What on Earth is YA?

Saturday afternoon, after a tasty lunch. I had heavy eyes and an advice stuffed head.

Luckily Stefan Mohamed was entertaining and interesting.

What is YA?
"It is not a genre, more of an audience." 
This surprised me, I thought YA was stories about young adults as opposed to an audience. I love reading YA. Maybe I am young at heart?

In general (there always a few stories which break the norm) Young Adult books -

Deal with coming of age issues - good because my YA fits. :)
Have likeable characters. - I like Gracie.
Banter humour- but not too cynical. - humour is something I need to work on.
Sensitive issues are placed with care.
Need to be respectful not patronising.
Some violence - it can be dealt with and explored in fiction - not glorified.
The character makes progress.
There is hope and optimism- we are living in a confusing, scary world - YA stories can show a better version of ourselves.
There is a balance between darkness and how it is not the only option. 

As a YA writer you need to realise what we read in our teenage years does inform our world view as an adult.

He talked about his own book and the process of first draft to published book.  'Bitter Sixteen' contained more swear words than traditional publishers wanted to publish. We had a good  discussion about this. We all carefully said  'the f- word', which was funny :).

 I have issues with writing swear words, and reading them, but for many young adults they are part of their language and do not hold the same meaning as they do to me.
I do not have swearing in my story, Stefan assured me it is not a requisite, and as writers we have to be true to ourselves. 

Stefan finished with the Four P's which helped his writing career to launch.

Prizes- enter competitions, this ensures people recognise your name, opens doors, winning goes on your book cover.

Preciousness - loose it and become more objective. We all love parts of our story, but sometimes changing it makes the story better.Even after finding an agent Stephan needed to change his story for publishers. He said it was hard work, but ultimately created a better story.

Patience - yep its here again. Waiting for agents, publishing dates etc. 

Published - good to have a presence on networks such as twitter to support your published work BUT writing should be your focus. 

He wished us luck with our journeys.