People often ask me why I write for teens. Especially since high school was definitely not my most favorite time. I think the answer is rather straightforward: Teen stuff is raw.
I don’t mean raw in a raunchy way. I mean that everything you experience as a teen is novel. Intense. Concentrated. And why shouldn’t it be? You have no life experiences to temper it. New things are fun and exciting. They are addictive in a way that knows no limits. When you’re a teen, you are invincible.
Until that thing happens, which shows you you aren’t. That’s why writing teen fiction is so pleasurable. Not only do I get to define what’s right and wrong, I set all the boundaries and limitations of the world in which my characters exist. I get to remember my own strengths and weaknesses and decide if a protagonist will have them too. I have the power to make decisions I didn’t make when I was young. My characters get to choose differently (Well, sometimes). And it’s fun to think about what a big deal something is when you have yet to see something bigger
When I was in LA for the writer’s conference, I heard someone say, “Teens are stupid.” I couldn’t disagree more. Naïve? Yes. Stupid? No way. Teenagers are savvy in a way only teens can be. Remember how sneaky you were in high school? Think about the hours of planning that went into something really trivial. I’m not even talking about busting out of the house after hours. I’m referring to a simple act like telling your parents you were seeing one movie then sneaking into another. It required an insane amount of forethought because you hadn’t done it before. And when you got away with it, it was positively narcotic.
Then think about your life with the addition of some paranormal or dystopian element. A world where one or many things exist that isn’t really possible. For me, that’s where the fun begins.
I’ve written about a girl who remembers her five previous lifetimes with someone and knows that choosing to be with that person again means one of them is going to die. I created a world in which love is being eliminated because the government thinks it will be easier to rule without such an intense emotion. And most recently, I’ve been working on the story of a girl who awakes in a beautifully perfect afterlife after a heroin overdose, only to discover people are dying there too. Yeah, I know. Not exactly uplifting. But compelling. At least to me.
So that’s why I write teen. It’s painful and sensitive and visceral and primal. It’s authentic. And I love it. But I am not looking forward to having two teenaged boys who are addicted to what’s raw. In only 7 years, I will have a teen and an almost tween. No doubt, they will give me good material for my books…
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