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Young Writers Society


YA or Adult?



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Fri Jul 03, 2015 9:25 pm
ShadowPrincess16 says...



Hello all! So, I recently lost like 65% of the novel I was working on. (Horrible, I know.) So I'm now working on another called Immortal Darkness. My best friend and I are currently arguing over whether it should be classed as YA or as an adult book. I had intended it to be a YA series but now I'm not so sure. Here's the summary I have for it:

Styxx Lancaster is a Mage. Among the most powerful of his kind, Styxx has lived alone for centuries since the death of his lover in 1601. A rich man, Styxx spends most of his time in the palace he built as a young immortal. He is a loner and rarely bothers to leave his palace. On a rare excursion into the mainland, Styxx meets Ryder Sullivan. Ryder is a young but powerful Mage who has been kicked out of his home because he was more powerful than his twin brother Ryan. Styxx, feeling an unusual pull to the young Mage, decides to take him under his wing. He allows him to move with him to the Palace and teaches him about Magick. He even teaches Ryder the Ancient Arts, a brand of Magick that has gone out of practice. The Ancient Arts, while hardly anyone knows about them, are extremely useful in every aspect of life. On the third day that Ryder is at the Palace, his mother shows up. His mother, Helena Sullivan, is Head of the Eternal Order. The Eternal Order is the Highest Order in the Magickal Kingdom. The only person with more power than the Eternal Order is Styxx himself. Helena comes to plead with Styxx to teach her older son, Ryan. She begs him to throw Ryder out, saying, "He's nowhere near as important as his brother." Styxx refuses and announces that Ryder is his apprentice. This will change the Magickal World. Styxx Lancaster, who is the most powerful Mage in existence, has not taken an apprentice in nearly five hundred years. And yet Ryder, the younger son of a powerful family, has been chosen. It upsets a lot of important people and soon a war is on their hands. The Magickal World is divided. Half of them side with the Sullvan family while the other half of them side with Styxx and Ryder. Amidst continuing to teach his apprentice and the war, Ryder and Styxx fall in love. This too upsets the Sullivan family. Helena announces that Ryder has been formally disowned and Styxx, in retaliation, announces that Ryder is a member of the Lancaster Clan. This, like his other actions, is something that has not happened in nearly a thousand years. After this, the war intensifies.

It seems to me that it's more YA than adult but she's got me confused now. What do you guys think?
“wanting what you could not have led to misery and madness”
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Fri Jul 03, 2015 11:07 pm
Lefty says...



Hi, there!

I've looked into what makes a YA book, well, YA because I had some confusion on a story I was working on. One of the main things that determines whether it's YA or Adult is the age of the protagonist. Generally, YA books have teenagers be the main characters (Exp: Hunger Games, Divergent, Maze Runner, Legend) since the YA category is directed at teenagers. I think usually the target audience is within a couple years of the protagonist, give or take. So, on that note, If the main character of your story is Styxx, then it probably would make more sense for it to be for Adults, but if the main character is Ryder, then it would probably be more directed at teens.

Other determining factors would be the writing style and how it's written. YA books are usually right in the main characters head. Not always, but often they are written from 1st person POV. But also, how is it being written? Would it be a quick read for a young adult? Or is it deeper and more intellectual, causing it to catch an adults attention?

How brutal does it get? How graphic are the scenes? If it were turned into a movie, how would it be rated? If you posted chapters of it on YWS and marked it 18+, maybe it would make a better adult book, but it varies on why you rated it that way. YA books can have some pretty intense/graphic stuff, but it's usually a little vague (particularly with romance) or not explained super graphically (with gore/violence).

I do see where it would be hard to figure it out with your story because there are some elements of both. It seems to lean a little bit towards the Adult side to me, but I think it really comes down to how the story is written. If you do some google searches on the difference between YA and adult, they might be able to shine a little bit more light on this.

Hope this helped!
-Lefty
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Fri Jul 03, 2015 11:16 pm
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TriSARAHtops says...



Well, the mist basic definition of YA is something along the lines of fiction with the target audience of teenagers. And adult fiction's aimed at, well, adults. That's the distinction, and the description isn't enough to be able to tell the target audience. So I can't answer whether it's YA or adult based on how you've described your novel, depending on how you write it.

Okay, so admittedly I do read considerably more YA than I do adult, so I'm going to look at the features that would make it lean more towards YA because that is where my knowledge lies.

As I said, YA is fiction targeted at teens. Which is a pretty broad definition, since for a lot of people there's a difference in the kind of things you'll be interested in reading when you're thirteen to when you're eighteen. So the content - and the seriousness of the content, if that's the right word to use - varies a lot. Generally YA will be somewhat less graphic than adult, but that also depends on whether your novel is aimed at older or younger teens as well. YA is a massively varied and difficult to pin down "genre" (even though really, it isn't a genre so much as a target audience), and it is possible to have YA novels that are fairly explicit, and I don't think that it's necessarily possible to say whether something is YA or not based on the content, but sometimes the treatment of said content can be a big clue.

For example, in YA authors will often use the 'fade to black' technique, whereas an adult novel may not. This is a general rule that doesn't always apply, but it usually does. You might also see greater focus on the action vs grisly descriptions of the injuries, but then that can also be dependent on genre. But probably less grisly.

The age of your characters is a big one, too. Usually in YA your protagonist will be a teenager themself. You say Stuxx is ancient, but don't mention Ryder's age aside from him being young. If he's in his twenties, I'd say this is adult, but if he's something like 16/17, then this is more likely YA.

Other factors that would make this more likely YA is if there's some kind of 'coming of age' aspect to it. Geerally you'll find some clue of that in YA, whereas sot so much so in adult.

There's also this thing called New Adult fiction which has sprung up in the last few years, which is kinda a middle ground between the two, targeted at the late teens-early twenties age group. The novels are generally found in the YA section of your bookshop, but they can be a bit more 'adult' than your YA. Maybe your novel will fit in there, but I guess that proves that it all comes down to target audience.

Chances are this doesn't make deciding what your novel is any easier, but really, it doesn't matter that much while you're writing it. If you really want it to be YA, write it with the target audience of teenagers in mind. Chances are you probably already do if you're a writer, but it still applies, read widely on both YA and adult fiction, to get a feel for what your story is more like. But at the end of the day, it's your story, and you know it better than your friend, so don't be afraid to trust your gut.
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Fri Jul 03, 2015 11:28 pm
ShadowPrincess16 says...



Well you guys definitely answered my question. This series will definitely be somewhere between YA and Adult. Styxx is over a thousand years old and Ryder is twenty-one. Not only that but there are some scenes in later chapters that may be eighteen and up. I guess Colly was right. It's more towards Adult than it is YA. Thanks!

ShadowPrincess16
“wanting what you could not have led to misery and madness”
― Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Prince
  





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Sat Jul 04, 2015 1:57 am
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Megrim says...



I'd like to mention that there is a genre known as new adult. That may be what you're looking for if you feel it's between the two. (Edit: Bad at reading. Someone else mentioned it too!)

YA focuses on things relevant to teenagers: discovering yourself/learning who you are, first ventures in love, questioning things for the first time, trying to be an individual and be taken seriously by those older than you, etc. There are often themes along the lines of social boundaries, social isolation, identity, sexuality, abuse, anxiety, and bullying.

New adult focuses on things relevant to those who are just starting out the "adult" phase of their life: they have more life experience, but aren't ready to get settled down yet (for example don't have a career or marriage). From wikipedia, "Some common examples of issues include: first jobs, starting college, wedding engagements and marriage, starting new families, friendships post-high school, military enlistment, financial independence, living away from home for the first time, empowerment, loss of innocence, fear of failure, and many others." Obviously the real-world examples are hard to extrapolate to a fantasy setting, but you can see the gist of where the MCs are at in their lives and what's important to them. The last ones are the biggies, I think, because they're applicable to any genre--that intimidating time of life when you're standing on your own two legs for the first time.

Adult fiction is hard to categorise because it's basically everything else, but in my mind it more commonly focuses on ethical dilemmas, shades of grey, ideological and religious questions, and examinations of society. Or, you know, lots of sex and explosions. But honestly the reason I would categorise Song of Ice and Fire as adult fiction is not at all because of the sex and violence, but because of the very complicated political atmosphere and layered motives of each character.
  








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