YA Fiction Part III - Process

How much do you think about the demands of the YA market while you’re writing?

Bridget Collins: Well, while I’m actually writing, not much! Although we’ve been talking a lot about what YA books are like, and what makes them different, and so on, there’s definitely something to be said for just writing the book you want to write. That said, of course the process gets a lot easier once you’ve got an established relationship with an editor, because she or he can help you think about all the things you’ve ignored up to that point. But my advice for anyone, whether they’re already published or not, is that bearing a market in mind is all very well, but you’ve got to follow your heart while you’re writing, or the book won’t be any good... Sometimes books can surprise you – you might find that the book you’ve come up with isn’t what you thought you were writing. In the end, what matters is the quality, not the market – as long as there is one, obviously! So my advice would be to be aware of the market but not to follow it mindlessly – and especially, of course, not to follow a thematic trend. Don’t write something you’ve “designed” to be a bestseller: for one thing, by the time it comes out the market will have changed!

Julia Green: Yes, new writers often don’t realize that it can be as much as two years between finishing writing a novel and its appearance on the bookshelves.  Second-guessing the market is likely to be disastrous.

When I’m writing, I’m immersed in the story I am telling.  Because I usually write in the first person, I’m  ‘being’ that teenage character and seeing everything through their eyes. So, although  I’m not thinking explicitly about the YA ‘Market’,  I am trying to think like a teenage character. I also try to hold some sense of a teenage reader in another part of my brain, to stop me from following my own ‘adult’  preoccupations too much.  And yet, paradoxically, I write the book I want and ‘need’ to write, at some level. I want to make it the best it can possibly be, and that means a lot of re-writing.  At a later stage, I will have those conversations with my editor about a scene which she feels might be too ‘grown up’. For example, I might have written a scene showing my characters in a physical relationship, which I think is being truthful and what would realistically ‘happen’. That happened with ‘Drawing with Light’.  We talked about it, and I was happy to make the changes my editor wanted because I could see how the ‘sexual’ nature of the scene might detract from the emotion I most wanted to show at that point, which was tenderness and love.  I avoid the kind of world-weary cynicism  I see sometimes in adult writing; I want the endings of my novels to have some feeling of hope, as well as being truthful.

What’s your process like? Do you have to wait for inspiration?

Bridget: To an extent, of course! I don’t think I could sit down to write a book without knowing something about the characters, where they’re going, what kind of book I want it to be... And I find that knowing the title is really, really helpful – even if it isn’t the one I end up with. But once I’ve got that framework in place, I’m quite disciplined about the way I write, churning out 1000 words a day, 5 days a week, until it’s done – and sometimes it really is a question of “churning” them out! What matters to me is getting the first draft down, and then I can go back and agonize and re-write until it makes a bit more sense. But it’s a job, it’s work, and I have to try and treat it like that. Then again, there are times when it’s just impossible, and I have to take a break – and times when I can’t stop myself, and I write four or five times my daily quota in one sitting. But I think people think a lot about the process of writing (people ask me how I write, at what time, on a computer or not, all those kinds of things) and really what matters is not how you write but how well you write – or indeed if you write! That’s what preoccupies me. For the rest, well, you just have to get on with it. Easier said than done, as I know...

Julia: Writing IS very hard work! It takes me a long time to get a novel as good as I can get it. I can’t write every day because I have a second job, too, at a university.  When my children were small, I was extremely efficient about using the small amounts of time I could grab for writing. Now, I am less good at this. I prefer whole long stretches of time, so that I can immerse myself in the story and stay in the story world for many hours.  I change the place I am writing because that seems to help free up my imagination. I go for walks, because the physical movement helps me to think and work things out. My novels start with a character, and a place and a situation: I work out those details in my notebook. I do a lot of thinking and scribbling notes before I am ready to move to the laptop. The act of writing itself creates ideas and thoughts which I’d never find if I were simply ‘waiting’ for inspiration.

What advice would you give for YA writers?

Bridget: I think that depends on whether you mean writers for young adults or writers who are young adults! To the former, I’d say read YA books. And enjoy them! If you don’t enjoy reading them, you won’t enjoy writing them, and that’ll probably show. They’re not an easier option than adult books, they’re just a bit different – so you have to be as driven and passionate as you would for any other kind of writing. To young writers, I’d say: just read. I think creative writing is a bit like learning a language: you can learn it in an academic environment, and lessons and workshops and so on are really useful and important. But what matters just as much is living in that frame of mind, immersing yourself in it, letting your subconscious learn how to do it as well. And what teaches you that is reading. Read as much as you can, as many different things as you can, read and read and re-read. Trust me, it’s important.

And to any and all writers: don’t set out to “be a writer”. Set out to write

Julia: Exactly. You have to be a reader.  And if you want to write for young adults, you have to be in touch with that part of yourself. Reading YA fiction can help you make that connection. You might also ask yourself whydo you want to write for Young Adults? I think you have to let go of any notion that you are ‘educating’ your readers. Or imparting values, or whatever other agenda you may have.  Inevitably, as writers, some of those things will be embedded in our writing, but it’s a mistake to set out with that aim in mind.  If you are a young / new writer, then my advice would be to keep a notebook, get in the habit of writing, make time for it in your life.  When you read, think critically as a writer about the things you are reading. Work out what you like and why.  Writing groups or courses are enormously helpful to some people who like the support and feedback of other dedicated writers (I should know: I’m the Course Director for an MA in Writing for Young People), but ultimately, the writing happens when you are quiet and alone in a room, writing!  I’ve written more about my writing process on my website (www.julia-green.co.uk).

It is useful to have writing ‘friends’: I’ve enjoyed having these series of conversations with you, Bridget! I’m looking forward to reading your new novel, Tyme’s End. And now I need to get back to my own work-in-progress…

Julia Green is the Course Director on the MA in Creative Writing for Young People at Bath Spa, and has had three novels published by Puffin. Breathing Underwater, published in May 2009, is her first for Bloomsbury.

B.R. Collins's first novel The Traitor Game was published to much acclaim and was both winner of the Branford Boase Award 2009 and longlisted for the 2009 Carnegie Medal. Tyme's End, published by Bloomsbury in January 2011, is a psychological thriller that will have readers on the edge of their seats. Gamerunner, published by Bloomsbury in July 2011, is a stunning departure into a future world of computer gaming.