My Top Ten Tips For Writing YA Fiction by Tara Willis

by Lucy Moore | 16 March 2015

Read Read Read! I cannot emphasize this enough. Books influence books and writers influence writers. If you know what sells and what the younger set is reading, it will be easier to write a book that they will pick up, enjoy and tell their friends and family about. Read about characters that are the same age as your protagonist. Soak up settings, current language, behavior and situations.
Create a believable character. Consider absolutely everything about your characters, your main character especially. Your character should be believable and relatable. Readers should be able to smile, nod, and laugh. "Been there, done that." "Oh, I know how that feels." Do not make your character perfect. Real humans have flaws.
Keep the Pace. With so much to do in today's world and so much technology and electronics vying for the attention of young teens, your book must interest them; otherwise they will not stick with it. Create tension, believability, relatability and a story that will hold the interest of an average teen who normally likes to read.
Don't Give Parents a Ton of "Screen Time." While parents do and should play a very important role, whether good and/or bad, in the life of their teens and preteens, a writer of YA fiction must remember that teens are no longer small children. They are growing up and have thoughts, opinions and abilities all their own. There is a reason that so many parents in YA novels are dead, dying or otherwise unavailable. No teen wants to read a book with too many scenes involving preachy parental figures. Let your teen or preteen protagonist solve their own problems, fight their own battles and make some of their own decisions with limited guidance from authority figures.
Censor. This is indeed a double edged sword. The YA adult writer must realize that while they are not writing for small children, they are also not writing specifically for adults either. While young teens are growing up and often use harder language than they did as small children, it is still a good idea to keep swearing and cussing to a minimum, avoid the F word entirely and make sure if teens are swearing, they are doing it in context, not just because. Parents are still often considered the gatekeepers of their teen's reading material so remember that too much offensive material might result in your book not being read and shared with your target audience. The same goes for sexuality, underage drinking and drugs. Your protagonist need not be a goody-two-shoes, but don't go overboard with bad behavior unless you want to possibly limit sales and exposure.
Secondary Characters. No protagonist is an island. Give your secondary characters, particularly other teens and children, time to shine. Let them occasionally "one-up" your protagonist, be the class clown, get your protagonist in trouble by being a bad influence etc. You want your readership to remember not just the main character but some his/her quirky friends, enemies and sidekicks too.
Setting and Descriptions: Remember, as I described above preteens and teens have much vying for their attention in today's age of technology. Watch your descriptions. Two or three pages of scenery may have worked fine in the days of Charles Dickens, but few teenagers will put up with that now. Keep description real and to a minimum. Most scenery and setting description is skipped anyway, so make it count.
A Happy Ending?? Is life always happy? Of course not. While there is nothing wrong with writing a happy ending, there is nothing wrong with writing a sad, harsh or gritty ending either. Be true to life.
The Controversial. Controversy does not need to be avoided altogether in books for teens; however, it should be addressed in a sensitive manner. Teens should not read a book and feel judged even if the story is meant to make them think. Moral lessons or messages should be woven into the context of the story not hammered home through a sermon.
Above all, write for the love of writing. It is almost a given. If you love and feel for your characters like you would a good friend, chances are your readers will too. Put your enthusiasm and love for your protagonist and secondary characters into your story. If you are bored and uninterested in a character, trust me, your readers will be too.