Young Adult Books (part 2)
FenCon10 Notes
Part of YA job is inspirational.
Show a world you would want to be in…
Heroine… Girl who gets to say it’s “not okay to pressure me”
Didn’t let folks say their value was conditional.
Escapism.
When folks choose to do something, they shouldn’t be shamed.
Have someone stand up for what’s right, so the readers understand you can say no.
All write fantastic fiction.
We get to deal with big decisions of good and bad…
Love the quote from Harry Potter about choosing between the good and the easy.
Evil will triumph if folks do nothing.
Power has consequences.
I want consequences in YA.
Part of middle grade and YA fiction–Do we need to have a moral?
Character has to have a moral compass.
Moralizing versus what-if world that might exist.
Sometimes the choices are bad or worse.
Tell an entertaining story.
Someone having to make choices.
You need to be aware of conflict.
Conflict is the point.
Males as want to be… are boys really boys?
SF for years created women as men because their characterization sucked.
Let’s not do this the other way.
YA v non-YA
Did you approach the writing differently?
No. Writing process is the same.
Compare middle grade to YA.
Sex none, but hormones working in middle grade.
Don’t talk down to the readers.
Editor made me take out some things. For example, the grounds keeper wasn’t allowed to smoke on the school grounds, because the kids would see that as permission for them to smoke.
Have to be more mindful.
I wanted to inspire with science not fight about a pipe. So I took it out.
YA = one big genre, except at Barnes and Noble.
Where’s the teen erotica? In New Adult.