Introduction

With young adult book sales rising and bestselling authors exploding onto the scene with multibook contracts and movie deals, aspiring writers of young adult (YA) fiction are more numerous than ever. But the appeal of writing YA fiction is more than creating high-profile bestsellers. It’s writing for kids. It’s expanding their vocabulary and their imaginations. It’s forming reading habits for life. And it’s adding to the impressive body of young adult literature, with its rich narrative voices, satisfying story arcs, intriguing concepts, natural and revealing dialogue, and robust characterizations. Young adult fiction isn’t just for kids anymore; it has heft for grown-ups as well.

Your path to writing YA fiction likely began with your own passion as a young reader, so you know firsthand the joy kids find in books. Now you’re going to create that for others. You’ve chosen a fulfilling mission. The realm you’re entering — the children’s book world — is an amazing community of writers, editors, agents, librarians, teachers, supporters, and champions of young readers. And then there are the readers themselves. You’d be hard-pressed to find a more sensitive, loyal, and responsive audience.

Young adult literature is a moving target as it transforms with each new generation of readers, but some things don’t change: Young readers always want a great read. They want books in which they can see themselves and learn about the world and their place in it, all in ways that enlighten and entertain them. Your job is to meet those expectations. That’s not as simple as it sounds, because you face challenges that writers for adult fiction don’t: You need to talk to teens, to talk like teens, and, sometimes, to talk as if you were a teen yourself. That takes special craft skills and an understanding of your unique audience — the way they think, their interests, their fears, and their dreams.

This book helps you understand that audience so you can work your craft accordingly. I also explain how to operate in the very particular young adult fiction marketplace, because when all is said and done, you’re entering a business with risks, rewards, and rejection. I explain how to think like a kid but strategize your novel and your career like an adult. Welcome behind the scenes of young adult fiction!

About This Book

My goal in writing this book is to provide you with the tools you need to become a published author of young adult fiction. To that end, I serve up a full plate of writing techniques, along with insights and tips to apply in all phases of crafting your young adult novel. I want to help you get and stay inspired, understand the ins and out of the YA publishing world, avoid common mistakes in trying to reach young readers, submit your manuscript to editors and agents with confidence, and move boldly into the realm of self-promotion. Above all, I hope to guide you in developing a voice and style that appeals to young readers and that is wholly, comfortably yours.

Writing is an abstract endeavor, and the way to make it tangible is to offer examples. So I’ve filled this book with examples. Tons of them. Exercises, too, so you can apply the skills at hand directly to your project. Working through the exercises chapter by chapter can take your fiction from idea to final manuscript. Along the way, I cover the fine points of writing craft in a comprehensive and how-to manner to help you meet readers’ needs . . . and your own. Where step-by-steps are appropriate, I’ve stepped. Where checklists provide focus, I’ve checked. Where do’s-and-don’ts drive things home, I’ve done. But know that there’s no such thing as a recipe for the Great American YA Novel. Too much depends on how each writer blends the ingredients together. But there are ingredients, and I give those to you here. The bewitching brew you concoct with them is up to you.

Don’t feel you have to read this book from cover to cover. You can skip around if that suits you, picking out topics as your needs dictate at any given time. This book is modular, meaning that even if you start in Chapter 12, the information still makes sense. However, if you prefer to work your way from idea to final bound book, I’ve organized the information so you can start at Chapter 1 and read straight through to the end.

Conventions Used in This Book

I use the following conventions in this book:

Technical writing and publishing terms appear in italics and are followed by easy-to-understand definitions.

Web addresses appear in monotype.

I vary pronoun gender throughout the book, although you may find more she’s than he’s. The ranks of children’s book publishing are abundant with women, as is the readership, so if I do lean, I’m sure it’s toward the feminine.

I use the term young adult fiction as the world at large does — as a comprehensive label for two distinct publishing categories: middle grade fiction (or simply MG) for ages 9 through 14 and young adult fiction (YA, also called teen fiction) for ages 12 through 17. Within the children’s book industry, people frequently distinguish between MGs and YAs. When making the distinction in this book is necessary, I do so. But know that all the craft, submission, and marketing information work for both MG and YA fiction because the storytelling techniques are essentially the same and the same publishing players handle both categories.

I use sidebars throughout the book to share my teaching podium with award-winning and bestselling young adult novelists. The material in these gray boxes, written by the guest authors, provides insight into how successful authors wield the skills you build in this book. At the end of each sidebar, I list some of the author’s books. The best way to find out how to write for young adults is to read exemplary YA novels — start with these.

What You’re Not to Read

You can skip parts of this book altogether if you want to. Information that accompanies a Technical Stuff icon offers extra insight into the process and business of YA fiction, but it’s not crucial reading. The same goes for the gray-shaded sidebar boxes that pepper the chapters. That extra material is meant to fill out your knowledge of the industry and offer you examples of how pros do what I’m explaining how to do, but you won’t sabotage your career by skipping the sidebars.

Foolish Assumptions

Just as you make assumptions about your young readers, I’m making some assumptions about you:

You want to be published. This is your first stab at writing fiction, and you need to know where to start. Or you’re a published writer in another category, and you want to try your hand at YA. Or perhaps you’ve been submitting your YA manuscripts but haven’t yet landed a deal, and you want to change that. Regardless of your experience level, your goal is to see your name on the cover of a printed-and-bound YA novel.

You’ve got a story to tell. Ever notice how many people say they have a book in them? You’re one of them — only you’re ready to act, and you have an idea already in the chamber. All you need now is the know-how to develop it.

You want to be a better writer. Whether you’re a newbie needing the basics or a veteran writer aiming to brush up, you want techniques and tips that you can put to work immediately with tangible results — and you want those techniques broken down in a way that lets you apply them with your own personal flair.

You want to enlighten and entertain young people between the ages of 9 and 17. Young adults are still figuring out who they are and how this world works, and their novels play a part in their explorations. You want to contribute to their journey into adulthood — or at least make them smile as they forge onward.

If you see yourself anywhere in this list, then you’ll find the information in this book edifying and productive.

How This Book Is Organized

I’ve arranged this book in a logical sequence, leading off with an overview of young adult fiction’s unique marketplace and readership before jumping into the happy task of ushering you from your initial story idea through the development, submission, and promotion of your published novel. I provide exercises at every step so you can build your novel as you move through the book.

Part I: Getting Ready to Write Young Adult Fiction

Writers don’t just sit down at a computer and spit out the Great American YA Novel. They must plan, brainstorm, and analyze first. During your prewriting phase, you pinpoint your exact audience in the wide young adult age range, find an angle that makes your story stand out from the masses, prep your writing space so you can work efficiently and distraction-free, and discover what makes young adult literature so different from every other literary category out there — and why it’s so darn great.

Part II: Writing Riveting Young Adult Fiction

This part of the book helps you turn your ideas into a solid first draft by taking you step-by-step through the novel-development process. You shape your plot, sculpt believable characters, develop a convincingly youthful narrative voice and natural dialogue, and manipulate the setting to enhance all those elements. Along the way, you find techniques for connecting with an audience whose sophistication and maturity is in flux.

Part III: Editing, Revising, and Formatting Your Manuscript

Revising is writer’s jargon for the act of rewriting parts of your story — adding things to it, rearranging parts of it, and removing things altogether — all with the intent of transforming your solid-but-not-yet-perfected first draft into a seamless, flowing final draft. This part tells you how to effectively tackle the items on your revision list and experiment with fixes in a constructive, confident, and safe way. Find out how to assess what you’ve done, identify what needs fixing, make a plan for fixing it, and then successfully execute that plan. I break the process down into methods and the most common boo-boos in grammar, execution, and overall storytelling. After that, you get to polish the manuscript and make it pretty.

Part IV: Getting Published

This part is all about sharing your final manuscript with the world. I tell you how to find the right agent and/or editor for you, how to craft a professional and enticing submission package, and how to promote your novel after it’s published. I also demystify self-publishing so you can decide whether it suits your needs and situation better than traditional publishing.

Part V: The Part of Tens

Everyone loves lists, and the For Dummies people are no exception. In keeping with their tradition, I include a Part of Tens with lists that warn you about the most common pitfalls in writing young adult fiction, answer the most common publishing contract questions, and prep you for writers’ conferences so you can get as much out of the experience as possible.

Icons Used in This Book

These five icons are sprinkled throughout this book to highlight information that deserves special attention.

This icon flags great strategies for employing the technique at hand or enhancing a particular aspect of your writing or story. Tips may save you time or help you come at something from an angle you hadn’t considered. Try them out.

This icon means you’re getting a heads-up about something you should keep in mind as you read onward.

Red alert! Every activity has its trouble spots, and writing and publishing for young adults is no different. Spare yourself confusion, dead ends, and wasted effort by heeding these words of warning.

This is extra in-depth stuff that you don’t have to read in order to write and publish successfully . . . but it’s cool to know if you feel inclined to linger.

Look for this icon when the writing bug bites or when writer’s block descends. The text next to this icon gives you some direction for putting my tips and tricks into practice.

Where to Go from Here

I’ve done my best to organize this book so you can give it a thorough read if you’re new to YA fiction and to writing in general. Or you can dip in and skim if you’re just trying to brush up. The choice is up to you now.

If you’re new to YA fiction, spend some time with the prewriting chapters in Part I to get to know your special audience and the categories and genres that define YA lit. If you’ve been in the YA realm awhile, you can dip into the craft chapters as needed to buck up skills that need bucking and to remind yourself of what you already knew but lost sight of — a common happening for writers, who must balance so much.

I’ll send you into the book proper by telling you the same thing I tell all the writers I edit — bestsellers and newbies alike — and all the writing students I’ve ever taught: Be open and be willing to experiment. Writing is not about applying formulas, no matter how many checklists and step-by-steps I give you. The magic happens when you let your hair down and go beyond the formulas. Try new things. Do what you never thought you’d do. Let the “rules” and formulas anchor you, yes, but then get funky from there. This is YA fiction, after all, and Rule No. 1 for teens is that rules are made to be broken.