Recently I’ve been doing something that’s been working pretty well; I’ve been bringing a notebook with me to work and writing there. Since the majority of my ideas tend to come during the day, this has worked very well. I only started this WIP about three weeks ago, and at the rate I’m going, I’ll be finished by the end of the week. That’s right; THIS week. I haven’t written at this pace since NaNoWriMo last year, when I finished my first ever novel (Or first real novel, anyway). And even though I’ve skipped around a few parts, the story itself will be more fleshed out when I go back to transcibe it and add it to the things I’ve already written.

Of course, since lately I’ve been doing more writing than working lately (don’t chastise me, if you worked where I did you’d find whatever you could to avoid working too), my co-workers have started asking me what I’m writing. I should’ve expected it, but it’s always awkward talking about it. I hardly ever show my writing with people who aren’t other writers or friends of mine who are writers. So I’ve found it strange that probably for the first time ever, I’ve had to actually explain outloud what my novel is about.

Co-Worker #1: So what’s your novel about?

Me: Ummmmm…well…it’s kind of about what happens when a “normal” guy (yes, I did the stupid quote fingers) goes on a cross country road trip with a sort of “Heidi Montag” type of girl.

Co-Worker #1: …So it’s a horror novel then?

That was a joke, of course. Still it was weird saying it outloud. I could go on for pages when I’m riting about what my novel is about, but saying it OUT LOUD? To other people? For a long time I didn’t tell people I wrote at all; writing is such an intensly personal thing that I didn’t want someone to ridicule me for having a bad idea. I can take written critism, but people telling me to my face that something I wrote sucks, or that an idea I have is bad? FOR SHAME! THE HORROR, THE HORROR!

Luckily, the few people I’ve told the idea to outloud have told me that they actually like the idea. And my description of it has gotten better as well.

The other question I get asked is what kind of writing I do, which still makes me a bit uneasy. I love writing YA, but I always feel like there’s this unfair stigma attached to it. Authors like Justine Larabalstier have talked about it before; she writes YA and will always write YA. But despite the fact that she’s successful, people still ask her when she’ll write “real” novels for adults.

Allow me to explain why I write YA, and while I’ll always write YA.

Because adults are fucking boring.

Now, hear me out. I’ve tried reading a lot of adult books. As an aspiring author, it wouldn’t hurt for me to read things outside of my pre-defined genre. Unfortunately for me, I don’t have much patience for a story that dilly-dallies a lot before getting to the good stuff.

Contemporary literature tends to dilly-dally a lot. They can be overly wordy, dreadfully boring affairs, where a lot of stuff doesn’t happen. Recently I tried reading a book called “I Just Want My Pants Back” (which in itself is full of win for the title alone), but the first chapter is just some kind sitting around his apartment, getting ready to go out.

Why not start me off when he’s already out? We came from the lack of pantsness, thank you very much! I don’t need to read about the takeout he ordered or the pot he smoked or the time he wasted sitting around doing nothing. While I understand the need to immerse oneself in the world of a book, I feel like in a lot of cases there’s too much telling people about the world, and not enough showing.

Since a lot of YA revolves around teens, there’s a greater sense of urgency, a greater since of NOW OR NEVER. And since most people who read YA are impatient bratlings like me who are probably juggling numerous tasks, a lot of YA comes right out of the gate. When you’re a teenager, every little thing can become something BIG. Their characters who are dealing with big first–first loves, first times, first encounters with vampires or the undeead. Everything is heightened; the drama is more tense, the feeling are deeper. Writing and reading YA is just more fun than reading literature, at least to me.

When my characters hit a point where they are only talking and are doing anything worthwhile, I start to get bored. And if I start to get bored, I can’t imagine someone else wouldn’t get bored as well. There’s so much to explore and such more to say in YA. I could write an ‘adult’ book, I suppose, but I’m not sure how I’d make it exciting or tense without avoiding it become some sort of Lifetime movie. There aren’t many lessons you can teach in comtemporary literature, to your readers or yourself.

YA allows a lot more exploration of how the world works, how people can change, and a lot more lessons about ourselves. I mean, every book doesn’t have a moral so to speak, but whenever I’m done reading a YA book, I feel a little better off for doing so. I think that’s ultimately the affect I want to have on my reader’s–I never want them to end a story going “well, that’s several hours of my life I’ll never get back in which boring people did boring things and nothing ever changed or really happened.”

On that note, if you have any suggestions for “adult” books I should read (ROMANCE NEED NOT APPLY, thank you), leave them in the comments and I’ll check them out.

Until next time

KC