of times) but after a bit of mildly heavy lifting I was able to reset it firmly in 1993 and I'm so happy I did so. The story and the characters are so much more real and honest now. There's a reason the oldest adage in the book is to write what you know...

So what's my advice? Do what you want. If your book is telling you to set in the 90s then set it in the 90s. But I would also warn you to be prepared for the possibility of an agent or publisher rejecting it based on that. Maybe that matters to you and maybe it doesn't. Personally, the older I get I care less and less about marketability.
 

neandermagnon

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I got an agent off of a middle grade novel set in 1989, which was the year that I was the age of the protagonists (like you, I felt setting it back then would make it not only easier to write but also more honest). The agent wanted to rep me on one condition, I revised the novel to set it in the modern day. Because of the nature of the story this wasn't actually very difficult to do, so I did it. It ended up losing some nostalgia moments for me personally but overall it had minimal effect on the story and probably made it ten times more marketable.

This approach requires a lot of care. While I'm sure it worked fine for your story, for anyone considering this, there are potential pitfalls.

A while back I read a book (was for 8-12 age group) which was written as a contemporary novel set in the UK, however it was clear that the author's own experience was from a few decades earlier. The scene that stood out most to me was one where the MC was shamed and punished for having dirty clothes. In the story her mum had gone AWOL and she and her sister were struggling to manage by themselves and her clothes hadn't been laundered properly for some time. Thing is, while in the 70s or 80s such a scene may have been realistic, given a lot of teachers got no training at all in child protection and may not have been all that aware of poverty either, this scene was completely unrealistic for the present day. Teachers get loads of training in child protection and would not miss such obvious signs of neglect. Additionally, they'd be aware of poverty and wouldn't dream of shaming a child for something that's likely to be caused by poverty. Sad to say that some schools in poor areas end up providing food bank and laundry services to families that are struggling. Granted you may get the occasional teacher who's grossly negligent or deliberately unkind but it's unlikely they'd last very long as a teacher (much more accountability these days) and in any case, the scene was written with the teacher being ignorant and insensitive but meaning well.

There are lots of ways that things are different for kids today than they were in the 80s and if you're not a child or parent/guardian or you don't work with children, you might not be aware how much things have changed. Even as a parent I wouldn't be able to confidently write child characters in a contemporary setting without quizzing my kids as to whether I'm getting the details right.

That said, if you have kids in your family (or friends' kids) of the age group you're writing for, they can provide you with all kinds of relevant info that could help you make a contemporary novel work.
 

NealM

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This approach requires a lot of care. While I'm sure it worked fine for your story, for anyone considering this, there are potential pitfalls.

I completely agree. In the case of my novel, it was a very contained setting that could have taken place any time. I only needed to make very minor tweaks - the occasional reference to pop culture or technology, etc - to make it work. If the state of the world in 1989 was integral to the story I wouldn't have made the changes, but it wasn't so I did. I realize that if Stephen King were to rewrite "The Body" (Stand By Me) and set it in 2020 it would be a vastly different story, and certainly not nearly as good.
 

DanielaTorre

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I'm also writing a manuscript set in the 90s. 90s kids were the last true generation of latchkeys, so I set it there as it's really important in the story.

With the exception of time stamps, 90s pop culture is mentioned here and there, but I keep it as clean as I can. Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor & Park is a good example of a YA novel set in a different era of pop culture. She makes subtle references to that era that's not too jarring. As NealM mentioned, the same story can be vastly different if set in another year. So write whatever era you want to write in, just keep the pop culture references to a minimum and focus on the story.

On a similar note, how would you pitch a book that's set in the 90s? It makes me cringe to call it historical YA.
 
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Animad345

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For what it's worth, I love reading novels of any genre set in the 90s/early 2000s. I was born in the mid-nineties, so late to the party, but I have a massive obsession with that decade's films, music, etc. I like YA contemporary and one set in that time period would definitely catch my eye.
 

Kimmie

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Thanks for all your replies. I genuinely think my story wouldn't work in modern day. As it's a romance with a twist, it's very much a landline/early internet/phone box based story. Not only do I not know enough about modern day technology, I just don't think the initial build up would work. What makes the 'slow burn' of the love story more interesting is the limited (school time) interaction between the two main characters, which (back then) would rarely take place away from that environment. I'm torn. My friend's 18 year old loves hearing about how things worked in the late 90's and is fascinated about how you could possibly 'date' someone without a mobile phone, whereas others are saying they just couldn't relate so it's of less interest to them.

That said, a lot of the issues in the story are still very much present today, especially the self-esteem and body shaming stuff, it's just the technology that wouldn't work. If only modern day teenagers still used landlines :-D

Regarding marketing, I really have no clue as it's not historical or modern...
 
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Bing Z

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@Kimmie, haven't you found your theme and setup (land line a must) very close to that of Eleanor & Park?
 
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Kimmie

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@Kimmie, haven't you found your theme and setup (land line a must) very close to that of Eleanor & Park?

Similar. Story starts in 1999 and ends in 2001 so phones and internet are there, but aren't commonly used. Storyline is very different though. Also set in the UK.