The Best Things to Consider When Writing a Young Adult Novel

If you’re planning on writing YA books yourself, here are the best things to consider when writing a Young Adult novel.

When I began writing Getting By, I didn’t immediately decide on a genre, as I simply wanted to write a story centering on the experience of a male high school student. But in time, it became clear that Getting By was a Young Adult (YA) story because of its elements. So, if you’re planning on writing YA books yourself, here are a few guidelines to help you out with nailing the genre.

Here are the Best Things to Consider When Writing a Young Adult Novel:

Readers Want to See Themselves in the Pages

First, you’ll want to focus on the age of the main character and the characters in their circle. YA protagonists tend to be 12-18 years of age, though this rule isn’t set in stone, as some novels deviate from this standard.

But YA will generally have a protagonist in their teens. And it’s okay for the story to contain adult characters, but they will never be the leads. No matter how well-developed those characters are, they will never be the ones whose fate is at stake in a YA story, as that won’t resonate with the target readership.

Adults in YA stories often serve different roles to the protagonists, such as an enemy, a leader, a guide, an obstacle, etc.: tertiary characters. Look at the main character for my book, Getting By, who starts as a 17-year-old junior. While there are adults in the story, my protagonist serves as the heart and lead.

Not Too Long, Not Too Short – Just Right

Another factor to consider is the word count. YA books typically have a word count between 45,000 to 85,000 words. Mine had at least 53,000 words when I published it.

While those grounded more in a modern reality setting sit at the lower end of the count, there’s an expectation for YA sci-fi and fantasy stories to have a higher count, ranging from 75,000 to 95,000 words. That’s because YA books that combine genres, such as fantasy, historical, sci-fi, and dystopian, typically have a higher word count due to their expansive plots and the world-building involved.

There’s wiggle room between those counts, regardless of what you’re writing about, but you’ll want to keep that in mind when it comes to publishing.

Look Who’s Talking

Teenagers act, think, speak, and experience things differently than adults, so your YA novel should reflect that with its tone and point of view. YA books also favor a style of storytelling where events occur at the present moment, keeping the story relevant.

They are also often told in close third-person (limited omniscience to one character) or first-person point of view, helping to keep the story focused and clearly illustrate the growth and journey of the protagonist, generally reflecting how most youths and teens fixate on themselves during that period of change.

I chose to use first-person with Getting By, letting the reader live vicariously through my protagonist’s eyes. This is one of the best things to consider when writing a Young Adult novel.

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What Matters to Your Readers

Generally, YA literature will focus on themes that are often more pressing for teenagers than for adults, like first love, coming-of-age, self-discovery, and friendship challenges, to name a few.

And while sex and violence are okay for your characters to experience, they are usually less explicit in detail compared to an adult novel (which is hopefully true for your audience in real life!)

As I wrote above, they want to see themselves in your characters, so focusing on what youths and teens typically care about is a surefire way to hold their interest. Here are some possible themes to explore in YA books:

Self-Discovery

When the protagonists learn more about themselves as they encounter different issues, and the story chronicles their process of seeking the truth of their accepted reality, ranging from a character discovering they have magical powers to a teen exploring their sexuality or various other personal journeys between.

Coming-of-Age

The transition of a young protagonist from childhood to adulthood and the issues or challenges often associated with it occur throughout the story. Written from a first-person point of view, authors focus on how their protagonist undergoes a mental and emotional change due to confronting said adversity.

Love

A universal and multi-faceted theme that writers continue to explore in many ways through literature, though in YA books, the main character typically experiences their firsts – first love, first kiss, heartbreak, rejection, and acceptance.

Relationships and Bullying

Many books in YA fiction involve relationships between teens and their parents, friends, peers, or romantic interests. Relationships are a recurring theme of YA fiction, from best friends to romantic partners. These books also tackle conflicts that arise in those relationships, like the issue of bullying, which, unfortunately, is still a common problem in the lives of teens and young adults, particularly in the age of social media and the internet.

Survival

Characters are pitted against an external force, such as the environment, a natural disaster, or a powerful antagonist. The heroes must overcome countless challenges so they can live another day. It can illustrate that even teens and young adults have agency in the most seemingly overwhelming situations.

LGBTQ2+

More and more YA books deal with sexual and gender identity, as, despite plenty of pushback, there are safer spaces for sharing that truth. These stories can cross the entire gender spectrum and help YA readers struggling to understand or embrace their identities find a way to articulate and navigate those feelings. They also establish an empathetic light on issues commonly faced in the LGBTQ2+ community. In Getting By, the main character battles with his sexuality throughout the story.

Learn the Genre By Reading

While writing Getting By, I previously read multiple YA books that helped me understand how to write fiction for that audience. The most prominent example is You Don’t Know Me by David Klass, a novel I read in high school that inspired me to write my own YA novel. Another of David’s YA books I read, called Dark Angel, is another recommendation.

In middle school, I read a few books from The Bluford Series, a collection of twenty-two YA novels that focus on the lives of a particular group of high school students and their families. I took further inspiration from Paul Langan’s contributions to the series, The Bully and Payback (also known as The Gun), to write my own YA novel. Reading books from The Bluford Series showed me how to write YA books focusing primarily on Black characters.

Some other books I can recommend are Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, and The Outsiders by SE Linton. There are so many others out there, and it’s up to you to decide what you plan to write and look into the broader entries in the genre. The main thing is that you read, as it always makes for better writing.

Teens and young adults have plenty to deal with as they navigate various changes affecting them, coupled with the new social pressures getting older brings. But YA books present an outlet, a means for them to explore themselves through other characters, hopefully empowering them to stand up for themselves and learn more about who they want to be in the world (or who they don’t want to be!)

My own struggles leaned perfectly to the YA experience once I began the writing process, and my hope with publishing Getting By is that some young person will read about Carver, his aspirations, and difficulties navigating high school and feel seen and heard.

Hopefully, you find some inspiration in all of this to create your own YA novel to share with the world. If you need help figuring out the writing process or need more information on the best things to consider when writing a Young Adult novel, check out the various resources I offer, and consider saying, “Hello!” at jsims@jairesims.com and follow me on social media.