Writing romance books for young adults

Source: shaynelinden.blogspot.com

Writing romance in books for young adults can be tricky when you’re no longer a teenager.  There’s a fine line between creating a cheesy chick lit romance novel and writing a compelling and realistic teen romance. Just like characters in every book need to be individual and unique, so must the romantic relationship in any story.

A love story is based upon the interaction and attraction between characters.  Even in paranormal romance books, the readers want the relationships to seem real and human. Edward and Bella are a perfect example—despite Edward’s superhuman strength and proclivity for blood, their relationship seemed real, as they endured conflicts and uncovered mysteries about each other, as you would do in a real-life romance.

To get started on your romance story, it’s best to take the first necessary step in writing books for young adults, or any books for that matter: create a profile or biography for your protagonist. Beyond his or her physical description, you’ll want to empower them with talents, strengths and skills, while humanizing them with flaws and weaknesses. You’ll want to know their likes and dislikes, as well as their hopes, dreams and so on.

Next, you’ll want to create a profile for the love interest if your protagonist. Give their charismatic hero (or heroine) the same attention you give to the protagonist. Even if your goal is to write one of the best fantasy novels of all time, the attraction between the pair must feel genuine and should make some sense. While it is important to have something in common that may bring them closer together or make them able to relate to one another, it would be uninteresting for them to be too similar. For example, imagine a series of paranormal romance books that features two vampires with the same backgrounds, who come from similar families and have the same wants and desires.

As you may know from reading some of the best fantasy novels, even in the most fantastical world or circumstances, characters act the way they do because of who they are. To create tension in the story, the characters should contradict each other while at the same time fulfill a need in each other. A great example of this is the relationship between Eden and Bramford in Revealing Eden. Eden seems to hate Branford in the beginning— in fact, the feeling seems mutual. Yet there is a need they both have for each other, and despite their tendencies towards conflict, there’s an almost palpable romantic tension. That’s how it works when romance is done right!

Writing characters for young adult novels

Creating characters for young adult novels may not be the easiest thing to do, especially if your teenage years seem a lifetime ago—but they can definitely be the most gratifying to write. An author has to really know and understand their characters, even the antagonists, so that they can create real individuals who readers can relate to and identify with.

While a good plot is obviously very critical to the success of a book, it’s not going to carry the entire story. Sometimes authors will create complex, well-thought out settings and throw one-dimensional characters in to carry the plot forward. This is a big mistake, especially among books for young adults. Readers of this genre really care about the characters in the books they read and want to relate to their situations and see how they deal with their issues, circumstances and conflicts. Even if they’re immersed in a post apocalyptic setting or futuristic society, the reader wants to feel that they also deal with some of the same issues that they do in real life, whether it’s teen sex, drugs, peer pressure, or popularity.

When creating characters, whether for books for young adults or another audience, a good way to start is to write an in-depth bio for your important players. Interview them and ask what their beliefs are, create a back story for their childhood, learn about their parents, siblings, best friends, and pets. Find out what they like to do and what they dream of becoming when they grow up. Discover all of their strengths and weaknesses. You need to fully know who your characters are in order to make your readers understand them.

An important element to start with is the age of your protagonist. They should definitely be in the age range of your intended audience. Keep in mind that tweens, teens and young adults tend to read up but not down in age. Even if we’re talking about some of the best fantasy novels—the audience is not inclined to read about a character that’s younger than they are.

When you’re writing young adult novels, it’s important to maintain a young adult perspective—beware of the inclination to reflect on the past or your own experience. While it’s important to draw on your own coming-of-age, it’s not about looking back; it’s about using what you know and remember and making it current. 

Whether you’re aiming to write the best fantasy novels or the next dystopian bestseller, the reader needs to watch your character experience an arc throughout the course of the book—meaning they want to see them learn from their mistakes and grow as a result. This gives them inspiration in their own lives and makes them like the protagonist even more than when they started reading the book.

The worlds of dystopian novels

With the record-breaking box office success of The Hunger Games, everyone is talking about dystopian novels—reading, writing and publishing them. While there are essential guidelines to writing any type of fiction, such as developing strong characters and plot points, a fundamental aspect of dystopian literature is the creation of the world they take place in. These are settings like no other—new worlds stemming from the imagination or inspired by art, real life and other literature. New rules, classes and technologies can be created—and the possibilities are endless.

Writing the characters of dystopian novels and their settings go hand in hand—these are people who live in societies gone awry, whether through apocalyptic scenarios brought on by natural disaster, war or terrorism. The worlds created in the aftermath embody the ugliness of humanity, offering an idea of what society could become—in essence, forcing the reader to confront their greatest fears. The settings are often warnings of the future consequences we could face from the issues we face as a society.

It’s very interesting that the genre has proven so successful in books for young adults. Writers face the difficulties of creating these incredible (or not-so-incredible) worlds yet need to make their characters relatable to this wide audience that tends to be facing coming-of-age issues. Clearly, it’s a challenging feat, but authors are doing it very well at the moment. The same audience is very savvy, especially with all the technological advances of today, so it’s crucial that these dystopian worlds make sense and are well thought-out.

Dystopian literature expands readers’ awareness by addressing the potential of the most horrific and appalling aspects of society, from governments and class systems to our deteriorating environment and global warming, as well as our values and morals. To build these new or post-apocalyptic worlds, the author must create new rules of society, technology, religion, politics, and possibly even a new language.

Whether writing books for young adults or for a different audience, the author may need the talent to create science fiction elements such as artificial intelligence, futuristic settings and even hybrid species. Yet the science fiction elements of dystopian literature are only part of the story, not integral to the actual storytelling. The author may explore totalitarian governments, different classifications within society involving race and religion, as was done in Revealing Eden, and the creation of new hierarchies and ruling classes. These themes help expose the reader to issues greater than themselves and inspire them to think about their own development within society.

Writing Books for Young Adults Well

To write good books for young adults takes more than just good writing skills, there’s another level of the work that requires a more esoteric approach than outlining, writing and editing. Writing is a way of life, and to be successful, you need to take proactive steps to make your project come to life and attract attention in the marketplace.

For starters, you must read—all the time, especially young adult novels. You want to be more than just in touch with the market; you’ll need to be an expert. You should stay abreast of all the award winning books and bestsellers, and learn what’s hot at the library as well as the independent bookstores. If you want to write young adult fiction books, you’ll need to truly love them, because you’ll need to be so well-versed on the authors and the community as a whole. It’s important to actually study these books so that you can see what works and what doesn’t, and determine why so that you can follow suit or learn from others’ mistakes.

Getting involved with and supporting the YA literature community is also crucial to writing books for young adults successfully. It’s important to become an advocate of library fundraising so that you can help young adults have access and exposure to quality literature. By doing this, you will immerse yourself in the book world and become privy to its culture—and possibly make good contacts in the industry as well.

Whether you’re writing young adult fiction books from the romance genre or are taking a stab at dystopian literature, it’s essential to write about what you know or what you are passionate about. You want to tell a story in a unique way that expresses your particular passion for the subject. Some authors says that write until they cry or feel sick, or that getting the story out is a cleansing, cathartic experience. The story you tell has to be something that ignites you and gets you excited—something that you just have to tell.

Writing young adult novels requires that you are authentic and that you care deeply for the stories you tell. Your audience must relate, because YA readers can tell when you’re not coming from a genuine place. Even though you may be writing about a fantasy world, your characters need to be someone they can understand, facing issues that they may be facing or have faced in the past.