Writing and Selling the YA Novel

by K L Going

  But for every rule there are exceptions, and being aware of how other authors have organized their plots does not mean you have to make the same choices. Instead, assume that common formats are used precisely because they work well for that style of book, but balance this against how you want to tell the story and what you know your strengths and weaknesses to be. Maybe you can never get flashbacks

  right or crawling into the head of a villain always ends up sounding false when you attempt it. Deciding how to organize your plot should come from the story itself and shouldn't be forced.

  Ask yourself the following questions to help you decide what form your plot should take:

  • Who is telling the story and what are her motives?

  • What kind of mood would you like to create?

  • How fast should the pace of the book be?

  • Is any aspect of the story dependent on a need for secrecy?

  • How important is your antagonist?

  • How much time passes from beginning to end?

  • Do you need to accommodate multiple points of view?

  As you answer these questions, you can begin to determine what format is right for your story. Linear forms lend themselves to fast pacing. Flashbacks slow down the action, allowing the reader to take a breather. They can easily be used to create a nostalgic or sentimental tone. Alternating chapters can allow you to look at the same event multiple times. A combination of these techniques might allow you to accommodate many points of view and piece out information slowly to your reader. Just beware of using forms simply for the sake of the form. The simplest way of telling the story is almost always the best. Remember that any writing technique risks calling attention to itself, pulling your reader out of the story, so keep believability in mind.

  ORGANIZING YOUR PLOTS AND SUBPLOTS

  Once you've made some basic decisions about the form your plot will take, it's time to start planning things out—what will happen when.

  Writers approach this task in many different ways. Some writers use outlines. This allows them to think out each plot element ahead of time and saves a lot of confusion and rewriting along the way.

  Other writers use various systems of note taking, or more loosely based methods of gathering ideas. If you write your notes on index cards, for example, those cards can be shuffled again and again to try out different time lines. If you're still unsure about what form you want your plot to take, this can be an excellent way to experiment without actually writing the text. This approach is similar to the storyboards that moviemakers use.

  Some authors know only the basics of their story when they set out and have to discover the plot of their book along the way. I've always been this type of writer. I usually have one or two key scenes in mind, but other than that I let the characters direct the story. This can be a tricky approach because you can easily write yourself into a corner or stray too far from the path of your plot. But when it works, it allows for the most freedom and surprises.

  No matter which approach you choose (or perhaps you'll come up with one of your own) the important thing to remember when creating your plot is to make sure there is something that ties everything together from beginning to end. I like to imagine a straight line running through my books. That line is my theme, or my central dilemma, and no matter what happens around it, the line must be present.

  But what about subplots? How do they fit in? What if there's more than one theme? Plots and subplots are similar to main characters and secondary characters. There's almost always one main character, and although you can develop several major secondary characters, if you try to develop too many the book becomes crowded and the reader starts wondering, "Whose story is this anyway?"

  Just as the secondary characters exist to help tell the main character's tale, subplots work to strengthen and enhance the main plot. A love story subplot can release tension through humor or sentiment, or it can create tension if the love interest ends up in danger. Either way it can enhance the experience of the characters in the book. A parent's developmental subplot in a teen drama might round out the depiction of the character's world, or it could juxtapose the decisions the main character makes with the decisions of his parent. Subplots are wonderful ways to enrich your novel so long as they exist to further the main story line.

  A metaphor I find helpful when balancing plots and subplots is the image of weaving a tapestry. When I start a novel, I imagine each plot and subplot as a strand of colored thread. I have all those strands in my hands as I begin, and I must have all of them in my hands as I end. The colors will overlap and intertwine, but there's one dominant shape or picture they're all working to create. The important thing is not to let any threads go and to make sure each stays in its rightful place.

  What kind of tapestry are you creating? Whether you know exactly what it will look like beforehand or you want to be surprised, you've got to have a recognizable pattern by the end. Weave your threads carefully so your end result will be an artistic creation and not a mess of threads.

  PACING AND SUBSTANCE FOR YOUNG ADULTS

  No discussion of plots in a book about writing for young adults would be complete without addressing the questions of pacing and substance for teenagers. The authors of books for teens must ask themselves not only how to create, organize, and balance their plots and subplots, but also how teen readers will respond to the events unfolding in the story.

  You might wonder why I didn't begin the chapter with this section. Why not set our boundaries right from the start so we don't waste time? If there are content or forms that are off-limits, shouldn't we know that before we begin? These are good questions, but they also have a good answer.

  Writing for teens is not about limits, it's about possibilities.

  Deciding to be a YA author is not about confining yourself within the limitations of established rules-, it's about writing with the maximum integrity for an audience that is intelligent, complex, and primed to explore.

  We'll talk more about hot-button issues like language, sex, and violence at the end of this book, but for the purposes of creating the plot of your novel, know that YA literature is full of diverse examples of almost every form imaginable. YA plots range from fast-paced, first-person narratives to meandering trips back and forth in time, and they cover everything in between.

  That said, you should be aware that most YA books are shorter than their adult counterparts, so unless your book is an exception to the rule, your pacing will need to vary accordingly. In teen literature every word must count, and there isn't always room for long passages of description or exposition. Instead of stretching a plot for 400 pages, you will most likely be fitting it into about 250 pages.

  The same is true for content issues. Although almost any subject can be written about for teenagers these days, you still want to write a book that is appealing and relevant to your audience. Remember that the one defining characteristic of YA literature is its audience, so you want each facet of your plot—from beginning to middle to end—to reflect, entertain, or challenge today's teens. Ultimately, it's what you believe teens are capable of reading and enjoying that will define your choices about what will happen in your novel.

  How many of you took Social Studies in school? Remember the way the world map was usually on a roller and the teacher would pull it down like a window shade? Remember those thick, battered textbooks, packed with information we took for granted was true? Now we might look back on those same textbooks and cringe at their interpretation of events. Christopher Columbus, who once "discovered" America, now "colonized" it. The "radical" idea of desegregation is now something we can't believe was any other way. Our understanding of the world has changed over time just as the world around us has evolved into what it is today.

  For writers, understanding our characters' world and their place in it is part and parcel of understanding the real world we live in. As our characters are influenced by and interact with the settings we create for them, we have
a chance to explore different places around the globe, different time periods, and different cultures. When writing for teens, we may be introducing our readers to these places for the first time, so it's important our settings be as true as we can make them. The exceptions, of course, will be genres like fantasy, science fiction, or horror, where settings can be highly stylized rather than realistic. But even in these cases, you'll want to choose the very best descriptions so your setting seems real and has the most impact possible.

  When done well, settings can shape our stories and create a tone that helps an author achieve his or her goals. The easiest way to understand this is to imagine a photograph of a person. Without the background, that person could be anyone, anywhere, but with it, the details of the moment become much clearer. Seeing a person within a setting helps us understand him. It creates an image of who he is and what he's doing.

  The same is true in novels. Stories tell us who people are and what they're doing. By filling in the backdrop to the action, your reader's understanding of events is expanded and enhanced. Readers must see your characters and the choices they're making in a context, and that context can change the way they will judge them or relate to them.

  To illustrate this point, imagine a teenage boy walking down a road. Although he is tall and muscular, he looks nervous, glancing over his shoulder and jumping at every sound. Without a setting in place, that teen might be scared or guilty. He might be brave or he might be a coward. The scene might be serious or humorous.

  Now add in certain details that allow us to see the picture clearer. It's nighttime and the boy has a book under his arm. A book of ghost stories. The road is a worn path through the woods. Owls hoot and tree limbs make dark shadows on the path. The teen is wearing an Eagle Scout uniform and walking toward a campfire far in the distance.

  Several younger Boy Scouts are snickering as they walk behind him. They don't seem at all afraid, while he jumps at every sound.

  Do you see how the story gradually emerges?

  Now imagine a different setting for the same boy. This time he's walking down a city street. Burned-out buildings rise up around him as he hurries along. It's just getting dark and there are people in the background—gangs of teenagers huddled together, emphasizing the boy's isolation. A car alarm sounds in the distance and police sirens are heard. The stink of garbage rises up from a gutter. The boy's eyes flicker to two people making a drug deal, and then he turns his gaze straight ahead, focusing on the one apartment building in the distance that he calls home.

  This scene could play out in any number of ways—always substi-tuting the generic "road" for something more specific—but whichever choices you make, the setting is helping the reader to set her expectations of both the character and the action that might follow. Offering your reader clues as to what kind of book you're writing is important, so you'll want to choose a setting that enhances your reader's understanding not only of what's already happening, but also what's about to happen. Once you've established the basics—time and place—you'll be able to use sensory details to develop your chosen environment until it seems as real to the reader as any place he's ever been.

  CHOOSING A TIME PERIOD_

  When someone says the word "setting" in the context of writing, the first thing that jumps to most people's minds is where a book takes place. We'll be discussing locations next, but before we do, let's look at an aspect of setting that's often overlooked.

  Not where, but when.

  Many people outside the held of YA literature mistakenly associate writing for teens with writing contemporary fiction. The stereotype of the YA novel is a first-person narrative set in a modern-day school, and the stereotype of the YA novelist is someone who is constantly fighting to stay on top of the trends so her books won't seem outdated.

  Of course, as we learned in third period, there can be some truth to stereotypes, and many YA novels do take place in modern-day settings. They might very well feature characters who need to fit into these settings by wearing the right clothes, using the newest technology, and speaking with the latest slang words. But this is only a small part of what's open to the author of teen literature. Just as Social Studies class in school didn't focus solely on modern American history, the smart YA writer opens her field of possibilities to include every place and time period in history and beyond.

  Take a look at books like The Braid by Helen Frost, Feed by M.T. Anderson, and A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray and you will see that literature for young adults is open to being set in any place and time an author can dream up.

  So how can you choose the best time period for your book? Usually the time period of your novel will come along with the idea itself. It's rare that events would lend themselves equally well to historical fiction, modern day, and fantasy or science fiction. Generally, when you get an idea you'll also get some sense of a character to go along with it, and that character will have a specific story to tell. How she speaks and what she says will be the largest influences on which time period you'll choose. Do you hear an old-fashioned voice or a futuristic one? Does the story itself fit naturally into a specific historical time period or would that constrain the action, imposing limitations that would be difficult to work with?

  When you choose a time period you must be careful to work within the boundaries that the time imposes. For example, you might want to create a female character who takes a leadership role in your story. Depending on when your book takes place, this might be more or less of a challenge. Although your underlying desire might be to show your character's strength, which is a timeless quality, if you set the book in the distant past you might need to find inventive ways of accomplishing this goal in order to avoid stretching your reader's believability to the breaking point. Or if you decide to have your character take on a nontraditional role, be sure the opposition facing her is true to what it would have been during that particular time.

  If your book is set in the future, or another imaginary time or place, you set the boundaries for your characters. This might seem simple at first glance, but it's essential to be consistent throughout your story, not allowing the rules of the society you've created to shift as the story progresses. It's also important to give your imaginary time period a multidimensional quality, alluding to what has come before and what might be in store in the future. For some people, this kind of detailed creation of another world will be appealing, but for others it might be far more work than they bargained for.

  Always assess your own strengths as a writer when you choose which time period your story is best suited for. Historical fiction involves a lot of research, and the details you include must not only be accurate, they must also be purposeful—chosen to advance the plot rather than to show off your knowledge of the era. Is this kind of thorough research something you'd enjoy? Do you have firsthand knowledge of the time period you'd like to use for your setting?

  If your answer to that last question is "yes," you still need to check your facts. Even if you grew up in the 1960s or 1970s, would your recollections be accurate? Might you remember a certain historical event as having happened at one point when it really happened at another? Did that sports team win the championship in 1986 or 1987? What year did that hurricane hit? Small details can make or break your portrayal of a time period. You not only have to get the facts right, but you also have to get the fashions, politics, attitudes, and entertainments correct.

  Think of everything that defines our current era and make those same things relevant in whatever time you're writing about-even if that time period is made up. Part of what makes fantasy and science fiction as popular as they are today is the level of attention given to creating the worlds that the characters operate in. So many of these books are parts of series, and I imagine some of the reasoning behind this is that the worlds themselves often take on lives of their own. They're so real to us that we want to explore them far beyond the pages of just one book. The best science fiction delves into the futur
e as accurately as historical fiction delves into the past.

  Is this where your strength as a writer lies?

  Another consideration when choosing a time period is how your setting might affect your plot. Remember that strong female protagonist? How does she change as we move her around in history? What kinds of obstacles will she meet in 1694 as opposed to 1964? Should you show her standing up to injustice and fighting for her rights? Or could you contrast her character better in a futuristic setting where young women have forgotten the lessons of the past, becoming soft and lazy, and deliberately allowing men to dominate?

  Even if you do choose a modern-day setting, take equal pains to illuminate the world around your characters. Don't assume your reader will have the same context that you do for interpreting our times. Just because we all live in the 3000s doesn't mean our settings have much else in common. 3010 in Beverly Hills will look very different from 3010 in inner-city New Orleans. Remember that setting a story in a modern time period is not an excuse to take setting for granted. Instead, it's a chance to make our "familiar" world all the more vivid to your readers.

  LOCATION_

  Let's pull down that world map again. Okay, now take out a thumbtack and close your eyes. I'll point you in the right direction and then ... Wait! Surely there's a better way to choose a location for your story.

  Of course there is. Just as choosing a time period for your teen novel is more involved than defaulting to modern day, selecting and portraying where you'd like your book to take place is more complicated than pinning the proverbial thumbtack onto a map. Possible locations are infinite, since they can be real or imaginary, urban or rural. They can draw on what's familiar or play on what's unfamiliar. The scope of your setting might be broad or narrow, depending on what you're trying to accomplish, and most times, several locations will be used during the course of one novel. This means it's your job as the author to develop each place the character goes until it's multidimensional.