Writing 101: What Are Your Responsibilities as a YA Author?

Every writer wrestles with themselves. Does that sentence make sense? Is this character relatable? Should I add that cliffhanger? Authors struggle with questions. Now, I'm going to dissect the one that's always on my mind.

Wait...Can I Write That?

I write YA books that feature teenage main characters. As such, I often ask myself what sort of responsibilities I have to my audience.

• Sex: Personally, I'm extremely uncomfortable writing about it. But the reality is, teens do have sex. If you write about it in your YA books, I encourage you to write about safe sex.
• Drugs: Teens also do drugs, sometimes. Many fine books look at this frankly, and there's nothing wrong with that. However, you do a disservice to your readers if you don't show the real consequences of drug abuse. It can be life-threatening. Do not make light of it.
• School: I read this great YA blog, and lately they've been running an ongoing feature about the many cliches in YA books. One of them is teens who don't ever go to school, or even think about it. Your teen characters should be going to school. If they ditch, if they do poorly, they should face repercussions. Don't you when you shirk your responsibilities? 
• Underage drinking: It happens. There are entire movies about teenagers buying alcohol to have parties. But drinking to excess at any age can be dangerous and it can lead to problems (like hangovers, and fatal car accidents). So if you show it in your books, do so three-dimensionally. Always strive to show all sides of a situation; this makes for better writing anyway.

Like it or not, as a YA author you have to be a bit of a role model. You have a responsibility to your audience. I realized this for myself after I exchanged emails with a mom. Her daughter read one of my books and enjoyed it, so the mom read it, too. During the course of our email conversation, she mentioned that her daughter had a habit of adopting weird (potentially unhealthy) dieting habits from the books she reads. Teens pick up on all those little details you write. What if one of them leads them into behavior that they don't even know is bad for them?

You've decided to speak directly to young readers with your stories. When you do so, think carefully about exactly what you're saying to them. You always have a responsibility to your readers as an author, no matter how old they are. Do your best to wear that responsibility well.

Writing 101: When Book Returns Make You Crazy

I spent all of last week maniacally checking my sales and re-thinking every line I ever wrote...because I had two book returns on Monday. Book returns make me crazy. 

Blame

It's been a week since those two book returns sent me into a tailspin, and I can now identify all 9 stages of a condition known as Insanity Due to Incomplete Ereading -- otherwise known as INDIE. 

• Denial: Clearly this is a computer error. My books are amazing. Like anyone would return them on purpose. By tomorrow all of this will be sorted out.
• Obsession: Any day now. All I have to do is watch my sales. Those returns are going to disappear. It's been five minutes -- I better check again.
• Anger: Who needs readers, anyway? You want to return my books? Obviously you're the one with the problem, not me.
• Criticism: Did I use too many metaphors? Is this because of that weird sentence in chapter 4? I knew I shouldn't have used the F word.
• Doubt: I'm a terrible writer. Maybe all these books I sold will get returned. Maybe they never even got read. Maybe I should get into something I'm qualified to do...like eating pie. Will anyone pay me to eat pie?
• Blame: What am I doing? This isn't my fault -- this is because Amazon has a BS return policy. Now I have to suffer because of their crazy window of opportunity.
• Acceptance: Okay, the books got returned. I'm going to sell more...eventually. Does anyone have any pie?
• Blame: I lied. I'm not okay, and this pie isn't helping. This is my fault. I should be a better writer, and then returns wouldn't happen. 

Yes, blame happens at least twice (and sometimes there's a third stage of blaming the reader). But don't end on blame. Complete the cycle, and get yourself to the final stage. 

Shrugging it Off

Returns happen even to the best authors and the most well-written books. Yes, even when the price is very low. Apparently, some people do know the value of a dollar..and they may change their minds about spending it on you.

So just shrug it off. Eat some pie and write some more. You will never please all the readers out there, but here's some good news:

There are always more readers.

Writing 101: Fooling Yourself, Fooling the World, Playing the Fool

April 1 is a day for fools, and that makes it a great day for all writers everywhere. It was Shakespeare who said that all the world's a stage, and the people in it are only players (unless you believe in the Shakespeare authorship controversy, but let's not get into that debate just now). As a writer, you're pretty much always doing one of three things: fooling yourself, fooling the world or playing the fool. So today is really a day for you.

Everybody Plays the Fool

I don't mean that offensively. Remember, I am also a writer -- and a fool. It takes a fool to believe that your own words are so very important, millions will want to read them. Read them, hell. They'll want to own them, to memorize them, to study and repeat them and love them. It takes a fool to scoff at rejection letters, to daydream brand-new worlds into existence...to make oneself vulnerable on the page. So today, be foolish when it comes to your writing. Foolery can be even stronger than bravery.

• Fooling yourself: To even dream about becoming an author, you've got to fool yourself a little. You can't be discouraged by the reality that millions of people have written books, and want to sell millions of copies of them. You can't think about the fact that agents receive thousands of letters a week, and readers are constantly inundated with book promotions. You can't be overwhelmed by the massive task of creating an entire book out of blank pages and your own mind. You've got to fool yourself, and tell yourself that none of this stuff is really that hard and that you can do it. This gives you the necessary stubbornness to forge ahead, and actually get it done.
• Fooling the world: Once you've got yourself fooled that you can become an author, your next task stretches before you: fooling the world. You see, you've got to make them believe it, too. Plenty of authors use self-publishing to create entire careers overnight. They begin writing a blog, publishing books and creating social media profiles online. If they work at it every single day, they'll collect followers and (with luck) book sales. This is what's known as fooling the world, and if you're a huge fool you can be really successful at it. 
• Playing the fool: When you are an author, you are primarily an entertainer. Think about your origins. Once upon a time, writing as we know it didn't exist. But ancient men who painted on cave walls absolutely had a form of storytelling. We know, because we can see the stories unfolding in the images they left behind. Your roots as a storyteller extend back even further than the bards who traveled from castle to castle, telling their stories before live audiences. Today's storytellers entertain in a different way, but make no mistake about it: they entertain. In order to be an entertainer,  you have to be playing the fool some of the time. You might have to be funny, or serious, or thought-provoking, or ridiculous. It's all part of the author package, and always has been. 

So what I'm saying is, if you're an author you've got a little bit of foolishness in you. Let it shine, for today is your day. Fool really means dreamer, and this is what all writers really are.

Writing 101: The Adverb Debate

If you spend any amount of time reading writing tips, you'll be exposed to the adverb debate. Some authors, like Stephen King, say don't use them at all. But are they really that bad?

What's an Adverb?

Before you know if adverbs are evil, it's helpful to figure out what they are. To put it simply, an adverb is any word with the -ly suffix. Mightily, oddly, fervently -- these are adverbs (ugly isn't one; there are exceptions to every rule). Adverbs are a well-used part of speech, and you're very likely to find them in all forms of writing.

So what makes them evil?

The Root of All Bad Writing

Those who dislike adverbs argue that they're cheap. A little too easy, a cop-out that's used in place of real descriptive writing. Instead of saying that Marie's voiced trembled, you write that she spoke fearfully.

Don't think there's anything wrong with that? You aren't alone. Many writers use adverbs happily, myself included. I've made no special effort to add them here, but I have put them in bold for easy identification.

The adverb debate is a losing argument. Writers should use every available word in their arsenals, and not limit themselves when it comes to descriptive text. Writing without adverbs is a difficult challenge, and a silly one.

Writing 101: Feelings of Resentment

It's not easy to admit, even to oneself, but many indie authors experience feelings of resentment...toward each other. 

This Market Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us

It's really not difficult to see how this might happen. Wouldn't it be a whole lot easier to sell books if there weren't so many books? Wouldn't it be easier to market if there wasn't so many other indie authors marketing? Wouldn't it be nicer if they would just  go away? 

And when you find other indie authors who publish books that get bad reviews and get a reputation for being error-riddled...well, it's sort of easy to start having feelings of resentment. I've resented other authors in the past, and my meanness isn't even limited to indies. I have a practically lifelong obsession with disliking Stephen King, for reasons we don't even have time to get into.

It's completely normal to feel dislike, even some hatred, for the competition. What you have to realize is that other authors, in all forms, are not your competition. They're your colleagues.

Scratch That, We Can Work This Out

Readers read, and writers write. It's an endless cycle, and it means there are plenty of readers to go around. People who read books don't read just one book, they read many. Some readers read several books a week, to the tune of hundreds of books a year. There are always going to be enough readers no matter how many self-published books are out there. Though, naturally, the scales will balance. Well-promoted and well-written books will sell more copies than those that are not promoted and poorly written. 

It's natural to resent other books that seem to be taking readers away, but you have to remind yourself that this isn't the case. Other indie authors can help you take your career further, in fact, because there's a strong sense of community and supportiveness among those who self-publish. Use the indie community, instead of resenting it, and you'll find that you can gain a lot from your fellow authors.

Writing 101: The Brave New World of Self-Published Comics

More ebookstores are appearing on smartphones, and even the public library is starting to distribute Kindle books for lending. Now, comic book writers get to join in on the fun, too. Got a great idea for a comic book? It's time to start self-publishing.

Self-Publishing Comes to Comics

Comixology has developed Submit, a comic book publishing platform designed for indies.  Beta trials began last year, and now the system is ready for the general public.

It's a pretty simple system. After content is uploaded and approved, it's added to the catalog. Authors get their own strorefront and have their work formatted for Comixology mobile apps. The app converts the comic book into panel-by-panel view screens. 

It costs nothing to self-publish through the platform, but you only get to keep half of what you earn. The rest goes to Comixology. This is the newest platform for comic book writers, but not the only one. It's possible to publish graphic novels with iBooks Author, and Graphicly is a well-established self-publishing platform for indies.

If you create comics and you haven't already joined the ranks of self-published indie authors, now is just as good a time to start as any, right?

Writing 101: Can You Write a Story with Many Main Characters?

It's happened very rarely, but it has been done. An author comes forward with a style or an idea that's so unusual, so outside-the-box, they distinguish themselves for ever. Lewis Carroll invented words. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote about what it was really like to be a black American...in the 1860s. And Jane Austen, single and never married, wrote so beautifully about love that girls still flock to read her boots 160 years after the fact. So can you do something unusual and interesting, too? Can you write a story with many main characters...or with no main character?

Thinking Outside the Box

The first time I saw The Neverending Story, I thought it was the most amazing movie ever made. I immediately loved it and wanted to watch it again and again (and I did). Now, ask me why.

Because I identified with, and immediately liked, Bastian. He's the little boy who's reading the book. I also read books! I'm not a little boy, and I didn't live in a big city like him, and I sure as heck would never have gone into any scary school store room by myself with a piece of fruit in the middle of a storm...but yeah, I know what it is to get swept up in a story, so carried away that it becomes the most important thing. Bastian was a main character, and he was the glue that held that whole story together. Eliminate him from The Neverending Story, and you've just got a weirdo in a loincloth talking to rocks. I definitely can't identify with any of that.

I like a single main character, and this is what works for a goodly amount of stories. But there are other ways to write a book.

• Many main characters

If your story has no main character, maybe it's because you have several main characters. Maybe you're telling several seemingly separate stories revolving around small casts of characters, and in the end these disparate plots merge into one mind-blowing experience. But here's the problem: I'm not a group of people or an entire cast. I am one person. I want to read about one person that I can latch onto. I want to love them, or hate them, cheer for them or actively root against them. I'm an individual, and I want to put my focus on an individual in your book.

If you divide my attention between several main characters, I may be unable to adequately drum up enough big emotion for any one of them. The worst thing you can do for your book is to create any sense of ambivalence. Get me passionate, get me laughing, get me crying -- get me feeling anything but apathetic. If you stretch my attentions and my emotions too thin among a big ensemble cast, the end result is that I won't really give a crap about any of them. So tread lightly if you're taking a many-character approach.

• No main characters

Taking a we-are-the-world approach, are we? Maybe you envision a brave new world of writing with no main character. Maybe you're detailing a catastrophic event in your story, and switching POV to different people with every new chapter. I visit with each, but never really linger. It's a bold plan.

Once again, I need someone to latch onto in order to develop the necessary emotion. If I know that you're just going to introduce me to someone new soon, what difference does it really make to me that Carol just died in Chapter 5? Now I'm hearing all about Jim, and he's pretty cool, so that's a do-over. You're basically hitting the reset button on your story over and over, and my emotions are getting engaged only briefly or not at all. If there's no longevity and no character development, what difference does any of it make? 

There are pitfalls to this approach, but if it's done well you can get me to care about something to make your story stick. If the people aren't touching me, maybe it's the setting that holds the story together. It's very possible to make human readers care about an inanimate object -- I wasn't the only person who cried when Wilson drowned in Cast Away, I know I'm not. 

• A small group

It's very common to see stories that revolve around a small group of main characters; two to five is just about right for a small, close-knit cast of characters. If these characters are linked in some way, this is an interesting way to show different sides of your characters. The reader gets the chance to see each character through the other's eyes, and the changing perspectives can add a rich new dimension to the story. 

Building a story around a few main characters is a good way to make your book identifiable to a broad range of readers. Think Sex & the City. Women of all ages love deciding which one of the four women they are (clearly I'm a Carrie) -- and you can see how it goes.

The answer to the question is yes. You can do whatever you like in your own book, and you should do whatever feels right to you to tell the story that you need to tell. A character doesn't have to be a stand-alone star, and you don't have to write your book using a certain formula. No matter how many characters you write, they simply need to be strong, well-crafted characters. Make them fully dimensional, real people, and that will make them more identifiable.

Praise for The Tower

"If there's one book that deserves to be in the bestsellers list I think it's this one because Jade Varden did an absolutely flawless job in executing the story."

"While the previous book was good, this one was excellent, brilliant and honestly? I can't praise it enough."

The Tower (Deck of Lies, #2) has been reviewed at Reading 24x7 by friend of the blog Josheka Chauhan. Read the whole thing before you get your copy of the book!