Why YA?
Okay, so Dolly asked me to expound on why I write YA. She pretty much let me do and say anything I want, so I hope you’re strapped in. Ha!
For me, I never dabbled in other stuff. I sat down to write, and all this emotion came pouring out. I was going through something devastating at the time, and writing helped those toxic feelings bleed out.
And when I went back to read what I wrote, I’d transferred my feelings to the most emotional creature on the planet: a teenage girl.
Ah, teen angst. Where would we be without it?
And that’s why I write YA. It just happened. And I’ve never doubted it or questioned if I should consider writing something else. I’m comfortable spilling my potentially screwed up emotions into my characters.
It’s a release for me, one I crave. And I don’t think it would work as well in an adult character or a pre-teen. Oh no. I’m all about the fifteen to seventeen crowd. They’re asking so many questions at that time. Feeling so much—about themselves, their friends, their girl/boyfriends.
And besides, I can do all sorts of things in my YA novels that I never did as a teen. I wasn’t what you would call rebellious, like not even at all. But I can live vicariously through my books, right?
Yeah, that’s what I’m going for.
What do you think? Have you tried writing YA? Is there really a more emotional creature than the teenage girl? Why do you write YA? Why don’t you?
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Elana's Blog: http://elanajohnson.blogspot.
QueryTracker.net Blog - Helping Writers Become Authors: http://querytracker.blogspot.
Thanks for having me, Dolly! :)
ReplyDeletehaha- I think lots of YA writers live vicariously through their characters!!
ReplyDeleteI think that is just the age that I still feel like I am in my heart. I still identify with those characters more closely than i do with the characters in adult books. That's my reason for both MG and YA.
Awesome guest post. Thanks Elana and Dolly :)
I don't write YA, but I do live vicariously through my characters.:-)
ReplyDeleteI've never even attempted to write YA, but after reading your post I'm tempted to give it a try. Thanks for sharing!
I love this! I'm such an Elana fangirl!!
ReplyDeleteAwesome post Elana! I totally agree with what you said about writing YA ;o)
ReplyDeleteDolly, you rock, this series rocks. I love writing YA!
And you do such an awesome job at teen angst. Why mess with a good thing, right?
ReplyDeleteElana,
ReplyDeleteIt was my pleasure.
I have written sort of YA - one of my novels is where characters are teenagers for half of the book, but then adults for the other half. I must admit, I did love writing the teen bit (that's what's finished), adult bit is still waiting to be completed.
MBW,
That's great when you can identify closely with one set of characters.
C R,
Go ahead, give it a try. And tell us all about it. :-)
Crystal,
Thanks for taking the time to comment :-)
Erica,
Thanks :-) You are so sweet!!
Ali,
You are absolutely right :-)
I write first person, with the MC as a teenage girl. She goes through a roller coaster of emotions, and it's fun and interesting to be in her world.
ReplyDelete"Is there really a more emotional creature than the teenage girl?"
ReplyDeleteHa, Elana. So true.
I love writing YA because of the landscape of emotions.
Congrats on the recent book deal. :)
Dolly: These segments have been great. Thanks so much for hosting them. Great job!