Achieving pace in YA novels

Why pace is important

The young adult has the dopamine charged brain that leads to greater risk-taking. The adolescent is also under a good deal of pressure. They are dealing with study, new relationships and par-time work. Anything written for them must get to the point quickly.

 

Some of the risks we encounter 

•         Joy-riders

•         Facing uncomfortable truths

•         Laying self open to criticism

•         Doing something you’ve never done before

•         Holocaust risks

•         Talking to someone you’re shy about  

•         Superheroes

Risk-taking (of their own making)

•      Gemma in Libby Bray’s A Great and Terrible Beauty – playing with magic.

•      Lyra in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials – always brave

•      The relatively naïve girls in Judy Waite’s Game Girls become prostitutes

•      Chamus in Oisin McGann’s The Gods and Their Machines flies aeroplanes and becomes an important pivot between three warring factions.

Danger imposed upon them

•      Mrs Coulter / The Church in Pullman

•      Snake right at beginning in Bray

•      External war in McGann

•      Aggressive man  - potential for STD in Waite  

Relationships between plots

This allows for another problem to gain momentum while one is solved.

E.g. Harry Potter: -

•      Harry’s longing for home

•      Harry being different from others

•      Harry and magic

•      Harry and friends

•      Harry and other enemies

•      Harry and Snape

A more subtle version

In Deborah Savage’s Kotuku:

The protagonist Charlotte comes to terms with who she is. She also:

•      Finds the love of her life

•      Understands some of the mythology that builds who she is

•      Comes to terms with her friend’s death.

High stakes

There is often something really huge at stake e.g. a relationship with the super natural, a strained relationship with a close family member, the need to save the world, an extremely risky life style.

 

Car chase moments

The “car chase” moment usually comes as part of the climax. There is often some sort of journey at this point in a YA novel.

 

Language

Often a very immediate first person narrative is used. The present tense can also give more closeness. This is often the voice of a young adult a telling a best mate what is actually happening without overanalysing it. Thus the reader shares the growth.

 

And suddenly moments

•         Twists and turns

•         Cliff hangers

 

Other aids

•      Short sentences

•      Short chapters

Reading Exercise

Look at how a YA book of your choice achieves pace.

Writing exercise

Write two or three scenes of your work in progress showing a fast pace.

 

 

How to write a great synopsis

Note, a synopsis is not a blurb. You must tell the full story in a business-like language.

What to do:

•         Describe the plot in two lines - include the premise.

•         Say a little about each character.

•         Develop the plot through six stages: -

–     hook

–     3 or more incidents

–     crisis

•      climax

–     resolution

–     stasis

•         Conclusion - include "moral"? 

Here are some examples:

Describe the plot in two lines:

(From The House on Schellberg Street) 

Renate Edler finds out only a few days before she comes to England on the Kindertransport that she has Jewish blood and is officially a Mischling, a mixed-race child. She has to become English.

(Okay – two and a bit. That’s within your normal 10%)     

 

Say a little about each main character

This may be about just your protagonist or all or some of your main archetypes.   

(From Clara’s Story. Here I only describe the protagonist.)

Clara really existed and was according to the German race laws Jewish although she had converted to Christianity several years earlier. She sees her Jewishness as a religious rather than a racial matter.

Her children managed to escape the Nazi regime. Ironically she did not because she was helping Karl Schubert to protect and foster a special class of children with learning difficulties. This class continued to meet at her home in Stuttgart after the Waldorf School was closed.

 

Develop the plot through six stages

You will see that here I’ve pinned it to McKee’s theory. You could use any of the others, in fact. Keeping to this shape prevents your synopsis from just being a list of events. 

(From A Gallery for Nick) 

Just before this I have described the characters, the relationships and the tensions between them. 

Barney returns from his first date with Sophie – a girl it has taken him a lot of time and courage to ask out – to receive a phone call from Mrs Fletcher telling him that Nick has been taken into hospital. Barney rushes to the hospital, but Nick dies minutes before he arrives.

Barney now becomes depressed himself and his school work suffers. He still cares for Sophie, but cannot express this. He stops being the easy-going character who was everybody’s friend. He is dropped from the swimming team. Sophie tries to support him, but finishes with him because he doesn't seem to want her. He is, however, devastated. He takes to skipping school and hanging about the harbour where he and Nick used to take the photos.

An old friend of the family, Jack Mitchell, befriends Barney and invites him to take part in one of the courses at his sailing school. Jack understands that Barney is missing Nick. Those who wept at his funeral seem to have forgotten him now and others think it is a relief that he has died.

The crisis point comes as Barney is so self-absorbed that he loses control of the boat almost drowning everyone on board. He realises that he has to handle his grief better.  Barney goes out in a boat with Jack and he is able to cry at last, as he remembers his friend and enjoys the sea for him. He feels as if Nick - a strong, healthy Nick - is with them as they sail back to the shore.   

Nick's mum phones Barney. She wonders whether he would be able to help her clear up Nick’s room. Barney agrees. They find the paintings in the drawer. Mrs Fletcher says she would like to keep some, but agrees with Barney that the rest should be displayed. Barney thinks of asking Jack to let him display the pictures in the odd-shaped room at the sailing club. Sophie agrees to be the hostess at the opening of the gallery. Jack decides to start a sailing school for the disabled and use the gallery as a way of helping to raise funds. Barney learns to celebrate his friend's life. The reader is left to guess whether a romance begins again between Barney and Sophie. 

Note: I haven’t named the six parts here, apart from the crisis, but they are clearly visible. You can name them if you wish.  

 

Conclusion

(From A Gallery for Nick)

We see Barney go through all the stages of grief:  denial, anger, guilt, depression, acceptance and finally celebration of life. There is hope at the end.  

I also recommend Nicola Morgan’s book: Write a Great Synopsis – An Expert Guide

Exercise

Now have a go at writing a synopsis. If you haven’t got a finished novel try writing one for a novel you have enjoyed.

Pushing Boundaries in Young Adult Novels

Young adults are constantly trying to break but also to establish boundaries that adults set for them. Novels written for them need to reflect that.

However, because teachers, educationalists and librarians rejoice when young people read, even if it is material that has made the adult squirm, they will often accept the edgy material.

This material then is not edgy enough for the dopamine charged brain of the young adult – so the writers have to be come even edgier.        

 

The teachers’ and librarians’ dilemma

Teachers and librarians want young people to read. However, books are in fact works of art.

Yet, from Kindergarten right up to university level, students are taught to dissect books.

Why do we read?  Is there an expectation that we’ll learn something about life from books?

Books are used in schools:

•         For the teaching of reading

•         For checks on understanding through comprehension exercises

•         For the teaching of grammar and English usage

•         As models for children's own writing

•         To provide supportive evidence in other subjects, e.g. History, Science. 

•         For the teaching of English literature as bonuses in personal growth, e.g. 'not being the only one’ (PSHE)

•         And 'understanding others’ (citizenship)

Note, the young adult has already had eight years of this in school.

 

Losing the art of reading for pleasure

Children often read in a fragmentary way at school because of the way English is taught. There are also other distractions for the growing teenager. Boys particularly go for factual reading. Young Adult literature may help to get young people to read for pleasure again.   

 

The circle

The writer produces something edgy and shocking. The reader enjoys this. The concerned adult – teacher, parent, librarian is pleased. The book is no longer “cool” because the adults like it. The next one must become even edgier.   

 

Gatekeepers

Adults- parents, teachers, librarians as well as publishers and booksellers still stand between the book and the reader, perhaps more so because the young adult is not reading outside of school.  So, GCSE and A-level books tend to be labelled as “young adult”.  

 

Pictures of the world

Margaret Meek and Jürgen Habermas recognise that we gain pictures of the world from what we read. Fantasy reorders the world. Note a preponderance of fantasy and science fiction in texts for young adults. The young adult is often seeking identity. 

Market forces

Imprints across the world have different definitions for the age range for young adults. Some start as young as 12 and some go on to 17.  On average, young adult is 14-17.  

Who defines the books?

–     Academics

–     Publishers

–     Booksellers

–     Young adults.

 

Some edgy topics that have now become almost commonplace

Young Adult texts often contain:

•         Drug addiction

•         Sexuality

•         Sexual abuse

•         Extreme violence

•         Near futures

•         Incest

Other ways of pushing boundaries

Form

Language

Hypertext

Interaction with Social Media 

Other types of books produced for young adults

• Chicklet-lit which is like chick-lit but for younger reader. These contain a lot about make-up, boys, rebelling against parents and there is usually much humour.  However they are slightly more serious than the chick-lit produced for adult readers. There is also “Staglet-lit” that does the same for boys. A lot of this is produced in Canada.  Writers include: Cathy Hopkins, Louise Rennison, Judy Blume and  Christine Nöstlinger
• Books that look like adult books.
• Books that look like children’s books
• Both of these become young adult because of the age of the characters.
• Some graphic novels.
• Some “hi-los”

 

Exercise on Pushing Boundaries

Make notes / write scenes on the following. 

1.      Look at you plot outline – is there anywhere where you could have a scene that pushes boundaries? Write that scene!

2.      Does your story lend itself to an experiment with form?

3.      Can you use experimental language?

4.      OR: is your novel more of a chicklet-lit / staglet-lit novel? Or like a children’s or adult novel?  Write a scene showing this.      

Writing for Young Adults – The Bildungsroman Thread

“Bildungsroman, the term applied to novels of ‘education’ (in the widest sense), of which many of the best examples are German. Wieland’s Agathon (1765-6) is usually thought the first of the genre but the beta and most imitated was Goethe’s Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship) … Wilhelm provides the model of the innocent, inexperienced, well-meaning but often foolish and erring, young man who sets out in life with either no aim in life or the wrong one. By a series of false starts and mistakes and with help from well-disposed friends he makes in the course of his experiences, he finally reaches maturity and finds his true profession.”

The big conclusion of the research I conducted for my PhD was that the young adult novel is always a Bildungsroman of sorts. More often than not it is to do with identity though it may be one particular aspect of identity that the young person uncovers.

Bildungsroman” literally means “novel of education”

Wilhelm Meister sets out, not knowing what he is doing, making many mistakes, and finally reaching maturity and finding his proper profession. 

The central character in most young adult novels sets out clumsily at first, making many mistakes, and finally succeeds in at least a small way, finding the right path through.

Many young people go through rites of passage at this time.

The story of adolescence traced though story theory:

•      Ordinary World  (Christopher Vogler) Childhood

•      Call to Adventure (Vladimir Propp)  Invitation to become adult through the onset of puberty

•      Refusal of the Call (P) The adolescent sometimes wishes to continue to behave like a child and wants the comforts of childhood.

•      Meeting with the Mentor (V) Supernatural Aid (Joseph Campbell Young people trust other authorities from the ones they knew in childhood i.e. parents and school. The trappings of teenage life – clothes, make-up, music, and possibly also drugs and alcohol give supernatural help.

•      Crossing the First Threshold (P) The young person goes through puberty.

•      The Belly of the Whale (C) Trials, Allies, Enemies (V) The Road of Trials (C) These are the ups and downs of becoming an adult, the changes in the brain and hormones going mad. Could the belly of the whale also be the teenager’s bedroom?

•      The Meeting with the Goddess (C) This may by sexual seduction or a tendency to put role models put upon a pedestal – e.g.  footballers and pop stars.

•      Woman as Temptress (C) Does this personify sexual experimentation?

•      Approach to the Inmost Cave (V) Young adults go into a quiet space to find their true identity.

•      Ordeal (V) Young adults face a final struggle to find their own truth.

•      Atonement with the Father (C) The young adult is reconciled with the old way of life and the essence of the personality. What happened during childhood still counts.

•      Apotheosis (C) A beautiful new adult emerges.

•      The Ultimate Boon (C) Reward (V) The young person finds a role in life.

•      Refusal of the Return (C) Despite recognizing the value of what has gone before the young person does not want to return to the beginning. This may be because they do not like the old way of life or it may be because they do not want to lose the idealized image they have of it.  

•      The Magic Flight (C) Go back they must. Young people reach out to those roots with their new adult knowledge. This is often symbolized by an actual journey.

•      Rescue from without (C) Adolescents cannot just stay in their inner cave. They must face the realities of the world.

•      The Road Back (V) This represents a reconciliation between the new and old orders. Parents who had seemed incredibly stupid when one was fourteen, now that one is eighteen, seem not too bad after all. 

•      Master of Two Worlds (C) Resurrection (V) The new adult takes up the new position in the world but still appreciates what has come before.

•      Freedom to Live (C) Return with the Elixir (V) Self-esteem is improved so the young person is free to live. The elixir is self-knowledge.

 

Seeing this in a book you might read

•         Look at the first scene and the last.

•         Has the character grown?

•         How have they changed?

•         Note that many actors look at the first and the last scene of the script before they decide whether to take on a part. They want to know that the character has grown.

How does this happen in YA books you have read?

Writing task

Write a scene near the beginning of your novel and another towards the end to show how your main character has changed.