Stop Acting Like YA Writers Aren’t Real Authors

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Ahead of the launch of Out of the Ashes, my first book for adults, the question I keep getting asked, more than any other, is: What difficulties did you encounter writing this novel, as a YA writer?

Before my adult debut, I published seven mystery novels for teenagers. It seems natural that readers would be curious about the difference between writing for adults and writing for teenagers. But in certain cases, the phrasing of that particular question has an undeniable subtext. What some people really seem to be asking, is, was it hard, writing your first real book?

The bias against young adult literature has been discussed at length in the book community and within publishing circles. Adult readers who gravitate toward young adult fiction, in particular, have been the subject of Twitter arguments and clickbait headlines, making it necessary for young adult authors to have a response in their back pocket to preempt criticism of the YA category itself. Yes, I write for teenagers. No, that doesn’t mean my books are dumbed down, or less sophisticated than those written for adults.

All of the above might be why I’ve found myself approaching the question about the difference between writing young adult fiction and adult fiction a bit defensively. Truthfully, though, my experience has been this: It is far more challenging to write a compelling and believable mystery novel featuring teenaged characters than adult characters.

Maybe it’s the obvious, logistical issues that crop up while writing about teenagers—they have school, they have curfews. Most of them don’t drive, nor do they have unfettered access to a car. Many have extracurriculars, and homework, and part-time jobs. In other words, it’s a hard sell that a high school junior has the bandwidth to be solving murders on the weekends.

As with any work of fiction, thrillers centered on teenaged characters involve some suspension of belief on the reader’s part. There are workarounds to give younger characters more independence—novels set over the summer, disengaged parents, a driver’s license. While drafting Out of the Ashes, however, I enjoyed the freedom of being able to write a fully autonomous character for the first time.

That’s not to say that there aren’t topical differences in books for teens and books for adults. While many teen mysteries push boundaries and discomfit older readers, who data shows are the ones buying the bulk of YA novels, the reality is that gatekeepers exist. My YA novels have tackled issues such as abortion, incest, and statutory rape—I knew when I was writing the books that I was limiting how many school libraries or statewide reading lists I would be eligible for, and there were certain lines I could not cross on the page (namely: no graphic sex scenes). While writing Out of the Ashes, I didn’t have to be as mindful of “content.” (And yes, there is a somewhat graphic sex scene in the book.)

Thematically, there is a lot of overlap between young adult and adult mysteries. Missing persons, murder, betrayal. The fundamental difference for me, however, was the perspective of the main character. I could not approach writing a thirty-three-year-old ICU nurse the same way I approached writing a high school cheerleader—Sam’s character was shaped not only by her past trauma, but the decades that transpired between the murder of her family and the beginning of the book. While digging into her character, I had to fill in those blanks—what happened in her adult life that made her the person she is? Teenaged characters are so enjoyable to write because they are blank slates in a way—they are discovering who they are, and how they want to define themselves. With Samantha, I was able to explore new thematic territory: What does life look like for a character whose entire adult life has been defined for them, by way of their past trauma?

As for the answer, I hope you’ll read the book and find out.

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