One Thing YA Writers Must Know

There's one thing YA writers have to know when writing to and about teenagers:

Most of us don't know what the hell is going on. Like, ever.

Teenagerdom is a paradox. It's a series of life crises. It's a transition period and a conclusion, a journey and a destination, a time to be stupid and a time to grow up. One moment your life was made of happily-ever-afters; the next, everything is about is puberty and cynicism and sex ed, and in the middle of a world that's trying to fall back into place, you realize that

you

know

nothing.

Do you go to church because you want to, or because you always have? Do you know what it means to be a Republican or a Democrat or a Libertarian or a Bull Moose Partier, or do you call yourself one because that's what your parents are? Suddenly, you're realizing that life isn't simple at all, and the truth is about as hard to define as it is to find, and good and evil such stupid terms, because the world isn't black and white, or even gray--it's made of colors and differences and shifting.

And personalities? We have personalites--we just don't know what they are yet. Our likes and dislikes are so different from what they were a year, a month, a week ago. "Impressionable" is an understatement; sponge might be more fitting--we swallow information, habits, desires, and make them our own, unconsciously. We talk, dress, and act like our friends or our role models, but we never decided to do so. We're basically ruled by hormones. We want to fit in, but suddenly fitting in isn't cool anymore--but if hipster is mainstream, then isn't old-mainstream hipster? Conformity is out, but does originality exist? If we're defined by our interactions, and if everything we've ever created is no more than an enormous collage of our conversations and experiences and mistakes, then is there really such a thing as an original thought?

It's all very confusing, you see.

This. This is what it means to be a young adult. The thing is, we're afraid. We're uncertain. We doubt our abilites and our beliefs and our values and pretty much everything else, but we can't show it because we're teenagers, and society expects us to be careless and irresponsible and...young. And this is also why there are so many YA books out there. Teenagerdom is an incredibly dynamic time, brim-full of the angst that readers hunger for. But it's also a time that we desperately need to read books and realize that we're not alone. That we don't have to be alone.

And lastly, this is why well-developed characters are so vital to YA. We need to know that everyone else is struggling, too, and that they're wading through a tide of influences to try to find themselves. Those pretty, perfect, self-assured ones? They make us feel like misfits. Like failures.

We're not failures. We're wanderers. We're trying. Please remember that. And please write characters that help us remember, too.

Contest Reminder

Remember that giveaway? If you haven't seen it in the comments of the last post...Deserae McGlothen, you won the giveaway! Yay! Would you please email me soon (or leave some other way for me to contact you in the comments), so I can send you a copy of Chicken Soup for the Soul: Inspiration for Writers? Thanks!

If I don't hear anything by Wednesday night, I'm going to have to pick another winner. So please reply! :)

Giveaway!

GUYS. Guess what arrived this week?

 

SQUEEEE!!!!!!! You know what this means? GIVEAWAY TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

It's an awesome collection of stories for writers at any stage, and mine just happens to be about the way I started writing. So, to enter this giveaway: In the comments, briefly tell me about how you started writing. You can earn an extra entry if you tweet about it! Next Sunday, I'll put all of your beautiful names in a hat and the winner gets a copy! Yay! (U.S. only, please. I'm a poor high school student).

 

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *dances* *trips* *twitches on ground*

EDIT: Contest is now closed! The winner is Deserae McGlothen! Deserae, please find my email under the Contact tab and give me your address. :D :D :D



I Keep Forgetting to Blog About This... *cue belated confetti*

One day last summer, I was bored (okay, let's face it--I was bored almost every day last summer, but it just happened that this particular day's boredom led to something less boring), so I started Googling random things, and eventually this led to the search, "writing contests." I was in between manuscripts, so I figured that I'd write a few short stories or something (maybe. Fine, I don't actually really remember much...). I ended up finding a call for submissions for Chicken Soup for the Soul: Inspiration for Writers. So I wrote an essay. And I submitted it. And then I went back to watching reruns of Friends.

 

A few months ago, I got an email during Physics that said that my essay had been accepted for publication. I had to read the email twice because a) I was simultaneously trying to take notes on Bernoulli's Principle or something, b) it took me a minute to remember what this was about, having completely forgotten that I had submitted anything at all. Once I did remember, I flailed and accidentally-on-purpose slapped my friend in the arm. She slapped me back.

 

But then other things happened, our teachers began throwing homework at us like possessed dodgeballers (I've never been good at dodgeball, okay?), and between it all, I kind of forgot about it again until I got an email a few days ago for publicity info and other exciting things. Soooo, without further ado...

 

Here's the cover!

And here's the Table of Contents (LOOK AT MY NAME :D)

And here's the first page of my essay (this is all from Amazon's Look Inside feature)...

 

(I know, the title kind of bothers me now. When I was writing it last summer, I wanted to show that I am both a teenager and a writer, but now I'm afraid that people will see it as another "teen author" thing. Ah, well. My name! Is on that page! Also, isn't the quote amazingorgeous?!)

And here's my bio!

 

(Such a lie. I text all the time. And tweet. And email. And play Fruit Ninja.

You can buy it here (B&N), or here (Amazon), or here (Chicken Soup). Also, Goodreads! I'll be doing a giveaway sometime in the next few months, so stay tuned!



Want High Schoolers to Learn About Your Upcoming Book?

Hi, everyone!

So, you guys may or may not know that I'm the head editor of our school newspaper. Recently, I had this idea of interviewing the lovely Leigh Ann Kopans about her upcoming book, ONE (and yes, the hyperlink is a less-than-subtle hint to add it on Goodreads. DO IT! :) .....

 

And then I managed to get ARCs of ONE displayed in both our school library and in our local library...

 

 

 

 

It's only been up for about a week, but so far, the response has been really positive. The thing is, the kids in my school aren't big on reading (I know. It's seriously depressing), and I think having this opportunity is exciting for a lot my peers. I mean, it isn't every day that you get to read about an author's writing process, recieve advice about writing, and oogle at books that haven't even been released yet.

 

I really, really like doing this. First of all, it makes high schoolers excited to read, and second of all, it captures the attention of the target audience, as well as that of teachers and librarians. I'd really like to keep doing it.

 

Basically, I'm wondering if any other authors debuting in 2013 or spring 2014 would be interested in being interviewed and having an ARC or two displayed in our library. Just think, you'd be getting some publicity AND helping anti-reading kids fall in love with your books. I'm also starting a writing club at our school, so during the 2013-14 school year, I'd like to have a featured author every month that the club can Skype chat (or otherwise communicate) with about writing, revising, critiquing, etc.

 

A few other things:

 

1. The featured books must be YA.

2. We have one more issue coming out this May, and five next year (November, December, February, March, and May), so the books would have to release close-ish to those dates.

3. The authors would obviously have to send me cookies (I'm only mostly joking)
EDIT: 4. The book would preferably be a debut. If it isn't, it must be a standalone or the first of a series (I'm afraid doing second installments would be confusing for people who haven't read the first).

 

If you're interested, please shoot me an email at azhang68[at]gmail[dot]com!

EDIT: The May and February slots are filled. The October/November slot may be filled, but you might be able to convince me to double up :)

On Pleasing Everyone

This morning on Twitter, I ranted about a book. This post is about that book. So if you know what book I'm talking about and don't want to see spoilers, please don't read on!

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I don't think I've ever felt as insulted as a reader than I did this morning.

Writing is hard, okay? It's part perspiration and part inspiration and part masochism and part sadism and part wasting time on the Internet (mostly the last one). It's hard because of a lot of things, but I'm only going to talk about two today. First: there is going to be suffering in your book. Your characters are going to miserable for the majority of the story, or you will have no conflict and therefore no plot. A part of you is going to enjoy tormenting these characters (because ANGST), and another part of you is going to be suffering just as much as they are. Do not DO NOT DO NOT chicken out, or your readers are going to close the book.

Second: at some point, you have to relinquish control. When you got that first flash of inspiration, you made a promise to your newborn characters: I will tell your story. You are documenting lives that, even though they're fictional, have backstories, secrets, whys. Plot twists have to make sense. Endings have to stay true to the journeys that led up to them.

When they don't, your readers will know.

Anyway. Back to the book. I'm not usually a big fan of love triangles, but last night, I was about halfway through this book and I found myself thinking, this love triangle is amazingly executed. The author didn't make either of the two boys the obvious choice, and the girl caught between them wasn't annoying, and she didn't spend her time staring out into the rain, picturing their two smexy faces. The triangle didn't hinder the plot or drive it, and the characterization of the protagonists wasn't dependent upon the romantic tension. And, most importantly, it seemed that the author was going to make everyone live with their choices. In fact, she could have written a fantastically happy/tragic/satisfying ending.

But then she introduced a loophole that nearly caused me to throw the book across the room. The very essence of a love triangle is that somebody has to choose and somebody has to lose, right? You don't get to believe that one boy is dead so you can get together with the other one, and then wait till that one is dead to get together with the first one.

As a reader, I felt completely bullshitted.

Please don't write to please people. Please don't try to please everybody. Please don't write an ending that betrays the themes in your book. Please don't force an ending on your characters that isn't theirs.

I am Not a Teen Writer

I am a writer.

I sit curled in corners with my laptop balanced on my knees, the keyboard chattering beneath my fingers, a story spilling onto my screen. I strain my eyes squinting at my dim computer screen in the ungodly hours of morning. I stay up into the even ungodlier hours of night trying to patch up plot holes or developing characters or figuring out what to say to Oprah when she asks me to be in her book club.

I am a teenager.

I waste money on clothes I don't need (also at Cherry Berry, because what's the world without frozen yogurt?). I procrastinate. I have a microwave and a goldfish in our editing room for the school newspaper, both of which are strictly prohibited by the school. I do stupid things. I go to Walmart with my friends, and we race each other in shopping carts. I pull all-nighters before exams. I worry about college. I'm afraid of responsibility.

I am a writer. I am a teenager. But I am not a teen writer.

We don't call 30-year old writers "adult writers" (I mean, unless they write for adults, but THAT DOESN'T COUNT). We don't call 50-year olds "middle-aged writers." We don't call 70-year old writers "senior writers." But we're free with the "teen writer" label, and too often, that label is associated with phrases like, they took pity on you.  Or they want to use your age as a marketing strategy. Or you're good, for your age.

Listen up. I don't want to be good for my age.

I want to write. I want to get better. I want other people to read the manuscript I've spent hundreds of hours working on. I want what every other writer wants.

I'm not saying that my age doesn't matter--it does, because being sixteen affects me every bit as much as being a writer does. But being sixteen doesn't make me less of a writer. Being a writer doesn't make me less of a teenager.

We are writers. We don't measure ourselves in years, or successes, or failures. We measure ourselves in words. In drafts. In revisions. In the mistakes we learned from. In the stories we promised to tell.

I am not a teen writer. I'm just a writer.