Creating Fiction That Works For Young Adults
First, I really would like to thank Roxanne for having me here at Fangtastic Books. I’m excited about actually being a part of this wonderful blog. Vampires and paranormal books have been my reading of choice for as long as I can remember.
When I started writing “The 13th Witch”, I really didn’t think I was going to write a young adult story. It didn’t start that way at all. The characters were all in their 20’s and the story seemed to be great for a college aged reader. But then someone said, hey this would work so much better as a young adult story.
The Characters
I had to look at my characters to understand how they would act if they were in a younger age bracket. What was important to them and how would they get it? I also took into consideration who was going to read the stories, so they could relate to the characters.
Sex and Language
I went round and round on this thought. There was no way I wanted to let readers think it was OK to have sex before they were an adult, but at the same time, it can’t be ignored that a lot of teens are having sex. I finally decided to make Lucy, the main character in “The 13th Witch”, 18 so it was not such an issue. I do include very mild sex in this series, but readers don’t get to sit in the bedroom with them. I think it works better that way for young adults.
Language was something else I debated with. This is another thing that most teens really do and some of the curse words in the story are important to understanding the characters. Most of my adult stories do have heavy language so tuning it down was a sacrifice I made to make the story work for a younger audience.
Over all, it’s going to be up to the author on what kind of story they want to write. Young adults are a wonderful age range to write for and they are full of imagination that helps those readers really see the world the author is creating. I’m glad that I took the plunge and created this series and encourage anyone that has thought of writing for the young adult market to give it a whirl.
Blurb for The 13th Witch
Lucy was normal once. She had a life with all the normal things that teens want, but then something changed.
When she had her 18th birthday, she found out who she really was, a witch. Now she must face a past she didn’t know she had and try to understand who she really is all at the same time.
Can Lucy save the world while falling in love or is she truly as evil as they say she is?
Look for the next story in the series, “Dark Moon Rising” in September 2010.
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