YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE IS LIT

Now that you know all about your audience and how to access your inner teenager, you are ready to begin fleshing out your character. In this section we will discuss the development of your character's voice and how to make it as realistic as possible.

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• Talk to teenagers: If there are any teenagers in your life, be sure to have conversations with them. Ask them "is this something you would say?" or "what do you want to see in a young adult character? What don't you want to see?" If you can't talk to any teenagers, listen to the ones that are around you in your daily life. The next time you're on the bus, or in a restaurant, or just sitting outside in a public space, take the time to listen in to the young people around you. What do they talk about? What slang do they use? What is their clothing style? Hair style? Pay attention to the young people around you, and you're that much closer to creating a realistic character. Side note: tread carefully when using slang, as it can change very quickly and be out of date by the time your book gets published. And, as author Robert Muchamore says in The Guardian interview, "It's very easy to overdo the slang and end up baffling your readers, or even worse, come across as the tragically unhip forty-something bloke I really am..."                                                                                                                                                                                                              

• Don't have your characters shy away from big questions: Again from The Guardian article, Taran Matharu states that "a common misconception is a need to dumb the voices down, but teenagers can be as intelligent and precocious as any adult." Just because your character is young that doesn't mean they can only talk about simple subjects. For example, Miranda in Rebecca Stead's When You Reach Me is only twelve, yet she ponders big ideas, such as the one that people walk around life with invisible veils hanging over their faces, making it so they never see everything as it is.                                                                   

• Take teenagers seriously: On a similar note as above, don't make it seem like you're talking down to or patronizing your teenage readers. Teenagers want to be treated with respect just as any adult does, and they crave independence. Patrick Ness mentions in his interview with The Guardian "I genuinely think it’s the simple action of taking a teenager seriously, which is amazingly rare. They’re so often dismissed or told 'you’ll grow out of it'. Treat them like the complex, contradictory, seeking human beings that they are, and you’re most of the way there already." Author Cat Clarke supports this statement when she says in her interview, "I write teenagers the way I see teenagers: regular people going about their lives, each carrying a bundle of hopes and dreams and insecurities." In Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Jacob, who is sixteen, becomes frustrated when no one believes him when he tells them what he saw the night of his grandfather's death. He is written off as crazy, and hallucinating, and is sent to a psychiatrist. Jacob wants to be taken seriously, but all the adults, including his parents, talk down to him and try to shelter him from the questions he is trying to answer about his grandfather. Even Vonetta and Fern from One Crazy Summer, who are ages nine and seven are written as unique individuals with strong personalities. They are taken seriously as people and both play a big role in the story and its development.                                                                                          

• Create a balance between their maturity and immaturity: While it is important to treat your teenage characters as intelligent, mature beings, it is also important to make sure you don't portray them as unrealistically mature. Teenagers and younger kids react and respond to situations differently than adults do. Something that might seem like no big deal to an adult could seem like life-or-death for a younger person. In the Los Angeles Review of Books's article on When You Reach Me, the author of the article says, "Stead balances the larger time travel narrative with Miranda’s daily experience, recognizing that — from a sixth-grade perspective — life-or-death stakes and the loss of a friendship might not feel that far apart. Miranda’s narrative voice is startlingly authentic, in part because Stead so skillfully conveys the self-doubt of the age. It’s not just life’s bigger mysteries she’s unsure of. Trivial ones are equally perplexing: 'I snorted,' she says after she’s said something mean to her mother. 'I tried to snort, anyway. I’m not exactly sure how, though people in books are always doing it.'" Miranda is young enough that she is still affected greatly by the insecurity that comes with being a teenager, or in her case, on the brink of being a teenager. Eleven-year-old Delphine from Once Crazy Summer is extremely mature for her age, taking on the role of mother for her younger siblings, yet her character is still believable because it's balanced with some of the childishness Delphine still has. She is still able to have fun every once in awhile, like she did when she rode on Hirohito's skateboard. 

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• Separate yourself from your characters: Ruth Williams-Garcia says, “I think writers get into trouble when they confuse themselves with their characters. It’s then harder to write truthfully about characters’ lives. I know that I’m engaged in a deeper and I hope richer exploration of the human experience and don’t limit myself to how I’d respond." I'd like to use John Green's The Fault in Our Stars as an example. Hazel and Augustus, who are both sixteen, speak like college professors. Their vocabulary is ridiculous; it sounds like John Green's voice coming out of the mouths of two teenagers, if you've ever heard John Green talk. There is certainly nothing wrong with Hazel and Augustus being so mature, after all, their circumstances almost require it, but it is possible to go too far. In this case, you risk creating unrealistic voices that come across as fake. You can certainly use parts of yourself for a character, but make sure you aren't just speaking through your character. Your character is a unique being. Let them speak for themselves. 

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Remember that if you ever find yourself struggling to write your young adult character, go ahead and read some of your favorite Young Adult novels to get inspiration and see real life examples of what works!