Malinda Lo
Blog
Oct 16, 2011
Why I write young adult fiction
With startling regularity these days, the mainstream media publishes essays on young adult fiction, generally debating the question of whether or not YA is too mature or “dark” to be read by young adults. Recently, two more essays joined this growing body of opinion: Maria Tatar’s piece in the New York Times, “No More Adventures in Wonderland”; and Brian McGreevy’s post at Salon.com, “Why Teens Should Read Adult Fiction.”
I react to these kinds of essays with a mixture of resignation and indignation, because generally they’re characterized by a glaring blindness on the part of the authors. Most of the people who write these essays don’t seem to have much of any familiarity with today’s young adult book market.1 They tend to base their conclusions on personal experience of the dated kind: what they read when they were teens (usually 20-30 years ago), and how today’s bestsellers (typically Twilight or The Hunger Games) compare. Usually, The Hunger Games is more cold-bloodedly violent, and Twilight is a bad example for girls.
I think that author Andrea Cremer said it best in her tweet about the Salon.com piece:
I absolutely agree. This debate about YA’s qualities or lack thereof is clearly a way for adults to express their anxiety about adolescence today: whether it’s coming on too soon, whether it’s ending too quickly. The world in general seems to be an increasingly brutal place, not only in real terms (the war in Afghanistan, uprisings in the Middle East, etc.) but in virtual ones as well (the American entertainment industry contributes substantially via everything from crass TV to first-person shooter video games).
Books have traditionally been seen as “good for you,” and I think that the commercialization of young adult fiction — pushed by the success of the Harry Potter series, Twilight, and, yes, The Hunger Games — strikes a certain kind of terror in the hearts of the predominantly upper middle-class literary types who eat up these articles. If the books (which are supposed to be virtuous and moral) are going to hell, what’s next?
As a writer of young adult novels, I’m sometimes amused by the fear that these articles seem to express. Books: So powerful! So influential — possibly in horrible ways! And yet, of course they can be. That’s why they’re so wonderful.
On the other hand, these articles often express a snobbery about YA that is a bit more difficult to brush off. YA books: So trashy! So poorly written! So simplistic! Though yes, of course that can be true, too.2
What frustrates me about this whole debate, I think, are the assumptions that people who don’t read YA make. I get this not only in these articles (which are, at least, not personal), but in person. I’ve had good friends say to me, “I tried to read Ash, but it was so hard! I thought books for teens were supposed to be easy to read!”3 I’ve had other friends look at me in bewilderment when they realize my books are young adult novels. I can practically see all their assumptions whirling through their mind: These books are for teens, so I probably won’t be interested. They’re probably dumbed down and not worth it. What is my friend doing writing for teens, anyway? She’s better than that!
As a writer, my own path to young adult fiction was an unexpected one. Some stereotypes about YA fiction are based on the idea that a YA novelist is deeply nostalgic for her teen years and wants to relive them through fiction.
The poster for Charlize Theron's next movie, already chock full of YA stereotypes.
Well, I can tell you for sure that I am not nostalgic about my teen years. I hated them, and I’m very glad there’s no such thing as time travel so that I never have to go back.
Many YA writers I know came to write YA fiction because they enjoy reading it. But I didn’t read YA until after I sold Ash. I think that’s why Ash has a kind of old-fashioned feel — it’s based in the reading experience of my own teen years, approximately 20 years ago. However, once I started reading YA, I quickly realized that as a writer, I absolutely belong in this category of fiction.
For me, there are some very specific things about YA that make creative sense. YA is particularly story-based. Think TV and film: you are drawn in to a story immediately, or at least, that’s the goal. Story, story, story. This is YA.
I’m the first to admit that I’ve never been especially drawn to adult literary fiction. I very rarely connect with it, although I have read and loved the odd literary novel. This is because I generally value story over literary affect. I tend to prefer an arresting tale over a pretty sentence. If I want a pretty sentence, I will read poetry, and I do enjoy poetry when I read it (even if I don’t understand it!).
Another thing I enjoy about YA is the fact that it allows the writer to mash together many genres. Adult fiction is fairly divided when it comes to genre: science fiction does not usually cross over into mystery, which does not usually cross over into romance. There are exceptions as always, but typically, a book is published in one genre, and the book must obey that genre’s conventions or risk alienating the genre’s readers. YA, on the other hand, lets me combine mystery and romance and science fiction into one glorious hybrid whole.
I think this is a reflection of the fact that adolescence is about trying new things. Teens aren’t fixed in their personalities yet, even though they have very definite ideas about what their personality is. They’re not afraid to smush things around a little and see what results. That kind of freedom is what I find so endearing and so liberating about YA. It enables me to tell the story I want, using many of my favorite tools (mystery! romance! intrigue! magic!).
Of course, there are some limitations to the YA category, and anyone who says YA can cover any subject is not telling the whole truth. You won’t find navel-gazing books about middle-aged people in YA, and you’re unlikely to find explicit sex or truly extreme evil. This is not because teens can’t handle these subjects or because they don’t encounter them in real life — they do. It’s because YA is, at its most basic level, a marketing category, and libraries and schools are hesitant to buy books that are likely to upset parents. Parents, not teens. I’m pretty sure teens want to read about sex and death.
This is where that debate flares up: adults expressing their anxiety over teens’ incipient adulthood.
I’m sure that someday I will want to write something that involves explicit sex and/or extreme evil4, because as a writer, I’ve noticed that I’m increasingly drawn to telling stories about the highest highs and the lowest lows. I want to tell Big Stories (again, emphasis on story). So, I’m sure that someday I will write an “adult” novel. I’m not sure, though, whether I will ever really fit into the world of adult fiction. I do enjoy adult genre fiction; I’ve been a mystery and scifi/fantasy reader for decades. But what if I want to mash up those genres? I’m pretty sure I will. How will that work in the adult fiction market?
I don’t know, and I’m not that concerned about it. I’ll write the story I want to write, and I’ll go from there. For now, I’m happy to be writing young adult fiction, even if I do get that weird shifty-eyed look from my (adult) friends every once in a while. I like the creative tools that I get to use when writing YA. They make sense to me as a writer, and that’s why I’m writing young adult novels.
- Yes, the infamous Wall Street Journal article is an exception, and I think that’s why it engendered such a heated backlash from the YA community. [↩]
- I want to note that it can be true of all fiction. Plenty of adult fiction is trashy, poorly written, and simplistic. But somehow that’s accepted as obvious, whereas YA is often held up to a higher “moral” standard. [↩]
- I don’t actually mind that my friend said this to me, though it was startling. She’s a really good friend. [↩]
- I’m not saying that a book must include explicit sex or extreme evil to be worth reading or writing. Plenty of wonderful books that I love don’t include any of it. [↩]
I absolutely agree with everything you said here– and I’m glad you did!
On Young Adult: I have to admit, I’m kind of scared about what this is going to do. As in, I think it will cause many, many people who don’t follow YA writers/readers online or read YA at all to believe these stereotypes (sometimes uncommon, sometimes flat-out untrue) and then in turn cause them to tell other people about it. That said, I hope it doesn’t happen.
On the articles: Why does mainstream media almost always refer to “overly-mature/violent material” as “dark”? I get it, we commonly associate light with good and dark with bad, but it doesn’t have to be that way! (Just rambling. I saw that you put dark in quotes so I can assume you feel similarly.)
Whew. I think that’s the longest comment I’ve ever written.
Malinda, this was a very thoughtful essay, and I agree with the vast majority of your thoughts and points.
But you lost me when you put down a genre you don’t personally enjoy, and I’m not sure of the purpose, or that the defensive tone fits the rest of this. Where does your personal taste or preferences in reading adult literary fiction fit into an essay defending YA literature? If what you like best about YA fiction is the story story story, that’s a valid statement on its own, without being critical of a genre you personally find affected. It’s okay to like one thing without the comparison to someone you don’t like.
@ JP, I think “dark” is a very loaded term. It’s used so much in the discussion about this that I had to use it. I initially used “mature” because it’s more specific, but it didn’t carry the same flavor. The whole “dark” thing is very vague and debatable, which is partly why it keeps getting debated, IMO. Nobody can agree what it means!
@ Ramona, this is not a post defending YA. This is a post explaining why *I* personally write YA, as opposed to adult literary or genre fiction, and that’s why I’m talking about my personal tastes. I don’t think YA needs defending, but I’ve often been put in the place of defending it, and that’s why I’m thinking about these issues. If I’ve put down adult literary fiction, I think it’s a pretty mild put-down (especially since I also say I’ve enjoyed it). The whole discussion about YA is based around comparing A to B to C, and that’s the greater discourse I’m engaging with in this post.
After you asked me, I still haven’t come up with a “really good” answer for why I’d like to write YA. The best so far is: because I like to read it. I’ve tried to read other “adult” stuff from a variety of genres, and it’s usually just the one or two exceptions that I find enjoyable, but as a whole it just drags on for me, and I can’t quite get into it as easy as YA.
On the “dark” matters, I enjoy YA books that deal with those subjects, especially since it tends not to be explicitly detailed. Adults need to stay in their pants when evaluating books, I read some pretty gruesome stuff as a 2nd grader that is perfectly “permissible” but quite “dark” (The Whipping Boy anyone?).
Agree, agree, agree. I started out writing literary fiction for grownups (short stories) because that was what I thought writers did, and submitted it to literary magazines (even though I did not enjoy most of the stories in those magazines.) After I got a few rejections that said they liked my stories but they didn’t publish stories about teenagers, I had an “aha!/duh” moment–why am I writing about teenagers FOR grownups, especially when they don’t want it and I don’t even like this genre very much? I had always liked YA and never stopped reading it. Plus I agree that one of the best things about YA is that it allows mash-ups of different genres. And it’s nice to be part of a sector of publishing that is growing rather than shrinking.
I think a lot of YA writers are the opposite of wanting to relive their youth–they just can’t stop thinking about the horror they went through. This is the first I’ve heard of this Charlize Theron movie, but I think I love it already. I am shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here–I mean, shocked to learn that a Hollywood movie is based on a vilifying stereotype.
As far as YA being dark, whatevs. There are a few YA books that are very dark. A couple novels by Margo Lanagan and Laini Taylor were too scary for my delicate grown-up mind to handle; however it seemed like they were well-written and great, just not my kind of thing. YA doesn’t have to be monolithic; teens should be allowed to have different tastes and thresholds of scariness too. If a book is too dark, they can stop reading it and hide it in the freezer just like I do. Adults who are worried about things being too dark for young people should stop letting children watch Bambi and Pinnochio.
I think all of these articles about YA, what it should be, what it isn’t, whether kids should skip it and go to adult fiction or whether it should have more explicit sex, etc, etc, are hilarious because they’re missing the point. They are all from perspectives of people who think they can get rid of YA because they don’t get what YA is about.
YA is about kids!
And it’s not just about kids, it’s seeing the world from the perspective of someone who is not an adult. Denying the need for YA literature is denying the idea that younger people have a different perspective. Within YA we are pretty committed to diversity, and diversity means seeing other perspectives and giving them voice. Saying there’s no need for YA is saying that young people shouldn’t have their voices represented.
Actually, this interview with a writer who writes both adult and YA fiction was very enlightening for me.
http://blog.bookviewcafe.com/2011/10/16/fox-phoenix-and-the-blurring-line-of-adult-and-young-adult-novels/#more-18079
It breaks down the difference between to two types of stories as a matter of perspective. The scope can be just as huge, complex politics, world changing acts, but the perspective must be relatable.
Tossing young people into the highly stratified, highly genrefied adult sphere before they’re ready, steals an opportunity for growth. You want the world to be incomplete, to have unknown areas, invisible reaches, unlimited possibilities for as long as possible. Reality is constraining, but it has a much harder time constraining people who have had a chance to take their time growing up.
Yes! You are SO right about this. I recently had an encounter with somebody (barely more than a teen herself) who said that all YA is basically written the same way (read: poorly). I take offense to that because YA fiction is so diverse with all different kinds of writing. When I asked this person if they read YA, her only response was “Harry Potter and The Hunger Games.” Big surprise. She went on to say that if she can’t get published writing what she wants to write, then she’ll just whip off some YA novels to make some money. Oh. My. God. Seriously? Hard not to be offended as an aspiring YA writer myself and an avid reader of YA. I try to ignore this kind of ignorance, but it’s hard.
Great post. Like a zillion other people on earth, I read Twilight and got pulled in (until the ghastly 4th book!) What struck me most was seeing Stephenie Meyer at a book event in 2007 for the Eclipse release. It was probably the second book event I’d ever gone to, the first YA one. This was a sold out 1,000 seat civic center with girls screaming about BOOK CHARACTERS. This was before the movies were even cast so no R.Patt or Taylor Lautner! I was dumbstruck. I loved how passionate the young fans were about a book. Sure, I have my issues with Twilight, but it woke something up in me. I always loved reading, but I wanted to find what other teen books were out there.
I’m also cringing at the Young Adult movie; I’m hoping Diablo Cody won’t steer us too wrong, I’d like to think she’s on our side so to speak, but it does seem to reinforce stereotypes.
I think education is key. The more of us sane folk who sing praises of wonderful books that aren’t going to kill America’s perceived values, the more people will understand not to create fear where it’s not needed.
YES. I completely agree with the points you’ve made here, especially when it comes to combining genres. I love reading and writing mixed genre stories because they’re so unique. I heard one of my favorite authors of adult fiction talking about how difficult it was to sell and shelve her mixed-genre books, and it makes me grateful YA is different. (Come to think of it, that same author has a new YA book coming out: Darker Still by Leanna Renee Hieber. It’s mixed genre as well. Further proof that YA is more accepting on that front!)
As for adults worrying that YA is too dark, I agree we need to give teens more credit. If we only allowed teenagers to read stories with squeaky-clean subject matter, we’d have to stop assigning classic literature in school! (Shakespeare’s tragedies, for instance. Plenty of violence and sex and death there.) Anyway, teens are smarter than that. They know the world isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. I wasn’t naive at that age, and neither was anyone else I knew.
Great post! Thanks as always for your perspective.
I absolutely agree with what you had to say about YA fiction, about it being able mash up genres in the way that adult fiction usually does not; also, I agree with your observations about many who don’t read it seem to think about it: that it is not written well, or less than adult fiction in some way.
I find it astounding that the author of the NYT article cites Peter Pan as an example of more ‘innocent’ writing for children! I think there’s an awful lot of very adult fears about sex and death bubbling away just under the surface.
I think that those people are silly. This is a new generation and if the entire world is changing with internet and television being more “racy and partially inappropriate” then that’s the way it is. Young Adult books do hold some of the aspects of violence and not very great content sometimes but it’s not the responsibility of anyone but the young adult and their parents to decide if the book is “too mature” for a specific person. I have read a ton of books and young adult books since I was 8 and they have changed in the past 7 years. It’s like the world is recognizing that we aren’t as sheltered as other generations before us were and I don’t know how it is for other teens, but it makes me feel nice to be treated like the young adult that I am rather than still a child. Young Adult books, especially fiction, give me a greater sense of awareness to the change in our modern world. I am given more freedom to learn more through the extensive vocabulary and get situations that I can relate to in a way to where I understand them. Books still serve the same purpose as they used to, just in a better way.