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.

End of the World Books

As the Mayan calendar comes to an end this December, and rumors of an impending global catastrophe abound, end of the world books have surged in popularity. Yet many are unaware that this extreme genre of fiction has been around for centuries, producing many bestsellers that also went on to become cult classics and were eventually made into movies.

While the genre is currently experiencing unprecedented success among young adult novels, from The Hunger Games trilogy to Victoria Foyt’s Revealing Eden (Save the Pearls Part One), one of the first dystopian novels written in English dates back to 1826, Mary Shelley’s The Last Man, which tells the story of a future world emptied of humanity by the plague. In 1885, Richard Jeffries wrote about a few survivors living an almost medieval existence in England, after a catastrophe depopulated the country in the aptly named After London.

In 1898, H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds became one of the most famous end of the world books of all time, re-written and adapted many times into television programs, radio shows and even video games, complete with modern twists and settings. The story tells of an earth invaded by aliens from Mars who systematically destroy Victorian England with advanced weaponry. Orson Welles’ famous rendition performed for the radio drama anthology series Mercury Theatre on the Air was so realistic that it caused a widespread panic and hysteria when listeners actually believed that an extraterrestrial invasion was occurring. The show skyrocketed Welles to instant notoriety, while also drawing attention to the original novel and garnering new sales and readers.

Dystopian novels saw another boom in popularity after World War II, when the possibility of nuclear warfare and global annihilation become a real one. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasako proved that countries had tools of mass destruction, prompting authors to explore this topic in many end of the world books.

While the last few years have definitely demonstrated a newfound interest in the genre, the last decade has also seen a notable surge. From Oprah’s book pick, The Road, which won a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction to Jeanna DuPrau’s popular City of Ember series of books for young adults, the obsession with the end of civilization and existential catastrophes has grown significantly and shows no sign of slowing down.

Yet while sales continue to boom in this genre, and the numbers of readers multiply exponentially, the most well-read example of all time will surprise most—while you may guess it would be an installment from a popular science fiction and fantasy series, you couldn’t be further from the truth. Noah’s Ark was one of the first documented tales of a post apocalyptic scenario. Narratives of this vessel appear in the Book of Genesis and the Quran, and are studied in Christianity, Judaism and Islam, as well as other Abrahamic Judaism and non-Abrahamic faiths. The story is the perfect example of the genre, depicting a patriarch’s effort to save himself, his family and the world's animals from a worldwide deluge through the construction of a giant ark. It is possibly one of the first dystopian novels written—and definitely the first document.

The best fantasy novels always have a little romance

While good writing is always an imperative element of the best fantasy novels and movies of all time, another component that also plays a consistent role is romance. A genre in and of itself, romance is what tends to drive protagonists to their goal or acts as a subplot to make our characters more human and relatable. After all, doesn’t everyone want to find the love of their life and live happily ever after, even readers of dystopian novels?

Whether we’re talking about end of the world books or family movies, romance is a recurring theme. Princes are always traveling to the ends of earth to save their Cinderellas and Snow Whites from demise and destitution. Since this week is the 70th anniversary of the classic film, Casablanca, we thought we’d look at this iconic black and white film as an ideal example to appreciate these recurring elements.

In what was one of the most quoted films of the 20th century, a nightclub owner hosts a slew of international guests in Casablanca, a way station for those trying to leave war-torn Europe— and what would have been the perfect setting for today’s uber popular dystopian literature. Characters Ilsa and Rick are reunited by chance after falling in love with each other in Paris; yet the story is not a happily ever after on. Their love is not meant to be, forbidden by the existence of Ilsa’s husband, who they did not know was alive when they were together in Paris. This is a classic portrayal of the first integral component of a romance novel: forbidden love.
The second recurring element is also prevalent in dystopian literature: the setting where the lovers live is one filled with crises. Larger global forces can therefore test the will and conviction of our characters and block them from their pursuit of love. In Casablanca, not only is it the existence of Ilsa’s husband, Laszlo, but the impending doom of the nearby battles and obstacles standing in the way of their escape.

Often times, end of the world books and movies force the main characters to make a choice between their love and a higher cause. In the case of Casablanca, Rick has the Letters of Transit that Ilsa needs them to give her husband freedom so that he can continue his work for the Resistance, which is the aforementioned higher cause.

This paves the way for the final romantic component that is present in all the best fantasy novels and films of all time—the sacrifice of the love in exchange for the pursuit of the higher cause. Despite the passionate revealing of the love between himself and Ilsa, Rick chooses the higher road, giving them the Letters of Transit they need to escape. Even more importantly, at first, Rick leads Ilsa to believe she can stay behind with him when Laszlo leaves. Even when Laszlo reveals he is aware of Rick's love for Ilsa and tries to persuade him to use the letters to take her to safety, and is then almost arrested on a trumped-up charge, Rick convinces his police friend to release Laszlo and arrest him up for a much more serious crime: possession of the letters of transit. When Renault attempts to arrest Laszlo as planned, Rick forces him at gunpoint to let them escape. Rick thus makes Ilsa board the plane to with her husband, staying behind to help further the higher cause—romance at its best!

Defining dystopian literature

Dystopian literature is currently a booming trend—for awhile, it was wizardry and vampires, paranormal fiction, and fantasy coupled with romance. With this growing demand, especially among young adult fiction books, many writers are gearing up to write the next best seller. Yet it’s important to fully understand what this genre is all about.

While some immediately define dystopian literature as the opposite of utopia, that is not exactly true. A utopian society is defined as one that is considered to be perfect, harmonious and ideal. A dystopian society or world often contains many of the same elements as utopias—for example, they may both shares the same measures of extreme social and political control. Yet in a dystopian society, these elements are taken to horrific extremes, causing incredibly negative, widespread effects.

Dystopian novels are considered a subset of anti-Utopian literature, which typically satirizes the idealistic utopian models of society. What sets dystopian literature apart is that it doesn’t necessarily criticize the utopian world; rather, it offers an alternate view of what can happen as a result of this societal model.

Some of the best fantasy novels are inspired by some of the worst situations in real life. Whether they have a happy or sad ending, most dystopian novels imply a type of warning as to what would happen if certain trends continue. A great example is the world provided as a setting in Victoria Foyt’s Revealing Eden (Save the Pearls Part One). Due to the deteriorating environment caused by global warming, a Great Meltdown occurs, changing everything from the amount of resources available and methods of survival to class, race and perception of beauty.

What’s incredibly interesting about these types of young adult fiction books is that they are fundamentally concerned with problems on a much larger level than issues that concern most teens and adolescents. The stories tends to be based on the political and cultural context that produces them, with the results standing as a sort of social commentary, cloaked in an entertaining format. By providing a young adult protagonist who is simultaneously dealing with the issues of growing up, they are able to make the character relatable to the teen market.

George Orwell’s 1984, one of the most famous works in dystopian literature, was written shortly after World War II. Clearly, the book is a form of commentary on totalitarian states such as Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union under Stalin’s control—Orwell created elements of an extremely oppressive government intent on control individuals in every way possible, including their thoughts. The book, which many considered to be one of the best fantasy novels of all time, opened the eyes of many readers and set the tone for a new take on the genre.