Writing and Selling the YA Novel by K. L. Going Page B

Weave your threads carefully so your end result will be an artistic creation and not a mess of threads.
    PACING AND SUBSTANCE FOR YOUNG ADULTS
    No discussion of plots in a book about writing for young adults would be complete without addressing the questions of pacing and substance for teenagers. The authors of books for teens must ask themselves not only how to create, organize, and balance their plots and subplots, but also how teen readers will respond to the events unfolding in the story.
    You might wonder why I didn't begin the chapter with this section. Why not set our boundaries right from the start so we don't waste time? If there are content or forms that are off-limits, shouldn't we know that before we begin? These are good questions, but they also have a good answer.
    Writing for teens is not about limits, it's about possibilities.
    Deciding to be a YA author is not about confining yourself within the limitations of established rules-, it's about writing with the maximum integrity for an audience that is intelligent, complex, and primed to explore.
    We'll talk more about hot-button issues like language, sex, and violence at the end of this book, but for the purposes of creating the plot of your novel, know that YA literature is full of diverse examples of almost every form imaginable. YA plots range from fast-paced, first-person narratives to meandering trips back and forth in time, and they cover everything in between.
    That said, you should be aware that most YA books are shorter than their adult counterparts, so unless your book is an exception to the rule, your pacing will need to vary accordingly. In teen literature every word must count, and there isn't always room for long passages of description or exposition. Instead of stretching a plot for 400 pages, you will most likely be fitting it into about 250 pages.
    The same is true for content issues. Although almost any subject can be written about for teenagers these days, you still want to write a book that is appealing and relevant to your audience. Remember that the one defining characteristic of YA literature is its audience, so you want each facet of your plot—from beginning to middle to end—to reflect, entertain, or challenge today's teens. Ultimately, it's what you believe teens are capable of reading and enjoying that will define your choices about what will happen in your novel.

How many of you took Social Studies in school? Remember the way the world map was usually on a roller and the teacher would pull it down like a window shade? Remember those thick, battered textbooks, packed with information we took for granted was true? Now we might look back on those same textbooks and cringe at their interpretation of events. Christopher Columbus, who once "discovered" America, now "colonized" it. The "radical" idea of desegregation is now something we can't believe was any other way. Our understanding of the world has changed over time just as the world around us has evolved into what it is today.
    For writers, understanding our characters' world and their place in it is part and parcel of understanding the real world we live in. As our characters are influenced by and interact with the settings we create for them, we have a chance to explore different places around the globe, different time periods, and different cultures. When writing for teens, we may be introducing our readers to these places for the first time, so it's important our settings be as true as we can make them. The exceptions, of course, will be genres like fantasy, science fiction, or horror, where settings can be highly stylized rather than realistic. But even in these cases, you'll want to choose the very best descriptions so your setting seems real and has the most impact possible.
    When done well, settings can shape our stories and create a tone that helps an author achieve his or her goals. The easiest way to understand this is to imagine a photograph of a person. Without the