Friday, January 29, 2010

What genre are you writing for?

So at 2 am while trying to put my son back to sleep, I started to think as I always do.  This is the time I come up with my best ideas and forget them by the time I can get to a pen and paper.  Besides thinking up some new things to write in WIP, I began to ponder about the genre YA. I started to ask myself --is your story too adult for "YA" and not adult enough for "Adult" --if so where does this leave me.  I have discussed this with my CP and she definately agrees that my WIP is YA and from what I understand YA is 12-18 year olds, right?

I have things in my WIP I think may be too adult and if I am lucky and it gets published I have material for book two which I think is more adult but not too adult.  So that leaves the area of 18 and up--I heard that this genre is up and coming but does anyone know the criteria that goes into it?

I personally think you should write what you believe in and for me I tend to love the late high school/ early college years.  So is that considered YA? From what I am reading--yes-- but I wonder if I would let my daughter read some of these books when she is twelve.  I am not naive and know twelve year olds know a heck of a lot more than I did when I was twelve but I am curious of what other writers think of this. I know it is up to the parents and what they want their child to be exposed to. I am not trying to put any book down --I love to read them --I just wonder where it leaves writers like me.  Will this be a strike against me if there is no named genre for my novel?

What genre do you tend to write for? Do you think YA (12-18) is too broad of an age group?

On a lighter note--if you are a Twilight fan (or if you are not) I found a funny little video on-- Jennifer J. Bennett's blog--check it out.

Have a great day!