Welcome Back to YA Cafe, where book lovers can gather and chat about teen literature.  I’m your barista, along with Ghenet from All About Them Words.  Today we have a few guests joining us: the Editorial Staff from Verbal Pyrotechnics, an online magazine dedicated to publishing the best teen literature on the Internet.

Each Friday we pick from a menu of topics and share our thoughts on our respective blogs.  We’ve also got plans brewing for interviews, events and even some exciting giveaways, so stay tuned!  Join the discussion by responding in the comments, on your own blogs or on twitter using the hash tag #yacafe. 

Today’s Special: The Stigma of Reading and Writing YA

I think anyone who writes or loves to read YA has experienced the Stigma.  It’s happened to me more times than I can count.  For instance, I tried lending lawyer-hubby a YA book and he said “no” because he couldn’t read a teen book on the subway… what if he ran into his boss or someone from the firm?  They would think that he *gasp* liked reading YA.  I couldn’t see what the big deal was but I decided let this one slide, after all, lawyer-hubby doesn’t make me read his boring law books.

A more painful example, though, was when I was taking a writing class with students writing in various genres.  I was the only writer in the class working on YA and when my turn for critique came up, the teacher felt the need to preface it by telling the other students to take my piece just as seriously as any other, even though it was written for teens.  I didn’t know who I wanted to smack first, the students for needing the lecture or the teacher for giving it.

It’s moments like these that leave me feeling somehow inferior for loving and writing YA.  Yet, if you look at the facts, YA is actually one of the most exciting places to be both as a reader and writer.

Fact #1: The YA market is booming… other areas of fiction, not so much.  I moderated a panel on Reading and Technology last week and of course, one of the many topics that came up was YA.  According to a publisher on the panel, one trend that’s partially responsible for the boom in YA is that adults are reading YA, more so than ever before.  These phenomenon has made it so that while the rest of publishing is struggling, YA is doing well.

Fact #2: Today’s YA is not the same YA many of us grew up with.  In fact, it’s a whole lot better.  When I was a teen, YA books at the time didn’t do much for me so I just skipped YA altogether and started reading books for adults.  If I were a teen now, though, I’d never want to stop reading YA.  There’s a lot more risk-taking going on, and books are edgier and more sophisticated.  Frankly, YA has just gotten a whole lot better in the last ten-to-fifteen years.

Fact #3: YA fans are really into their books.  As a writer, it’s so great to be writing in a category that has such dedicated fans and such a vibrant literary community.  For an “lesser-genre” we sure have a lot of fans.Want proof?  Check out this blog list of all YA book blogs.  And let’s not forget The Story Siren, who is perhaps one of the most prolific and well-known book bloggers out there, she blogs about YA.  So there.

Fact #4: You can pull some stunts in YA you’d never be allowed to do in “regular” fiction.  From an anthology about Zombies vs. Unicorns, to a fairytale about a girl married to a polar bear, to a book about the struggles of a transsexual teen, YA lets you do as much or more than adult literature.  Maybe it’s because readers are more willing to read outside their comfort zones.  Maybe it’s because the writers are more willing to write outside their comfort zones.  I’m not sure.

Or maybe it’s because genres tend to meld together in YA.  Whereas in adult literature tends to be broken up according to category, teen literature is usually shelved together.  This might be because a lot of YA often tends to cross over genres.  In adult literature, you have fantasy in one category and romance in another.  YA often combines the two.  All I know is that as a writer, I feel like I can do things in YA that I wouldn’t be able to do if I were writing strictly for adults.

Fact #5: YA is awesome!*  It’s that simple.  YA is fun, it’s interesting, it speaks to me in a way that no other category does.  Other fiction is fine and I’ll read it from time to time, but frankly, I find it a bit dull.
*OK, so this one is an opinion but you get the idea.

Have you ever experienced the stigma of reading or writing YA?  Feel free to vent about it in the comments!

Want to hear more about the Stigma of YA?  Fellow barista, Ghenet shares her thoughts on her blog: All About Them Words and our guests Verbal Pyrotechnics discuss it on their site too!  Check it out, then tell us what you think!

Welcome Back to YA Cafe, where book lovers can gather and chat about teen literature.  I’m your barista, along with Ghenet from All About Them Words.

Each Friday we pick from a menu of topics and share our thoughts on our respective blogs.  We’ve also got plans brewing for interviews, events and even some exciting giveaways, so stay tuned!  Join the discussion by responding in the comments, on your own blogs or on twitter using the hash tag #yacafe.

Today’s Special: What’s your favorite YA voice?

Just as I couldn’t decide on a favorite YA character, I also can’t pin down one YA voice that I love because there are so many good ones out there.  Instead, today I thought I’d talk about ways to capture that teen voice.  As many of you have said in the comments voice is one of the main things that differentiates teen literature from adult fiction.  Sure, there are other considerations (like the age of the main character) but voices is generally what makes YA stand out from other categories.

So how do you get that teen voice?  There are no hard and fast rules, but here are a few tips that have helped me nail down the voice of my own characters.

1. Listen to how teens talk.  Ever done that eavesdropping exercise where you go somewhere and listen in on people talking?  You can learn a lot about teen slang and the rhythm of how they speak just by listening.  Whenever I ride the subway or bus, the temptation is to zone out but listening to how teens talk can give you insight about your character’s voice.  (They say Nabokov nailed down the teen voice for Lolita by riding the TCAT bus in Ithaca and listening to local high school kids.)  When you listen–really listen–to teens talking, you’ll notice things: not just what they talk about but how they talk about it.  Here are a few examples:

     “Did she tell you we used to play checkers all the time, or anything?”
     “I don’t know.  For Chrissake, I only just met her,” Stradlater said.  He finished combing his goddam gorgeous hair.  He was putting away all his crumby toilet articles.
     “Listen.  Give her my regards, willya?”
     “Okay,” Stradlater said, but I know he probably wouldn’t.  You take a guy like Stradlater, they never give your regards to people.

J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

     “Oh.”  Her voice was mock-pouty.  “Are you sure?  He’s no trouble.  He hardly takes up any room.  All you have to feed him is a Mini Wheat.  Or two grapes.  And he won’t poop on your rug.  Will you Cinnamon?  Go ahead, stand up and tell him you won’t.  Stand up, Cinnamon.”
     Cinnamon stood on my sneaker.  His eyes shone like black pearls.
     “Doesn’t he have the cutest ears?”
     Who notices a rat’s ears?  I looked.  She was right.  “Yeah,” I said, “I guess he does.”

Jerry Spinelli, Stargirl

2. Don’t be afraid to add imagery.  Just because the voice captures the way teens speak doesn’t make it any less sophisticated in terms of imagery and language than adult fiction.  Teens respond to beautiful imagery, as long as the language fits the style of the voice.  Don’t be afraid to use metaphors or similes either, if it fits the voice you’re going for.  Some examples:

     Cassie killed the snowmobile engine.
     Total silence, her favorite sound.  Ice crystals sun in the Arctic air.  Sparkling in the predawn light, they looked like diamond dust.  Beneath her ice-encrusted face mask, she smiled.  She loved this: just her, the ice, and the bear.

Sarah Beth Durst, ICE

     Then the worst thing happened.  A boy noticed me.
     He was the most unattractive boy in the room, a dog-face, a Poindexter, the one who hadn’t asked any girl to dance, because he knew that no girl wanted him to.  But I was a stranger so he figured, why not?

Judy Blundell, What I Saw and How I Lied

3. It’s OK to break the rules.  Some YA novels do a great job capturing not only the voice, but the vernacular of teen speech.  To write in vernacular, not only must the author have a great ear for dialogue, but depending on who’s narrating the story, the vernacular can carry over into the narration as well.  In Coe Booth example below, the vernacular is not over-powering, but it’s carried through out the book both in the narration and dialogue.  Even just a touch of vernacular in this book gives us a better look into the protagonist’s world than if the book had been narrated in standard English.  In the M.T. Anderson, the vernacular is completely made up, invented by the author for this futuristic society, but it fits the characters and gives us an idea of what this society is like.

     I mean, she the one that called my cell this morning and told me she needed to talk.  Then all the way to her place it’s like she wanna say something but don’t know how to tell me.  Se we just walk without saying a whole lot, which is alright ’cause I got a lot on my mind anyway.

Coe Booth, Tyrell

     Everything at home was boring.  Link Arwaker was like, “I’m so null,” and Marty was all, “I’m null too, unit,” but I mean we were all pretty null because for the last like hour we’d bee playing with three uninsulated wires that were coming out of the wall.  We were trying to ride shocks off them.  So Marty told us there was this fun place for lo-grav on the moon.

M.T. Anderson, Feed

Now I want to know, what’s your favorite YA voice?

Want to hear more about voice?  Fellow barista, Ghenet shares her thoughts on her blog: All About Them Words.  Check it out, then tell us what you think!

Welcome Back to YA Cafe, where book lovers can gather and chat about teen literature.  I’m your barista, along with Ghenet from All About Them Words.

Each Friday we pick from a menu of topics and share our thoughts on our respective blogs.  We’ve also got plans brewing for interviews, events and even some exciting giveaways, so stay tuned!  Join the discussion by responding in the comments, on your own blogs or on twitter using the hash tag #yacafe.

Today’s Special: What makes for a successful story starter?

Starting a novel or short story is like making a promise to the reader.  You set up rules and expectations that your readers will rely on as they read your piece.  Specifically, there are five things that you should establish early on in your story to gain the reader’s trust.  Delaying or changing these elements on your reader will create tension and while that might get the reader’s attention, it will also mean you’ll have to work that much harder to gain back the reader’s trust during the rest of the story.

5 Essential Things You Promise to Your Reader:

1) You promise a character.
From the get-go your readers will want to know who they’re supposed to root for.  Sometimes writers will artfully delay the appearance of the main character in order to create anticipation or to reflect the character’s personality, but this is very unusual.  In most cases, the protagonist usually appears in the first chapter, and is often the very first character the reader sees.

A great example of a delayed main character from children’s literature is The Wainscott Weasel by Tor Seidler, in which the protagonist does not appear at all in the first chapter.  (OK, this example isn’t YA, but it’s such a great example, I couldn’t resist.)  Another example, of course, is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, in which Elizabeth’s ultimate love interest–Mr. Darcy–doesn’t appear until well into the story.  In the case of both books, these characters are introverted and shy.  By holding the characters back and making the reader wait for them, the authors show us this facet of their personalities.

2) You promise the voice.
The voice of the narration is central to establishing the mood of the story.  Compare the opening sentences to the following novels and notice the different moods that they convey.

“Everyone thinks it was because of the snow.  And in a way, I suppose that’s true.”

                  ~Gayle Forman, If I Stay

“We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to totally suck.”

                  ~M.T. Anderson, Feed

“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.”

                  ~J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

Point of view (POV) is also central to the voice and mood.  Notice that in the three above examples, all of the narrators were in the first person, which allows us to hear the character’s voice.  There are other scenarios where the narrator is not the protagonist, but the voice of the protagonist still comes through loud and clear in dialogue.

3) You promise the world.
Promise the world?  As in the whole world?  It might sound huge but it’s not just any world you’re promising, it’s your world.  It’s the world of your book.  It doesn’t matter what genre you’re writing either.  Whether you’re writing contemporary YA set in a regular suburb, or some elaborate fantasy story set in another world, you have to let your reader into that world and it must feel real.

4) You promise a problem.
From minute one, your reader has to know that there’s a problem the character is facing.  Whether that problem is explicit (like the family’s financial state in Pride and Prejudice) or a mystery (like in If I Stay) we know from the first moment that the character is facing some difficulty, some problem.  This promise is essential because whatever this problem is, it will be crucial in establishing the central conflict for your story.

5) You promise an event.
Every book opens with some sort of event that kick-starts the story.  In If I Stay, the event is huge and turns the characters’ lives upside-down (not gonna say what it is, in case any of you reader-friends haven’t read it yet).  In Catcher in the Rye, Holden leaves boarding school and that sets off the chain of events that is the story.  In Feed, we start by going to the moon to have fun and the story unravels from there.  Whether the event simply nudges the story into motion or gives it a sharp shove, there must be an event early on that gets the story started.  Your reader will be waiting for that event, so you will need to deliver.  Try not to delay it for too long.

What do you think?  Any promises I missed and any you’d like to add? 

Want to hear more about YA story starters?  Fellow barista, Ghenet shares her thoughts on her blog: All About Them Words.  Check it out, then tell us what you think!