Important Changes You Can Write for Your YA Hero’s Growth
You need to show your hero’s growth for your story to be worth reading. Here are important changes for developing a YA fiction character.
YA novels generally focus on a single hero who, for one reason or another, starts a journey and overcomes various obstacles along the way toward their eventual goal. Reductive though that sounds, it’s the truth of each story.
What makes different stories worth reading, though, are the individual circumstances. People want to learn about this particular world and see how the protagonist conquers the internal and external challenges they face, who they meet, and how they grow along the way. YA novels are brilliant vehicles for presenting new ways to view the world.
By the end of the story, you need to show your YA hero’s growth in some way meaningfully for the read to be believable and worthwhile. As you dive into writing your YA novel, you’ll want to consider the development and changes your hero will undergo throughout the story.
Developing a YA Fiction Character Techniques:
Self-Discovery
One of the most common approaches to the YA hero’s growth is a journey of self-discovery. So much so that many of the other possible changes are linked to self-discovery in some way, making it a rather broad subject for change. It’s a universal theme, as we have all likely looked within to find a part of ourselves, whether through adversity or not.
Time to Grow Up
Another incredibly common theme that’s vital to YA storytelling is getting older. Like many people reading these books, the protagonist may be transitioning from adolescence into adulthood, which can be A LOT.
No one weathers their teens without being affected by significant change, and letting go of our youthful selves as we step into maturity is a big shift. With that maturity comes a new outlook on how we handle situations mentally and emotionally.
New Relationships
Whether professional, a friendship, familial, or romantic, the protagonist will likely be exposed to various new relationship opportunities. Some will be tertiary, but others can profoundly impact your YA hero’s growth. They have to learn something about themselves and the other person in order to navigate these scenarios successfully and will grow and change as a result.
Building Awareness
Your hero will be exposed to a lot of new people, many of whom offer a different perspective from your protagonist. That provides a chance for them to expand their worldview and become open-minded and more compassionate. That awareness and empathy lead to acceptance of other cultures, races, gender identities, sexualities, and more. Suddenly, their world becomes bigger and a much more exciting place.
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Feeling Empowered
A virtue of overcoming adversity is that it builds resilience and strengthens us. Whether we’re struggling against an internal or external obstacle, it’s incredibly satisfying when we finally surmount it.
Helping your protagonist learn to weather some of the lousy circumstances life can throw at us and take some semblance of control is a vital skill. They can feel ready to take on greater challenges and even have the confidence to advocate for themselves as a result.
Self-Expression
Finding a way to use one’s voice is not entirely dissimilar from empowerment. What I mean here is the medium through which they advocate for themselves and others. Your hero finally has the confidence to connect with whatever it is that lets them use their voice to speak their truth. Be that through visual art, music, dance, or outright using their voice to stand for and express their beliefs. It’s a great way to develop a YA fiction character.
Acceptance
Life throws many situations at people that seem unjust and unfair. While your protagonist can work to right those wrongs, there will likely come a point where they just can’t do anything. And they’re going to have to learn to deal with that. Learning to accept what cannot be changed and overcoming that grief or anger can be a monumental struggle, but it teaches a lot about coping mechanisms and healing.
Alternatively, it can be directed internally, as many young adults struggle to accept themselves. Flaws and all, people are who they are. To fully grow as a person, your protagonist can learn to love who they are.
That doesn’t stop them from finding healthy ways to adjust what they feel can be better, but it does mean they’ll handle the whole process with more compassion for themselves. Our everyday lives are rife with conflict, be it internal or external, whether we know it or not. YA novels offer readers a chance to see someone tackle those struggles, identifying opportunities for YA hero growth along the way.
It’s a subtle way to educate us on our own areas to develop, which is the perfect approach for the YA audience. If you’re too overt with these changes or there isn’t enough of a shift from the story’s start to the inevitable end, readers won’t buy it. You’ll have wasted their time with an unbelievable story.
So while you are developing a YA fiction character, make sure you consider your character’s journey and what version of themselves you see them becoming by the final chapter if you want to make a page-turning YA novel. My course offers more depth into the process of character development, and you’re also welcome to email me at jsims@jairesims.com if you have any questions about growing your protagonist.
About Jaire Sims
Award-Winning YA Author, Course Creator, Blogger, and Self-Publishing Consultant. At twenty-one and as a junior in college, Jaire was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. Fast forward one year, Jaire proved that he had overcome all of the challenges he had faced up until this point by graduating from Monmouth College with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication Studies.
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