I’ve been writing for most of my life. I always knew I would write Young Adult novels, but I realized, when I began writing them, I didn’t know the exact metrics for YA literature. Following are some of the simple guidelines for the differences between young adult and adult literature.
Age of the Main Character(s)
The main characters should, ideally, be aged from 14 to 17 in YA literature. Spoiler: In “The Life After,” my main character is 16. None of the other primary characters fall into the typical “young adult” age range. The next closest is 19. The oldest is not exactly aged but immortal, so pretty old.
Age of the Audience
As a YA author, you’re writing for an audience age 17 or younger, but you are also writing for an audience age 18 and older. Believe it or don’t, most of your readers are going to be adults. In fact, studies show more than 70 percent of YA readers are over the age of 18. More than 25 percent are over the age of 28. However, your main target audience is young, which means your content should speak to them. That doesn’t mean you can’t have heavy and important topics. It means you need to get to know your audience, understand them and speak to them without speaking down to them.
Writing Style
I prefer YA novels because they are readable. Your typical YA novel isn’t written with a thesaurus in one hand and a bottle of scotch in the other. Write in a way that is digestible by an average 14-year-old. You can test this by using an online readability tool or you can use your own judgment. I prefer my own judgment, but you do you.
Length of Manuscript
The typical YA manuscript has 50,000 to 80,000 words. That equals less than 300 pages. Keep that in mind when writing. There are some publishers/agents who won’t even look at a YA manuscript that has more than 80,000 words. That said, the sub-genre does make a difference. If you write fantasy, you can get away with over 100k. The first draft of "The Life After" was sent out with about 101,000 words and I felt like I was leaving out valuable details to get it that short. Luckily, my agent, publisher and editors agreed. With more work, the novel now stands at roughly 133,000.
Voice
This is the most difficult. Unless you are 12 or younger, you are currently or have been a teen so you might think this is the easiest part of all. According to my own teens, you would be wrong. One of the reasons I set out to publish “The Life After” was because of my teens’ complaints that too many YA novels are written by people who are trying to sound like teens and not by people who actually do. This is why I used some teenage beta readers to give me feedback. They offered invaluable advice regarding the way my main character talks and thinks.
If you are writing for yourself, it doesn't really matter what guidelines you follow. Enjoy the journey. If you are writing for an audience, it does matter. While you will always find exceptions to these rules, your best chance at getting published and gaining an audience is by keeping these general guidelines in mind - even if you don't always follow them.
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