Hello readers!
For one section of our YA lit class, we needed to read a non-fiction book about development. The one I chose was Writing Great Books for Young Adults by Regina Brooks. It's a guide from an editor on what publishers are looking for and on ways to structure a young adult novel.
The book was pretty much how I expected it to be. There are sections that describe plot, characters, and climax. The key points of the book are that you need to gear the novel towards your audience and that you should really decide on a theme when you write.
There are some really good ideas in the book, and there are prompts to get you writing throughout, which is a feature I really liked. Brooks also brings up some good things to think about, such as remembering your audience and what it was like when you were a young adult.
When we talked about it in our group, most of us kind of laughed at the idea of coming up with a theme. For us, we write to just write. There isn't a goal in mind of a theme like harmony or friendship. I don't know if that will change when we get older, but for now that's how it is. We also discussed how the book reads like most other "how to write" books. Overall, there wasn't much in the book to differentiate it from others in the fields.
However, if you are interested in writing for a young adult market, I would still recommend you at least look at Writing Great Books for Young Adults, even if only for the writing prompts.
~Meaghan
P.S. - Here is a really neat article we read in class if you are interested in writing. It has some really cool ideas to get you started.
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