So this whole YA thing...

Young Adult fiction just kept coming up.  I don't mean the new book sales.  I don't mean one agent after another who said they were actively looking for YA.  I mean readers.  Smart adults, that I admire, reading YA.

Now, I admit, I was skeptical.  Why would educated, erudite adults, all clearly smarter than I, be reading YA?  I know people are quick to point out that YA means that the protagonist is young, usually a teen, and that YA does not that the language in the book is written at a lower reading level.

So, I began researching and reading.  Turns out, most YA fiction IS written at a lower reading level than most adult fiction.  So, people who get insulted by those who say some readers have turned to YA because it is easier to read probably should get over it.

It is also true that most YA, actually I could find no exception, features a main character between the ages of 14 and 18.

However, it is also true that I was surprised by some of the YA fiction.  I was surprised to find some of the language- the diction, the syntax- was actually challenging reading and clever writing.  I was also surprised to find very intricate plotting, and complex themes.

I realized that not all YA was easy to read, and certainly some YA was difficult to write.  In light of this, and because I love to learn-by-doing, I decided to try and write a YA novel.  The entire book is written in 1st person, from the point-of-view of a 16 year old girl.  I did, in fact, learn a lot.

I also had a lot of fun.  I finished the first draft of my first YA novel today.  The working title is "Celestine," which is also the protagonist's first name.  Celestine Tolland has found herself in a new place and time, after great loss, and has to find her way.  These are familiar tropes, I know, but to live inside the head of teenage girl since November has been both eye-opening and exhausting.

I always learn from the characters I invent.  The Night Stalkers series I wrote featured a female protagonist, so that wasn't the particularly new part.  It was the combination of gender and age. Teenage girls live in an especially fun and simultaneously vicious world, filled with opportunities for stories.

Now, I'll set to revising the "Celestine," and hopefully I'll be querying agents about the project in the coming months.

In the end, I have learned that I enjoy writing Young Adult fiction.  I am not sure what my next novel will be, but it just might be another YA project.