This is the time of year that makes us wish we were back in school. Not because we want homework or tests, but because we want back to school clothes, back to school shoes (black patent leather ones, please), stacks of notebooks full of blank pages, mechanical pencils, gel pens, and glitter pens in every color of the rainbow. Most of all, we want that delicious feeling you get from learning something new. But you don’t have to go back to school or spend money for that. If you want to learn about writing young adult fiction there is a lot of excellent tuition-free advice out there.
- According to Elaine Dimopoulos, you don’t have to shop at Forever 21 or read Teen Vogue or use a first person point of view to write young adult fiction, but here are three things to keep in mind when writing YA.
- Eight highly successful YA authors share their strategies for writing relatable teenage characters.
- We love The Smiths, but lots of YA characters love them, too. Don’t be afraid to let your character have unexpected or unpopular musical tastes and avoid this music when writing young adult fiction because it’s so overdone.
- If you’re depressed because you’ve been listening to The Smiths, this politically correct version of Lord of the Flies will give you a laugh, and some ideas on how not to make your YA novel PC.
- If like us, you still want to go back to school, take this quiz and find out which fictional school you belong in.