Overused in YA Literature

By Julie Daines

YA Author Joelle Anthony read hundreds of young adult and middle grade novels to create a list of the fifteen most overused things in YA fiction. 

She says she wanted to encourage YA writers to “stretch beyond the first things that they think of when writing.  The idea behind the list was to point out areas where authors seem to think they are being unique, but actually aren’t.”

Here is her list:  A Countdown of 15 of the Most Overused Things in YA Fiction

15.  Stories of irresponsible parents with main characters who end up paying bills, cooking, cleaning, etc.

14.  Characters who like retro music – generally of the era that the author was in high school.

13.  Really hot, young-looking moms – often portrayed as main character’s best friends.

12.  Female characters who are obsessed with Jane Austen in general, and Elizabeth Bennet in particular.

11.  Lab partners where one person does all the work – often the geek who ends up being the love interest.

10.  A main character with only one friend.  The plot almost always includes the compulsory argument scene, leaving her to eat lunch alone for weeks – usually in the library.

9.  A poor girl who is a scholarship student in a fancy private school.

8.  Books told in first person and the description of the main character is given by having her examine herself in the mirror.

7.  Tomboys who can’t sew or cook and hate dresses (most common in historical and middle-grade novels).

6.  Gorgeous, popular younger sisters (this role used to be reserved for older sisters).

5.  Authors who work vocabulary words into the dialogue and then pass them off as knowledge the characters have because the words are on the SAT list.

4.  Main characters who are the only ones in the world without a cell phone.

3.  Clumsy characters who can’t dance or play sports to save their lives.

2.  Guys with gorgeous/stunning/flashing/jewel-like/piercing green eyes.  Green is the new blue.

1.  Main characters who hate math.

From SCBWI Bulletin, Nov/Dec 2010

Who Are You Writing For?

This is a topic I've thought about a lot recently. This blog is aimed at authors who are trying to write their stories towards anyone under the age of 18 (unless I'm missing the point and getting kicked out of here.)

I am trying to be a YA author. Now, I'm one of the youngest (if not the youngest) contributor to this blog. (I am not quite 29, for those wondering.) But I'm not writing to me. I'm writing something that I would've wanted to read when I was 15ish. But with that, I have to look at what is going on with a 15-year-old in his/her life. Not what I perceive, however. What is really there.

There are a lot of things that parents may want to ignore with what their teenagers deal with. Sometimes, adults need reality checks on how their teens are. Yeah, I'm not the parent of teenagers, but I really have seen some parents discuss their teenaged children in such a way that I was like "Do you not recall what the teenage years were like?" Out of these parents' mouths was a response like "Oh yeah, I thought life was tough, little did I know." Unfortunately, if you're writing towards teens (because that is the Y.A. audience, even though adults try to be all caught up on Y.A. reading) then you need to let your characters and story go to them.

Also, the thing that I think is interesting is the language factor in Y.A. Honestly, I never really swore as a teenager. If I did, it was on accident. (Yeah, I'm a bitter adult I guess because I've used more swearing in the last 5 years than I did during my first 24.) I don't know about you, but I went to high school in Southern California. The only days that I didn't hear at least 30 swear words were the days I didn't go to school. I'm not saying we need to put the f-word in everything we write. Nor would I dare do it. But I think people need to remember how 'adult' the 'young adults' actually act sometimes.

Just something to remember as you sit down and write that Y.A. novel. And remember:

Alien abductions are involuntary, but probings are scheduled.

Where Are the Parents?

By: Julie Daines

What has happened to parents in children’s literature, specifically the YA genre? As Scott Rhoades pointed out in our last writer’s group meeting, the main character in a YA novel has to solve his or her own problem, it can’t be solved by an outsider—like an adult. So, the difficulty starts with the fact that parents need to be moved out of the way. But have they been moved too far?

In the good old days, the parents were just gone; absent or dead, so the heroic orphan can begin their triumphal rise. The parents are magically missing or looked back on with fond regret.

In today’s YA novels, more often than not, the parents are reduced to blathering idiots. They are portrayed as too depressed to function, too busy to care or notice the dire situations of their children, drug or alcohol addicts, or inept beyond ridiculous.

But wait, you say. Some parents really do have depression and drug problems. And you’re right, many do. But wouldn’t that make them more able to notice the same problems in their children rather than less? Does it make them so comatose they couldn’t recognize their teenage daughter is pregnant?

In a study that compared women in teen fiction to real-life women, based on information from the Census Bureau and the Department of Labor, they found that 3% of the depictions were realistic.

In fact, I don’t allow my kids to watch most of the teen television shows simply because of the disrespect given to, and the stupidity portrayed by the adults.

Despite the problems with society and the decline of the family, there are still many wonderful parents and adults willing to love and care about teens.

If edgy YA novels are meant to help teens deal with tough situations, then wouldn’t it be wise to teach them there are adults they can turn to for help? A parent? A teacher? A neighbor? Instead, so many books teach them to turn to each other, or to vampires, or werewolves, or fairies, or sex, or drugs, or suicide, or …

Can there be a middle ground? If only 3% of the moms are depicted accurately, where are all the troubled teens coming from? Obviously, a teen can have good parents (or parent) and still have real issues. Isn’t there a way to write poignant novels about teens dealing with tough situations, but who eventually find help through a realistic-type parent or adult?

*Disclaimer: Before you say, well, you don’t know what it’s like to have a parent on drugs or to have been abused, or neglected…  I’ve had experiences too.

Too Close to the Edge?

By Julie Daines

There has been a lot of talk lately about “edgy” young-adult literature.  Read the blurbs about what many agents are looking for and it will include the word “edgy.”  Manuscripts are rejected because they aren’t “edgy” enough.

Edgy is generally defined as books that push the boundaries of what is socially acceptable.  One definition said that there are no forbidden subjects in edgy young-adult fiction, but they are “written with sensitivity and care, not gratuitously.”

Critics opposed to edgy YA argue that the novels encourage destructive or immoral behavior.  Those in favor claim that fictional portrayal of teens successfully addressing difficult situations and confronting social issues helps readers deal with real-life challenges.

I looked up an agent’s list of edgy books, and one that caught my eye was about a teenage girl who falls in love with a boy from her apartment building.  The girl’s feelings for the boy become confused when she discovers that he is actually a girl who has had a sex change.

Is that edgy?  Is it gratuitous?  Or does it help teens confront real-life challenges?  How many teens will really have to face that kind of situation?

Another recent book is written entirely in text message lingo and deals with a group of teenage girls who discuss boys, gossip, sex, clothes and getting drunk.  A book geared for grades 8-10.

One reader left her comment regarding this book on Amazon:  “This book offends me and makes me ashamed to be a teenage girl…is this what people think we’re like?  AHHH.  No.”

Are we underestimating our youth when we push edgy too far?  Are we selling the rising generation short when we appeal to the lowest common denominator?

Many books that were once considered too edgy are now taught in our schools.  Lord of the Flies, The Outsiders, and Speak.  What’s the difference?  What makes these books worthy of study?

What is the boundary between “edgy” and “trashy”?  Where is the line for taboo subject matter?  Do we compromise ourselves as authors when we cross those lines simply for the chance to make money or get our work published?

All teens deal with challenges, heartache, and a huge range of deep, serious, emotional issues.  It seems to me that books that actually do help them cope with these “real-life challenges” are uplifting, not gratuitous, and carry a message of safety and hope.  They stretch the teenage mind into a positive, new way of thinking that inspires them to want to be better, lifts them up rather than pulling them down, and does not simply shock and tantalize the senses.

What do you think?