Someone asked me yesterday why I write YA fiction. Good question, which I'll try to answer.
I suppose it’s because basically I’m a teenage girl masquerading as a middle-aged woman. I once asked my mother what it felt like to ‘be old’ and she said, ‘I don’t feel any different now from how I felt when I was sixteen.’ I did the required eye-rolling and snorting and thought, ‘Pshaw, rubbish,’ or words not as complimentary, and continued with my happy, uncluttered teenage life, boiling with fury when I was dismissed or treated as insignificant because of my youth. Now, of course, I know she was right.
I still feel sixteen in my head, though of course I’m much wiser. I am, really I am. I remember the feeling of disempowerment and in direct contrast to that, the rush of knowing I was invincible and would never get as old as my mother. Those moments of pushing the boundaries just to see what would happen are as clear now as they were back then. I was often treated as if I was too young to have valid opinions or thoughts and constantly told that I’d ‘understand’ when I was older. To my intense irritation, I now find myself saying those exact words to youngsters.
Those feelings have influenced my writing and are a major motivation for my choosing to write young adult fiction. I clearly recall the muddle in my head as I tried to find my true self, the surging hormones that made me feel out of control and dangerous, and Qea, the heroine in the Blue Dust Series: Forbidden, Destiny and Insurrection, reflects these emotions.
I have such clear memories of my childhood and teenage years and the uncontrollable passions that could swamp me in an instant. I was a bit of a loner, but I spent a lot of time observing others, in a non-stalker way of course, and it was through these observations that my writing began. Times have changed so much with all the technology and social media that young adults are involved in, and yet the essence of growing up, discovering your true persona, parental and sibling relationships, negotiating the quagmires of friendship and love, remain constant, and I hope that through my writing I make sense of this and offer some hope for the teenagers (and others) that read my work.
I’ve always had an over-active imagination, something my teachers didn’t always appreciate, so writing for the YA market helps me excise and share some of the weirdness in my head. I loved sci fi television programmes, which back then were filled with dodgy special effects and cardboard rocks, because they made me realise I wasn’t the only one with thoughts about other worlds. I still love scifi and the weirder the better. After all, I myself am an alien.
There has to be a story and strong characters who undergo challenges and face terrible dangers, though YA writing is a rapidly expanding genre and I’m delighted to finally be able to share my inner stories with a receptive and intelligent audience, an audience that is a whole lot more savvy and mature than I was at that age. Despite the Facebooking and the Tweeting and Tumbl’ng and You-tubing that seems to consume an inordinate amount of time, young adults today face the same challenges I did and a whole lot more besides. Nowadays everyone seems to be under a lot more pressure to look a certain way, wear the right clothes, go to the right places, and that can make for a difficult time. Teenagers and young adults are a fantastic audience who I hope will understand that they do matter and that their opinions are valid and important, no matter what their age.
I suppose it’s because basically I’m a teenage girl masquerading as a middle-aged woman. I once asked my mother what it felt like to ‘be old’ and she said, ‘I don’t feel any different now from how I felt when I was sixteen.’ I did the required eye-rolling and snorting and thought, ‘Pshaw, rubbish,’ or words not as complimentary, and continued with my happy, uncluttered teenage life, boiling with fury when I was dismissed or treated as insignificant because of my youth. Now, of course, I know she was right.
I still feel sixteen in my head, though of course I’m much wiser. I am, really I am. I remember the feeling of disempowerment and in direct contrast to that, the rush of knowing I was invincible and would never get as old as my mother. Those moments of pushing the boundaries just to see what would happen are as clear now as they were back then. I was often treated as if I was too young to have valid opinions or thoughts and constantly told that I’d ‘understand’ when I was older. To my intense irritation, I now find myself saying those exact words to youngsters.
Those feelings have influenced my writing and are a major motivation for my choosing to write young adult fiction. I clearly recall the muddle in my head as I tried to find my true self, the surging hormones that made me feel out of control and dangerous, and Qea, the heroine in the Blue Dust Series: Forbidden, Destiny and Insurrection, reflects these emotions.
I have such clear memories of my childhood and teenage years and the uncontrollable passions that could swamp me in an instant. I was a bit of a loner, but I spent a lot of time observing others, in a non-stalker way of course, and it was through these observations that my writing began. Times have changed so much with all the technology and social media that young adults are involved in, and yet the essence of growing up, discovering your true persona, parental and sibling relationships, negotiating the quagmires of friendship and love, remain constant, and I hope that through my writing I make sense of this and offer some hope for the teenagers (and others) that read my work.
I’ve always had an over-active imagination, something my teachers didn’t always appreciate, so writing for the YA market helps me excise and share some of the weirdness in my head. I loved sci fi television programmes, which back then were filled with dodgy special effects and cardboard rocks, because they made me realise I wasn’t the only one with thoughts about other worlds. I still love scifi and the weirder the better. After all, I myself am an alien.
There has to be a story and strong characters who undergo challenges and face terrible dangers, though YA writing is a rapidly expanding genre and I’m delighted to finally be able to share my inner stories with a receptive and intelligent audience, an audience that is a whole lot more savvy and mature than I was at that age. Despite the Facebooking and the Tweeting and Tumbl’ng and You-tubing that seems to consume an inordinate amount of time, young adults today face the same challenges I did and a whole lot more besides. Nowadays everyone seems to be under a lot more pressure to look a certain way, wear the right clothes, go to the right places, and that can make for a difficult time. Teenagers and young adults are a fantastic audience who I hope will understand that they do matter and that their opinions are valid and important, no matter what their age.