What do you think of the teenage mind? Would you want it for your own?
The incredible popularity of young adult fiction these past years continues to open the way for more talented writers, and even more satisfied readers! It would seem the obvious genre to shoot for as a writer seeking popularity.
However, one of the many challenging things about writing for young adults is the requirement to simulate the teenage mind. Not an easy task…
I’ve just finished two books that have made me think about this challenge. The first is actually categorized as Juvenile Historical Fiction: The Hired Girl by Newbery Medal winner Laura Amy Schlitz.
Set in 1911, The Hired Girl features fourteen-year-old Joan Skraggs. Having been taken out of school by her father to do woman’s work on the Pennsylvania hardscrabble family farm, she tries to strike in protest—and he burns her books in response. She runs away to the city to become a hired girl for the unimaginable fee of $6 per week, pouring her heart out to her diary as she seeks a new, better life for herself.
The Hired Girl is sweet, funny, endearing, and frustrating. Joan’s naiveté culminates in the typical teenage assumption that the young man who kissed her is now going to marry her. I remember this about being a teenager, don’t you? This dramatic way of thinking and believing? It wouldn’t be easy to write from that perspective as a fifty-something-year old! (I’m referring to me, not Ms. Schlitz)
The second book is The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater—Book 4 of The Raven Cycle. (The series begins with The Raven Boys—start there if you haven’t read this series yet.) Maggie is an amazing author whom I admire a great deal. She is able to personify teenagers with all their sincerity, their optimism, their fragility, and their toughness.
I often find Young Adult books irritating because of the level of high drama. Instead of drama, Maggie Stiefvater creates extremely high stakes for complex and sympathetic characters, grounded in reality, surrounded by impossibility. (Magic and fantasy with a bit of romance right alongside mystery, cloak and dagger danger, and parlor metaphysics stirred with some really scary paranormal stuff.) She takes mythic tales and whirls in imagination with tremendous results.
Books for young adults have slightly older heroines (age sixteen instead of the twelve to fourteen typical for kids books), and sometimes greater complexity of thought—sometimes not. Both The Hired Girl and The Raven Cycle are excellent examples of bringing the teenage mind to life—Happy Reading!