So You Want To Write YA Contemporary?

Photo credit: Nicola since 1972 on Flickr

It’s been a while since I’ve updated the So You Want To Write series, and apparently I never wrote about writing a YA Contemporary, so! Here we go.

What is it?

YA Contemporary novels are what is often described as “Realistic Fiction.” Except for young adults—that is, teens. These feature a world, that for all intents and purposes, is our own and usually takes place in the present, but occasionally jumps back a decade or two (but not much more than that.) There is often (but not always) some kind of romantic subplot, and sometimes (though again, not always) they are what are known as “issue books.”

The main tenant, however, is teenagers dealing with something in our world.

Pros/Cons of Writing YA Contemporary:

Pros:

• Popular at the moment. After the explosion known as The Fault in Our Stars, YA Contemporary got a hugenormous boost, which has not only lead to a boost of new YA Contemporary novels, but also of many more YA Contemporary movie deals, which personally I think is pretty darn awesome. So right now, YA Contemporary novels are selling really well, which is fabulous, but also has a down side which I’ll get to below. 


• Very good for diving into difficult topics. If you’re a contemporary-minded writer who’d really like to dive into a difficult topic that feels important to you, YA Contemporary is a great place to do it. Not only are those kinds of books actually selling rather well, but it also allows you to create books that could be cathartic for teens who have experienced whatever you’re writing about, or a great point of discussion for those ready to learn more. 


• Will probably never go completely out of style. While I do think the genre is on the verge of slowing down a bit (more on that below), I kind of tend to think that books about life and reality will never completely go away. This is an opinion, of course, and I could be totally wrong, but contemporary novels have been around forever and I don’t think they’re going anywhere. 


• Opportunity to explore teen life as it actually is today. Teen lives are rich and interesting and wonderful and painful and everything in between. And if exploring that in our world is your bread and butter, this is the genre for you.

Cons:

• Popular at the moment. Right, so, downside of writing in a genre that is currently popular is chances are very likely you’ve already missed the wave. It also means there are still a lot of people trying to sell their YA Contemporaries in a very crowded market, but…I mean, the rest of YA is equally crowded. So. 

Recommended Reading:

I’ll keep saying this forever and ever: you must read the genre you write in. It is vital—vital—to understand what else is being published, what’s selling well, what’s not, what’s been done, what works, what doesn’t. And the only way you learn this is by reading what’s being published now.

Note: I’ve either read, want to read, or have heard amazing things about the books listed below.

• Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
• I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
• Made You Up by Francesca Zappia
• None of the Above by I.W. Gregorio
• Not Otherwise Specified by Hannah Moskowitz
• Under the Lights by Dahlia Adler
• Fangirl and Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
• The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley by Shaun David Hutchinson
• Written in the Stars by Aisha Saeed
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
• The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Helpful Links:

• YA Common Clichés series: YA Romance by S.E. Sinkhorn on Maybe Genius
• Genre Questions: What is Contemporary Young Adult Fiction? by Stephanie Morrill on Go Teen Writers
• Realistic YA Fiction Is Here to Stay (Then Again, It Never Went Away) by Parnassus Books on musing

Do you enjoy reading or writing YA Contemporary? Share your experience!

Twitter-sized bites:

Thinking about writing YA Contemporary? Writer @Ava_Jae shares some tips, recommendations and more. (Click to tweet)

Do you write YA Contemporary novels? Share your experience at @Ava_Jae’s So You Want to Write series. (Click to tweet)

Book Review: I’LL GIVE YOU THE SUN by Jandy Nelson

Photo credit: Goodreads

As you probably know by now, I like to start these review things with the Goodreads summary, so here we go: 

“Jude and her twin brother, Noah, are incredibly close. At thirteen, isolated Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude cliff-dives and wears red-red lipstick and does the talking for both of them. But three years later, Jude and Noah are barely speaking. Something has happened to wreck the twins in different and dramatic ways…until Jude meets a cocky, broken, beautiful boy, as well as someone else—an even more unpredictable new force in her life. The early years are Noah's story to tell. The later years are Jude's. What the twins don't realize is that they each have only half the story, and if they could just find their way back to one another, they’d have a chance to remake their world.”

Right, so, I don’t usually do this, but I’m also going to share with you my Goodreads updates from when I was reading, because they basically sum up my experience pretty nicely:

I’m not sure what I expected when I picked up I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson. I knew the basics: dual POV, everyone seems to love it, LGBTQIA+ themes, and then it went ahead and won the Printz a few days after I started reading, so I knew chances that I was going to like it were high.

But wow, you guys. I really really loved this one.

I'm not an externally emotional reader. I mean, I obviously have feels like everyone else, but I’ve yet to read a book that made me cry, as I’ve confessed here before, and I’m usually pretty good about keeping a stoic exterior while reading. But I’ll Give You the Sun put me on the brink of tears several times, which is ridiculously rare for me, and I just loved Noah and Jude so much, and the writing!

The writing. I think Nelson’s prose is one of those love/hate varieties, but I definitely fell on the love side. Both Noah and Jude’s voices were a little out there with some of the imagery and analogies, but I felt like I really got it, and it totally made sense to me with their very artsy personalities, and it just felt so fresh, and wonderful, and fit the tone of the book beautifully.

Noah and Jude aren’t perfect. They both make hurtful, cringe-worthy mistakes with big consequences. They’re emotional, and young, and full of dreams, and highs, and lows, and I became so very emotionally entangled with their stories.

I often tell people that the best books make you feel something. I’ll Give You the Sun didn’t make me feel something—it made me feel everything. I loved every page, and Nelson’s got herself a new fan for sure.

What have you been reading lately? Any recommendations? 

Twitter-sized bites: 

.@Ava_Jae gives 5/5 stars to I’LL GIVE YOU THE SUN by @jandynelson. Have you read this beautiful YA Contemporary? (Click to tweet)  

Looking for an emotional & diverse YA read? Check out I’LL GIVE YOU THE SUN by Jandy Nelson. (Click to tweet)