I represent Adult fiction and YA & MG fiction, but I talk more about the latter. I know I do this, and it’s not because I don’t have a lot to say about Adult fiction. It’s that YA, and especially MG, are still new. They are still evolving. Adult genres get redefined every once in a while, and audiences grow, but mostly, adults are adults and their writers know who they’re writing for.
I talk more about YA because the category itself is known for jumping from trend to trend, being super enthusiastic and supportive, yet misunderstood (and often disrespected) by mainstream literary culture. Its target audience can relate, and they aren’t known for standing still either. Adults age at a much slower pace. The difference between a 32 year old and a 36 year old is barely a blip compared to that of a 13 year old and a 17 year old. Sometimes writers laugh when I say things like, “this character should be 16 instead of 15,” as if one year could possibly make that much of a difference. But when you’re a teenager, it can and it often does.
With adults, whether they’re 52 or 27, they have at least one thing in common: they can look back on their adolescence. Teens can’t. They only know the here-and-now. This is one of the main reasons I love YA and want to bring more of it into the world. Teens are full of possibilities. They have more ahead of them than behind them, and their stories often reflect that.
A less idealistic reason I love teens, though, is their ability to see through adults’ bullshit. They know when they’re being pandered to. They know when you clearly don’t understand them. They know when you don’t care about their lives – meaning, their actual lives and not the silly melodramatic ones adults think they have. Teens are tricky and they are wonderful. If you’re choosing to write for them – and not just about them – then you should know why you’re doing so.
When I read submissions, I see writers succeeding in storytelling and realistic characters and good ideas… what I see failing in MG & YA lately is setting. It’s not hard to see why. Setting is generally only considered when physical place has a major focus. What I see writers ignoring more and more is that setting also refers to time. Contemporary/realistic fiction is becoming very blurry, time-wise, and doesn’t feel as authentic. We’ve gotten so used to each decade being “similar enough” in the late 20th century that it seems we’ve failed to notice it’s over.
Recently I tweeted a reminder to MG and YA writers that made many writers feel “old.”
@sarahlapolla · Aug 26: MG/YA writers: If your pub date is 2015 or 2016, no one in your target audience was born in the ’90s. Use this info while you write. [1/2]
@sarahlapolla · Aug 26: Think of the world they were born into, how they are growing up, & keep in mind what concepts/politics would be irrelevant to them. [2/2]
My point is that the 21st century is a teenager now. What’s more, it has a shorter attention span than its predecessors. It’s not going to slow down and wait for writers to catch up.
So, who are the teens living in this century? Why is our late 20th century mindset no longer cutting it?
Today’s teens are not 20th century teens in a way that goes deeper than simply pop culture and fashion. Plot and character should be the first things you have in mind when you sit down to write, but once you know what those are, go back to that question of why.
Why did you choose to write for teens? Why will today’s teens care about this story? Even if you write historical fiction, there should be a reason you think modern teens will connect with the time and story you’ve chosen. Otherwise, why make it MG or YA? The reason you chose to write for this audience should be based on more than YA being popular in publishing right now. Think of who your audience is and what they care about. More importantly, remember what they don’t care about.
There’s a huge difference in cultural and political attitudes from the 19th century to the 20th. Think, for example, how folks growing up in 1890 differ from the folks who came of age during the Roaring ’20s. They’re only one generation apart, and yet seem like a completely different world if you look at the history books. This is where we are now. The new century has taken shape and 20th century attitudes are becoming less and less relevant. For an American audience, a big part of that shift is because of the very tangible life-changing event that kicked off the new century, 9/11.
Want to go back and watch 9/11’s influence on pop culture? Aside from the many “post-9/11 novels” that came out around 2005-2008, and our desire to bring back superhero movies in a big way, take these examples of my two favorite shows:
– The West Wing was largely about the staffers of a liberal president who never went to war, and who’s biggest problem was that he didn’t disclose an illness before the election. After 9/11? Bartlett becomes increasingly more willing to take strikes on foreign land, the show itself becomes darker and more high stakes, and suddenly “the day in the life of a White House staffer” wasn’t a strong enough premise to compete against the real world drama of the early ’00s.
– Buffy, the Vampire Slayer is full of ’90s optimism, fashion, and attitude; it was often campy along with clever, and full of righteous heroes who believed the world was worth saving – a lot. By Season 6 (after 9/11 happened in real life), Buffy no longer knows who she is or what world she’s even trying to save anymore. The whole season is about feeling lost and hopeless. By the end of Season 7 (when we 1st invaded Iraq in real life), the Scooby Gang goes to war, refers to it as such, and is aware there will be casualties.
What those TV shows became are how shows now begin – dark, gritty, in need of an anti-hero because all the “real” heroes have left the building. The real world influences pop culture all the time, and it often defines a generation in the process. We’re not as lost as we were in the early ’00s, but life didn’t go back to how it was either.
The teens reading YA only know about 9/11 from history class. Imagine what your perspective of government, global politics, and even just day-to-day life might be like if you didn’t remember September 10th.
Someone on Twitter asked what I meant by “concepts/politics” in my tweet, and, in addition to major world events, I mentioned race and gender. I used the “Long Duck Dong” Syndrome of ’80s movies as an example. Movies geared toward teens are by no means perfect, and definitely not always politically correct, but overt racism is no longer mainstream comedy. Nor is language used to hide rape references, like in movies like Porky’s and Revenge of the Nerds. For every “boys will be boys” attempt in modern teen movies, there’s a smart, sassy girl ready to shoot them down and make them the butt of the joke. 21st century teens still see horrible socioeconomic disparities, gender roles being challenged and disputed, and racial equality taking leaps forward and backward at the same time, but they also hear more voices who were previously silenced because of changing attitudes and social media. (The 21st century is, after all, still a teenager… it has a way to go before it reaches mature adulthood.)
These are ideas that go beyond whether your character uses a cell phone or still says, “totally buggin’.”
We don’t all need to be scholars or philosophers. I still want fun, commercial stories about teens being teens, and I am a firm believer that teens are teens are teens. Meaning, their circumstances and perspectives change, but they don’t. Not really. That’s another reason why I love YA. I don’t need to be a 21st century teen to remember what it felt like to be a teenager. The heart of your stories – the emotional arcs of your characters – should be timeless. That doesn’t mean you can ignore a changing world that influences how your audience relates to your novel.
Another reason I’m elaborating on these tweets is because a lot of replies had to do with pop culture, which I understand. There were jokes about not mentioning certain bands or making their characters accidentally wear outdated styles. These are things to keep in mind when you write, but don’t give them more power than they’ll actually have on your reader. At the end of the day, these things are superficial. Teens might roll their eyes, but they’ll keep reading if the story is compelling enough.
That said, using too many outdated references can absolutely set off a teen’s bullshit detector. Sure, they can Google that band from the early ’00s and, yes, they’ve heard of VCRs before, but do they care? If they look it up online, will their understanding of the book as a whole really be effected? Probably not. So why risk interrupting the narrative? When I tell my authors to delete certain references, it’s not because I think teens won’t understand them. It’s because I know the reference isn’t really for them.
Besides, those superficial references are easy to fix anyway. You don’t need to study modern teens or be up-to-date on the latest trends. You just need to remember when it’s OK to be non-specific and embrace fiction. You’re writers; this shouldn’t be difficult.
For example:
- “Low-rise skinny jeans” = jeans
- “Smartphone/”cell phone” = phone
- “Facebook” = social media site with a cute name you made up
- “Taylor Swift” = pop star
See? Easy.
Honestly, unless your plot is heavily dependent on whether your main character tweets, listens to Justin Bieber, or uses their phone, you probably don’t need to call attention to it at all. The best uses of setting are the ones you barely notice because you’re already fully immersed in it. Trust your reader. They will assume your characters do “normal teen things” even if it’s not directly written on the page. Don’t over-think it. (I mean, it’s not like you’re writing an episode of The Vampire Diaries or anything.)
As writers, you don’t need to envision the future, or even make a comment on it, in order to write about the present. We (writers, agents, and publishers alike) just need to remember what the present is and respect who is going to build the future from here.
Sarah LaPolla 