Why?

Sorry guys, no crit reward. Next time I'll offer that as a prize for a contest where we'll actually have a winner. :)

And now...I have something to say.

Why do I write YA?

Because it's so much easier. Obviously. It's way shorter—why write 100,000 words for adults when you can skate by with only 60,000? You can crank one out in no time. And ya know, why mess around with themes and resonating truths and research? Teens aren't going to understand that stuff anyway, right, so why bother? Just dump some stuff on the page, make it cool, add a couple cell phones, and presto.

Is my sarcasm showing yet?

The problem I've discovered, since I started following my passion and writing YA, is that many, many people—even writers, forgodsakes—seem to think that some or all of the above is true. Cue people thinking that writing for teens isn't "serious". Or difficult. Certainly not as difficult as writing historicals for grown-ups. Not in the same class.

This was driven home for me recently when a fellow writer, who has been working on an adult historical for YEARS, decided maybe she'd just write a YA quickly and sell that. She figured she could pump it out in 4 or 5 months. And of course it was a "message" book too, because there's nothing teens need more than adults force-feeding them messages.

Yeah, I was bugged by her attitude. I did write JENNA quickly, but that was because I was disciplined, I was using my natural voice for once, and I had a good story I was passionate about. Not because I thought it was easy.

See, the real reason I write for teens is because that's what I like to read. I've always loved to dip into the kid's section, the teen section, the YA section…whatever they're calling it. I think maybe part of my brain is still 14, or maybe it's just that those issues are the ones that resonate for me. Or that I like the kick-ass honesty you see in a lot of girls that age. Even the heroine of my historical was 16. The heroine of the historical I scrapped was 13. Jenna is 15. Nat is 15/16. It's how I see the world. It's what I love.

And let the record show, for now and always, that I hate "message" books. It's all well and good to have a story that tells people something, or talks about something important (like UGLIES by Scott Westerfeld), if it flows as a natural part of the story. If the story and the characters are the primary concern. Not because you were sitting around thinking "how do I fit in something about body image, because I as an adult think teens have a problem with body image, so I must inform them about that." Um, no thanks. It will be painfully obvious that you did that. I won't want to read it, and no teenager will either.

[end rant]