SLATE’S 10 TIPS ON WRITING YA FICTION
(read the original article here)
01. Remember! Your audience can’t vote yet, so you don’t have to worry about giving them too much to think about.
02 In fact, the less thinking and the more immaturity you bring to the table the better. No shame.
03. If you aren’t sure your dialogue is authentic enough, try the Kevin Williamson Test. This involves reading your dialogue aloud and adding the word “Dawson” to the end of it. ie, “All of this talking about deep stuff weirds me out, Dawson.”
04. Because kids remember Dawson’s Creek don’t they? They’re still into it, right? I don’t know! I’m an old!
05. If you aren’t comfortable with the material you’re writing, reading it aloud in a mocking voice will help.
06. When people ask you what you do for a living, don’t tell them you write young adult fiction. No one takes YA authors seriously. Tell them you are “paid good money” to be a “literary predator [that] comes for people’s children.” They’ll take you WAY more seriously then!
07. Forget everything you’ve ever heard about the editorial process. We don’t do that editing stuff in YA.
08. Also no one judges you in YA! Standards?! What are they? No standards! Only the FREEDOM OF STORYTELLING, BABY!
09. If “fast and loose” isn’t your mantra, it should be. I hope you haven’t read that draft of your book too much! (See tip #7.)
10. No slutty werewolves.
Seriously you guys what is with all these facepalming articles on or about YA surfacing lately? Luckily indignance and spite helps along my writing process otherwise I would be paralyzed by both NOW if you’ll excuse me I have to go work on the 8,000th draft of my fourth book for my readers who have shown me the kind of respect and trust I want to honour and show them in return—just like (gasp) all the YA writers I’ve encountered.
i couldn’t even get through the original article, UGH.
i temporarily misplaced the second book i started reading while i still can’t find the bell jar (lolwhoops) so i started rereading courtney summers’ (i.e. the person i’m reblogging this from) FANTASTIC ya novel some girls are, which is like six thousand kinds of smart and gripping and shockingly well-executed. not shockingly for YA, just shocking because it is so awesome. (it is kind of shocking for YA in that it’s one of few YA books i’ve seen - the other being ms. summers’ first novel, cracked up to be - that very consciously has a protagonist who is not always exactly what one might call “likable” but i’ll get to that when i finish up the reread [i found the book i was replacing but i still want to finish it again].) the first time i read it i was stuck in this super intense state of not being able to put it down but wanting too very badly because it was so intense.
tl;dr YA IS AWESOME COURTNEY SUMMERS IS AWESOME I BET THE AUTHORS OF THIS ARTICLE ARE SHITTY WRITERS.
