R. M. Archer, author of Calligraphy Guild, is presenting a collaborative series of posts from authors who got their start in YA. Together, we're exploring what drew us to YA, why we enjoy it, and how our writing is changing as we personally mature.
I was around eight years old when I wrote my first story. I was so proud of the tale of two orphaned sisters having to learn how life could go on despite tragedy. Though I quickly abandoned it, that first venture into the writing waters was all I needed to get me completely and irrevocably hooked. I started a few other short stories and eventually a novel, all featuring characters either more or less my age (though it's hard to say for sure with the animal characters).
I think I was about ten when I first wrote a story featuring a teenaged character. It didn't get past chapter one, but I was intrigued by the thought of those elusive beings who existed in the "youth group."
What really inspired that leap from writing about children to teenagers was a book series I'd just discovered that featured teenaged girls. It was a completely different world from what I was used to reading about, and I was curious to explore it.
Reflection over the years has taught me that I write to understand. So as I began to write about characters significantly older than me, I was just trying to understand them, using what would evolve into YA stories as a means to explore this strange new world I was about to enter.
It's funny, though, because I didn't read much YA (in the strict sense) until I was an adult. Most of my teenaged reads were classics or my mom's mystery novels. I don't think I really knew YA was a legitimate genre until I was in college. In my head, there were kids' books (ranging from The Boxcar Children to Percy Jackson), and there were adult books (basically everything else).
I did enjoy what few YA books I came across, though those were relatively few. A large contributing factor for this is that I grew up in a non-English speaking country and thus only had access to my parents' books, but even when we graduated to e-readers, I still preferred to read books written for a more mature audience.
My undergrad is in creative writing, and one of the courses I took was an Adolescent Lit class. (So yes, I was required to read YA for school. Such a hard life...) That was when I fully realized that there's a whole genre of books written specifically for teens, featuring teen characters and focusing on teen issues.
I attended a Christian college, so the books we read were pretty tame. But I was still appalled at the level of questionable content present in these books written for teenagers--foul language, coarse humor, sexual topics, the whole nine yards. Children are so impressionable in their teen years, and this was the content they were consuming, content that would shape their minds and eventually their actions.
That realization was key in my decision to write YA. I wanted to give teenagers wholesome, quality content that would give them biblical answers to the questions around them. I didn't want to shy away from the difficult topics discussed in secular novels; I wanted to give them a biblical perspective on those topics.
My stories have never quite fit into the traditional YA category, though. My characters are on the older side, the youngest so far being 18. They're not dealing with issues like social acceptance or coming-of-age. Yet the themes and plots are perhaps too simplistic to be considered even NA (New Adult), and they're certainly not Adult.
So I suppose I write for the teens like me, teens who are ready for deeper subjects and plots than they'll get from MG novels but aren't quite ready for the maturity in Adult fiction. My books consistently hover between YA and NA, geared towards the 14-18 age range in terms of writing style but still enjoyable for older readers.
I'd like to explore more of the NA world, especially with a new story I'm working on. But teenagers will always be on my heart. They need quality stories that teach them how to live for God, and that's what inspired me to get serious about writing in the first place. Even if my stories keep gaining older and older characters, I want to keep those younger audiences in mind. They're my mission field, and I'm excited to keep serving them through my stories.
I have two published YA works (with a third coming in December!):
Can two broken people ever find redemption?
Roshien Cochall has one goal: appear before the Gwyns and prove that she can move beyond the mistakes of her past. Nothing seems to move her closer to that goal, however, and she is left feeling stuck.
Lorcan Mactire has been waiting patiently for nearly ten years to seize a cochall’s magic ring. Taking Roshien’s grandmother hostage, he lures Roshien to his fortress, confident that he will soon uncover the ring’s secret.
Is this Roshien’s opportunity for redemption? Can she somehow convince Lorcan to let her go—and maybe even take him with her? Or is this the beginning of her final failure?
Can even the worst mistakes be forgiven?
Ean Cochall has lived in the wilderness for two years, providing for the needy by day and assassinating rogues by night. It's all in pursuit of one thing: justice. So when he's approached by a mysterious figure and asked to kill a fae accused of crimes against the Gwyns, he readily accepts.
Murrin has fled to the wilderness to hide from someone who seeks her life. She has the name of a fey who can protect her: Ean Cochall, leader of the outlaw band the Green Company. What she doesn't know is that Ean already knows about her--and he was just hired to kill her.
As dark secrets come to light and old ghosts rise from the dead, will Ean uncover the truth? Or will his own mistakes come back to haunt him, making justice something not even he wants to achieve?
See what other authors have to say on this topic:
JD Wolfwrath - August 19th
R.M. Archer - August 20th
Maegan M. Simpson - August 21st
M.C. Kennedy - August 24th
Nicole Dust - August 25th
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