Writing tips for young adult novels.
There’s nothing more exciting than opening up a brand new document, typing ‘Chapter One’ across the top of the page, and starting fresh with a new story. New characters to meet, a new plot to hammer out–it’s challenging, and at times overwhelming, but it’s a lot of fun, too. I love getting to know … [Read more…]
With almost a dozen published novels and novellas under my belt, I thought I’d figured it all out by now so far as writing a series–you know, how to write a sequel. In my adult romances, a “sequel” usually featured a secondary character from a previous novel, promoted to the role of protagonist. Occasionally, a … [Read more…]
Since I spent the summer teaching writing workshops for both adult and teen writers, I’ve been thinking more about the basics than I usually do. I’ve been thinking about plotting and structuring a young adult novel. So I thought I’d talk today about the most basic of the basics–the structure of a novel, and specifically, … [Read more…]
I thought I’d talk a little about point of view in young adult fiction—a little more of craft-based a topic than I usually touch on, but I think it’s an important one. Basically, there are three types of point of view to choose from when crafting your young adult or teen novel: Third person omniscient … [Read more…]
Age of Young Adult Protagonists, Age in YA Fiction How old should a young adult protagonist be? Up until very recently, I worked part-time at an independent bookstore specializing in kids/young adult (YA) fiction. Occasionally, we’d get a new title in, and find ourselves stumped after reading the back cover or flap copy—was the book supposed … [Read more…]