Why Do I Write YA?

I am feeling all nostalgic, and went back through my writing stuff. I love this post. 🙂

Recently, a friend asked me why I wrote young adult fiction. It seemed like a pretty logical question. I am, after all not a sixteen year old girl–why would I want to write about one?

*Awkward Pause.*

*Crickets.*

I made up some answer, and vowed to myself to give it more thought later.

Here are some of the things I came up with:

• I write YA because I am stuck in high school

Hmm, I kind of hate that answer. It implies that I haven’t grown up. I have, in fact totally grown up. I have a kid that I am a great mother to, I make big important decisions all the time that I would have failed at miserably when I was sixteen. This answer is out.

• I write YA because I want to mold and change teenagers lives for the better.

Well, that sounds like a better answer. In fact, it makes me sound downright scholarly. Hell… if I’m ever asked this question again, this is totally the answer that I plan on giving. It will be perfect for when I’m on Oprah. There’s just one problem–it’s not the truth.

• I write YA because that’s where the money is.

If you were to ask my husband, he would hope that was the answer. But, I have to be honest… I don’t really write for the money. If I wanted to do that, then I would write technical e-books and sell them on the internet. BORING.

• I write YA because it makes me happy.

It’s such a simple answer. How can that be it? I just do it because it makes me smile? It makes me laugh to imagine my main character bored in school? It makes me smile to imagine her first kiss with the cutie from down the hall? Yeah… that’s it. I do it because it makes me happy. It’s that simple. I know my niche is the YA market because reading YA makes me grin, and writing it makes me realize that THIS is what I’m supposed to do with my life.

Why do you write what you write?