New Adult Fiction

Is My Novel Upper YA or New Adult?

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Dear Editor…

How do I know if having an 18-year-old protagonist means I’ve got a Young Adult novel or New Adult? What if I make him 19?

Sincerely,
L.

Dear L….

Age seems like it would be the determining factor—but it’s not. Young Adult versus New Adult is the difference between being ready to launch and having launched. Young Adults anticipate their future. They yearn to get out there and put their dreams into action. But they haven’t done it yet. Socially, young adults still have at least one foot in established peer circles, and family is often still part of their daily lives. A new adult, though, is living the reality in all its complicated glory. They’re focusing on executing the plans they made—and usually rethinking them. They process the world from that point of view, which shows up in their stories’ narrative sensibilities and plots. Friendships are intensely important to both age groups, but for new adults, the traditional family structure gives way to a new “family” of friends. The word “new” matters, as new adulthood is a time of massive change and new experiences. Consider how often the very fact of where they live changes—dorms, apartments, revolving roommates. New adulthood throbs with instability and the stress that goes with it. Even good change is stressful, right? These are the things that determine whether your story is Young Adult or New Adult, not whether your protagonist has eighteen or nineteen candles on their birthday cake.

Happy writing!
The Editor

The Editor, Deborah Halverson, has been editing books for over 25 years and specializes in Middle Grade/Young Adult fiction and nonfiction, New Adult fiction, and picture books. For her editorial guidance in making your manuscript ready for submission to agents and publishers or for self-publishing, click Editorial services. Learn more in her books: Writing Young Adult Fiction for Dummies and Writing New Adult Fiction.

How Do I Make Each Character Distinct in My Novel?

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Dear Editor…

I want every character in my novel to be distinct. Can you suggest ways to do that?

Sincerely,
Book Dude

Dear Book Dude…

Try crafting distinctive dialogue for every character. Here are ways to do that—and they work for showing characters’ overall personalities as well their emotions in particular moments. Characters who are worriers, or who are tense or stressed in a scene, can speak in sentence fragments and incomplete thoughts. Characters who are impatient, or dismissive, or highly confident but maybe low-empathy can interrupt others. Nervous characters may let their dialogue trail off (use ellipses to show the trail-off), or they can ramble or express their thoughts as questions, like, “I have to go there? Myself?” Characters who lack self-confidence or who are followers also express themselves in questions. Compare that to the confident leader (or the character who wants to project themself as such), who speaks in declaratives, saying, “I have to go there. Myself.” Feel the difference? Distinctive ways of speaking can make characters feel so different that readers don’t even need a dialogue tag to know who’s speaking.

Happy writing!
The Editor

The Editor, Deborah Halverson, has been editing books for over 25 years and specializes in Middle Grade/Young Adult fiction and nonfiction, New Adult fiction, and picture books. For her editorial guidance in making your manuscript ready for submission to agents and publishers or for self-publishing, click Editorial services. Learn more in her books: Writing Young Adult Fiction for Dummies and Writing New Adult Fiction.

Revision Week: Chanel Cleeton

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Dear Readers… Day 3 of DearEditor.com’s Revision Week brings us Chanel Cleeton, author of four popular thriller and romance series, including the brand new Wild Aces. Please join Chanel and The Editor for Day 3 of Revision Week, and enter to win today’s “Free Partial Edit” from The Editor.

Chanel CleetonChanel Cleeton writes contemporary romances, women’s fiction, and thrillers. She is the author of the International School series and the Capital Confessions, both contemporary romance, as well as the New Adult thriller series Assassins. Her newest novel, Fly with Me, is the first in the new Wild Aces contemporary romance series and pubs next month, with the second book, Into the Blue, following in July. Chanel is published by Harlequin HQN, Penguin/InterMix, and Penguin/Berkley.

Chanel’s interview follows the Rafflecopter form/entry link for today’s Free Partial Edit by the Editor Giveaway. Scroll down for her full interview.

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How many drafts does it typically take before you feel confident about the character and story choices you made? Each manuscript varies for me, but I typically feel pretty good about major arcs fairly early on and then I go through many, many drafts cleaning up the manuscript until I can read though it without finding anything I want to fix. I’m a pantser, but I spend a lot of time thinking about my characters and developing them and the story threads in my head, so by the time I start writing I’m familiar with the world I’m building and am able to follow the threads as they unspool. I spend a lot of time tweaking my manuscripts for things like dialogue, sentence construction, etc., but big picture items usually don’t change very much from first draft to final.

Fly with MeDo you use critique partners or beta readers? I typically don’t. I tend to work best in my head so I like to finish the draft and then send it off to my agent and editor to get their thoughts. My traditional publishing schedule often makes it tough to get feedback from critique partners or beta readers if I’m on a tight turnaround for a book.

I+SEE+LONDON+COVERWhich draft typically gets shown to your editor? How much revising happens after the editor sees that draft? This varies by book, but I would say at an absolute minimum, I go through four drafts before I send a book to my editor. Sometimes the number is higher. Once I’m through with the first draft, I ALWAYS edit once on my computer, once on a printed draft, and once on an e-reader because changing formats always helps me to catch new things. Sometimes I’ll go through this process a few more times if I’m still catching things. My editor can see anywhere from my fourth to twelfth draft. When I get edits back, I typically like to go through each stage of edits (developmental, copy, and proofreading) three times to make sure I’ve caught everything.

Flirting with ScandalCan you share an experience of having a story problem you didn’t think you could solve but eventually did? I find a lot of writing solutions when I step away from my computer so I’ll often find that some of my best ideas come when I’m doing something else. For some reason, I seem to be super productive when washing my hair. 🙂 I think about my characters and story all the time when drafting and often letting the story live in my head a bit helps me to think outside the box and come up with a solution for whatever might be stumping me.

Between ShadowsWould your ideal writing day consist of original drafting or revising? Why? That’s a great question! It definitely depends on my mood. I LOVE revising because there’s something rewarding about polishing your manuscript and whipping it into shape. At the same time, I love the magic of drafting and watching my story unfold and take me in unexpected directions.

How do you know you’ve got the final draft? I try to read through my manuscript as a reader would and flag anything that pulls me out of the story or doesn’t flow properly. When I can read through the manuscript without flagging anything and I’m happy with it, I consider it my final draft. From the first moment I sit down at my computer to the moment a reader has my book in their hands, I’ve typically gone through about fifteen drafts of the story.

Thank you, Chanel!

 Fly with Me

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is It MG Fiction If the Character Ages Into His 20s?

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Dear Editor…

I am writing a manuscript that starts with the MC at 7 yearrs old. He soon turns 9, then 11, then 15, and so on. The novel ends with him in his mid-20s. The voice starts out young and I want to pitch it as MG, but at the very end of the book, he does sound more mature (with slight, gradual changes throughout as the story moves along). Is it wrong to label this as MG? Should I make the voice mature from the beginning to avoid the changes at all? Am I doing something wrong?? I’m so confused! Help!!

Thank you!
Mary

Dear Mary…

This is more a question of audience than voice. You want to pitch the story as middle grade fiction, but how many middle graders want to read about a mid-20-year-old? Or a 15-, 18-, 20-, 22-year-old? Will the take-away from the protagonist’s long character arc resonate more with a tween or an adult? He’s living through several developmental stages, each with a distinct sensibility and concerns. Crossover readers aged 18-44 do read MG, but they aren’t the primary readership. I suspect this story is better crafted for the adult or new adult markets, with grown readers in mind. You can start with that youthful MC, but it’s worth experimenting with an opening that allows readers to meet and connect with the older protagonist first. A flashback approach could show his younger self. Or, you could start with that 7-year-old and a more mature voice, hinting that there’s an older presence looking back. Your first step, though, is to definitively identify your target reader. Answer this: If you sat at a table and started telling this story, who would be sitting on the other side of that table?

Happy writing!
The Editor

YA Characters in an NA Plot Can’t Be Good, Right?

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Dear Editor…

I thought I was writing a YA, but after reading a chapter of your Writing New Adult Fiction and interviews about the NA category, I’ve began to wonder if my characters and some of the content may be better suited for new adults. Plus, an agent asked questions about some of the actions taken by the antagonist and the legality of it all, suggesting they may not be suited for 13-17 readers. How do I know if this is NA or YA? My main protagonist and antagonist are 18, just graduated from high school, but my MC’s main partner in the adventure is 17. Maybe it would work better if she, too, were just graduated? Changing the plot would make the story feel forced. I’ll probably learn more as I read your book, but any advise for me now?

Sincerely,
Not Sure Which Way to Go

Dear Not Sure Which Way to Go…

YA fiction does have its 18-year-old characters, some even graduated, so characters’ ages aren’t your determining factor. And YA does have edgy content. The agent’s suggestion that your plot and maybe even concept are better suited for the NA market is illuminating. Ponder a third factor: your characters’ mindset. Each developmental phase of life has a general sensibility, or way of processing the world and one’s place in it. Do your characters seem to be processing the greater world for the first time, figuring out how they fit into it? That’s very teen. Or do they have enough life experience under their belts that they think they’ve figured it out, at least a bit? That’s a general trait of new adults, who then explore and advance their world views. NA stories force new adults to reassess what they thought they knew as they fight their battles. Sometimes they confirm what they’d figured out, but usually they’re breaking down and rebuilding. If that sounds like your characters, and your story’s circumstances feel far enough out of the teen realm to send up flags with an agent, it’s likely this is an NA.

Happy writing!
The Editor

NA Fiction Guest Posts and Contest Links

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Dear Readers…

If you’d like to learn more about NA fiction, get chances to win copies of my new book, and find some great new writing blogs, here’s a post with four links to fabulous blogs that are posting articles, interviews, and videos this week that give me the chance to explore many aspects of New Adult fiction.

Happy Friday!
The Editor

Literary Agent Jill Corcoran’s blog: “What’s the difference between ‘new’ adult and ‘young’ adult? PLUS a contest!” Excerpt: “What’s the difference between ‘new’ adult and ‘young’ adult? My answer usually starts with a single word: sensibility.

Literary Agent Erzsi Deak’s Hen and Ink Blots blog: New Adult: “Sexed” up YA or Bona Fide Literary Movement? An interview with Deborah Halverson, author of Writing NA Fiction.” Excerpt: “If you know you have a great story, and you just haven’t made that connection with a big audience yet, for whatever reason, you can keep submitting and not hurt yourself by self-publishing. The only way you can hurt yourself is if you do it poorly and you get bad reviews, because that cannot be erased.”

KC Maguire blog: “Deborah Halverson: Author Interview and Giveaway.Excerpt: “Craft stories that build up sexual anticipation through love denied, teased, and toyed with. A much-anticipated kiss can be more dramatically powerful than a perfunctory graphic groping.”

WriteforKids website video interview: Excerpt: “New Adult Fiction, with characters age 18-25, is exploding. But what, exactly, is New Adult, and how is it different from writing for young adults? Deborah Halverson, explains the ins and outs of NA in this interview.

 

Thank You, and See You in a Week!

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Dear Readers…

Thank you for joining me to celebrate the publication of Writing New Adult Fiction, and congratulations to Devanie on winning yesterday’s grand finale Full Manuscript Edit giveaway. We’ll take week off from DearEditor.com updates in your inbox, then I’ll be back with the regular Q-and-A—starting with a writer who wants to know what makes “bestsellers that begin with backstory, like The Fault in Our Stars,” work in an age when in media res is the magic phrase.

Happy writing!
The Editor

Writing New Adult Fiction

Foreword by Sylvia Day

“For the writer who wants to become a new adult author, or the new adult author who seeks to enrich her craftsmanship and stand out from the herd.”Tammara Webber, New York Times best-selling author of Easy and Breakable

WritingNewAdultFictionA guide for writers of New Adult fiction, featuring essential information and techniques for creating engaging stories featuring 18- to 25-year-old protagonists against the backdrop of the new adult experience. Includes advice on self-publishing in the NA marketplace and self-marketing. Find insights from best-selling NA authors as well as editors and agents.

WRITING NEW ADULT FICTION Launch Week, Grand Finale: Free Full Manuscript Edit Giveaway

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Dear Readers…

It’s here—the final day of Writing New Adult Fiction Launch Week. Today, a few words of thanks and the grand finale giveaway: a Free Full Manuscript Edit.

Good luck!
The Editor

*Scroll down to enter the “Free Full Manuscript Edit” giveaway. Congratulations to the winner of yesterday’s free critique giveaway, Beth Hull!

Sylvia DayIn picking up Writing New Adult Fiction, you, too, are turning to a new page in your writing career…. Take what you learn in the pages that follow, then adapt the knowledge to suit your story and style. Let the information work for you. Learn the rules so you can break them. You will lead your New Adult characters on a similar journey of discovery and adaptation. It’s a path we can all relate to, which is why the genre resonates with so many readers, regardless of age or background.”–Sylvia Day, from her foreword for Writing New Adult Fiction

Tammara WebberThis book is more than a marketing guide, more than a writing manual, more than a compilation of stories about successful authors. For the writer who wants to become a new adult author, or the new adult author who seeks to enrich her craftsmanship and stand out from the herd, this book has an abundance of information.Tammara Webber, from the cover of Writing New Adult Fiction

I thank Sylvia and Tammara for believing in my efforts to help NA writers, and everyone who contributed illuminating sidebar features to the book, like cover designer Robin Ludwig, who talks about book covers in her feature “Author Branding Through Cover Design.” And Marsal Lyon Literary Agency’s Kevan Lyon, who explains how an agent knows when she’s got something special in her hands in her feature “What It Means to Look for ‘Fresh’.” And author Alana Albertson, who walks us through the creation of an audiobook in her feature “Beyond the Book: Creating Your Own Audiobook.” I’m honored that these experts are helping me extend this book beyond the writing process so it can help writers through every phase of publishing.

These other authors, agents, editors, and industry insiders also allowed me to pick their brains and then pepper their wisdoms throughout the book: Jennifer L. Armentrout (writing NA fiction as J. Lynn), Amanda Bergeron, Carrie Butler, Jill Corcoran, Jaycee DeLorenzo, Kristina DeMichele, Stacey Donaghy, Karen Grove, Juliana Haygert, L.G. Kelso, Summer Lane, Trisha Leigh (writing NA fiction as Lyla Payne), Molly McAdams, Jen McConnel, Sara Megibow, Lynn Rush (also writing as Resse Monroe), Victoria H. Smith, Brooklyn Skye, Nicole Steinhaus, Denise Grover Swank, Suzie Townsend, Dan Weiss, and E.J. Wesley.

My thanks to you, too, for joining my week-long celebration. I hope you found some useful insights. To blow the final horn on this party, I’m giving away a full manuscript edit. It’s open to any novelist—of YA, NA, or Adult fiction—who has a completed manuscript of 110,000 words or less. Use the Rafflecopter form below to enter. I’ll announce the winner tomorrow, here and on DearEditor.com’s Facebook, Google+, and Twitter pages.

Happy writing!
The Editor

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WRITING NEW ADULT FICTION Launch Week, Day 4: Revising in the Speed-Driven NA Market

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Dear Readers…

Here we are at Day 4 of Writing New Adult Fiction Launch Week. Today, the last “Free 1st 20 Pages Critique” giveaway and advice for revising your NA manuscript. Tomorrow, the grand finale “Free Full Manuscript Edit” giveaway….

Happy reading!
The Editor

*Scroll down to enter today’s “Free 1st 20 Pages Critique” giveaway. Congratulations to yesterday’s winner, Whitney Sostarich!

The revision part of the process takes longer than the initial writing. The writing usually comes very quickly, then the revision will take two to three times longer than the first draft.” –Sylvia Day, international bestselling author and former president of Romance Writers of America, from Writing New Adult Fiction

NA writers feel great pressure to publish fast. Readers clamoring for the next book in your series, market opportunities feeling so “now, now, now!”, self-publishing technology reducing production cycles to nanoseconds, and other NA authors cranking out book after book after book so shouldn’t you be, too?

No. Take a breath. Now blow that frenzied feeling out of your body and take control. Refuse to be pushed into going out as fast as you can with the quickest story you can write. Publishing success isn’t measured in how fast you go from idea to publication—it’s measured in readers so satisfied with the reading experience you crafted that they want to share it with their friends and then buy more. Those readers would prefer you take longer to write a great next book than publish just-okay stuff fast. Do you want to see 3-star reviews of your books that say, “It was okay, but it felt rushed,” or do you want 4- and 5-star reviews that say, “I loved it and you will, too!”? Allow yourself the extra time you need to revise. Don’t let outside forces determine when you say, “Done!”

And I’m not just talking line tweaks. I mean evaluating the entire manuscript—scenes, character arcs, all of it—and committing to fixing any weaknesses you identify. Revision is a powerful writing tool. Every spring DearEditor.com dedicates a week to interviews with prolific award-winners and bestsellers to examine their revision processes. Click here to hear how 19 writers with 500+ books between them tackle revision and still publish voluminously.

So of course I wrote a big ol’ chapter about revising for Writing New Adult Fiction, keeping NA needs in mind. Here are two important elements you can assess when it’s time to evaluate your NA manuscript for revision:

  • Check your settings for NA appeal and freshness: 60% of Americans go straight to college from high school. If you’ve got a campus setting, have you set the scenes in uncommon campus spaces to make the familiar feel fresh? Get your characters out of the campus beer garden and into the on-campus bowling alley, with all the noises, weird lighting, and interruptions that come with that. Instead of meeting the hot guy in the class doorway, have Mr. Hottie offer your gal a ride to her car in a crowded parking structure so he can get a space. Parking was the bane of my college experience, so I muted my parents’ warnings about getting into cars with strangers. Sound like a new adult risk-taker to you? Did you work your setting against your new adult’s concerns and social mindset? How about her work spaces and party places? Does your new adult’s living space reflect this transitory time of life? Does her new “home” force her to face things she thought she’d left behind with Mom and Dad? Do your setting choices expose deep truths about your characters and make them as comfortable or uncomfortable as you need them to be?
  • Confirm that you have new adult undertones: Does your NA protagonist have high expectations for herself that don’t always match reality? Is she experimental, does she take risks? Is she working on self-accountability? Is your character still assessing her Life Plan or has she settled into it? Have you challenged that commitment, putting the screws to her thumbs so that she truly examines the box she’s building for herself? Did you get in there and rock her stability? No fiction writer should let their character stand on solid ground for long—problems beget conflict and pressured choices, conflict and pressured choices beget further problems—but it’s especially true for your NA fiction because new adults are in such a hypersensitive, unstable state.

Use the Rafflecopter form below to enter today’s “Free 1st 20 Pages Critique” giveaway. NA, YA, Adult… any fiction WIP is okay. (And you’re still eligible for the Friday Full MS edit giveaway, too.) Good luck!

 

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WRITING NEW ADULT FICTION Launch Week, Day 3: NA Lit and Multiple Points of View

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Dear Readers…

Welcome to Day 3 of Writing New Adult Fiction Launch Week. Today, a “Free 1st 20 Pages Critique” giveaway, advice for deciding if your NA fiction should have multiple narrators, tips for smooth POV switching, and a peek at author Molly McAdams’s efforts to coax a voice from a new narrator in Book Two of her bestselling Taking Chances series.

Hope you find it informative!
The Editor

*Scroll down to enter today’s giveaway. Congratulation’s to yesterday’s winner, Kimberly Durtschi!

Using multiple narrators to tell your story from different points of view is a popular and fun storytelling device in New Adult literature. Multiple POVs are great for injecting conflict by having two characters report the same event differently (with neither one lying!), for causing conflict by having two characters process the same event to different ends and requiring different actions, for allowing readers to connect intimately with multiple characters, for working in information that a single narrator couldn’t know, and for providing alternate insights or opinions. But there are risks if you mishandle your multiple POVs. Switching from character to character can distract or jolt your readers or stutter your story’s momentum. Or, your efforts to connect readers with multiple characters can overwhelm those readers—and you. You may use multiple narrators in a single book, or you can switch narrators from book to book within a series.

Molly McAdams, the author of the New Adult contemporary romance series Taking Chances and Forgiving Lies, weighs in on the challenge of making sure a sequel with a new POV covers new ground in her Writing New Adult Fiction special feature “Author Insight: Giving Chase a Voice”:

molly mcadams taking chances“The times when I was mirroring Taking Chances [book 1], Chase was difficult—he’d hide in the background, and I could picture him smirking at me, saying, ‘This isn’t my story.’ But the second I’d veer away into the parts we hadn’t seen before, the parts that made  Stealing Harper [book 2] so different, it was as if I’d been holding him back while he’d been screaming at me to tell his story, and now that I’d started, there was no stopping until it was all out. He finally had a voice, and he was using it.”

As Molly’s experience makes clear, switching narrators is most powerful when each narrator can contribute something new to the story—new insights, information, or opinions—rather than simply offer a second voice. This is especially important if you’re covering scenes that readers already witnessed through another narrator (“mirroring”). The switching should add depth, not just pages. Otherwise you’re just rehashing the same scene, making the POV shifts feel repetitive rather than revelatory.

Are multiple POVs right for your NA lit? No device should be used just because it’s popular; plenty of great NAs use single POV. When considering your story’s POV, ask yourself…

  • Who is the best character(s) to tell this story?
  • What will an additional perspective add to the story? Can I show readers what’s going on in the other character’s head through his actions, body language, dialogue, and choices instead?
  • Can each character consistently bring new information to the story to make the switching rewarding for readers?
  • Do my readers need to know what’s going on in that other character’s mind? In real life, we can’t know exactly what’s going on in our closest friends’ heads. Miscommunication stems from that blind spot, and miscommunication is a novelist’s friend.

If you decide that multiple narrators are best for your NA fiction, go for it! Here are tips for smooth, strategic POV shifts…

  • Give the narrators vastly different voices and outlooks on life.
  • Trade narrators at scene or chapter breaks rather than mid-scene, reducing jolts or pacing stutters.
  • Be consistent about switching, establishing a rhythm or pattern that you can strategically break for powerful dramatic deviation.
  • Use the switching as a tension-increasing device, timing some switches to create cliffhangars as you temporarily deny readers the information, insights, or reactions they crave.
  • Clarify the switches. You could write one narrative in present tense, another in past; use first person (I, me) for one, and third person (he, she, they) for the other; or use the narrators’ names as the chapter titles.

Don’t be afraid to experiment and find the perfect mix of POV strategies for your NA lit. A few days of experimentation pay off big time when you end up with the perfect balance for your story.

Use the Rafflecopter form below to enter today’s “Free 1st 20 Pages Critique” giveaway. NA, YA, Adult… any fiction WIP is okay. (And you’re still eligible for the Friday Full MS edit giveaway, too.) Good luck!

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WRITING NEW ADULT FICTION Launch Week, Day 2: Manipulating New Adult Characters

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Dear Readers…

It’s Day 2 of Writing New Adult Fiction Launch Week! Today, a “Free Chapter Critique” giveaway and tips for manipulating new adults with their own universal traits.

Thanks for joining me!
The Editor

*Scroll down to enter today’s “Free First Chapter Critique” giveaway. Congratulations to yesterday’s winner, Kari Palm.

Yesterday I pointed out some social, emotional, and circumstantial traits of new adulthood. There are many great ways to manipulate your NA characters using those insights. Here are five:

  1. Force your new adult characters to reject or accept their childhoods. They’re no longer defined by their family’s circumstances or the fallout from parents’ decisions. They’ve got a clean slate—or so they think. Inside, they’re still lugging baggage, and that baggage needs to be handled. A variation of this has characters working through the scars of a tough teen experience, such as a physical attack.
  2. Make your protagonists question their self-reliance. They craved independence, but now that they have it, can they handle it? Perhaps threaten parental input—or yank it away if your young people use their parents as a crutch.
  3. Embrace the complications of forging a new social circle. In a way, your new adults are picking a new “family.” Don’t give them a cast of ideal choices.
  4. Make money an issue. Financial stress can be harsh, especially when you’re new to financial independence. “In YA the characters may be working at Starbucks for extra pocket money, whereas NA characters have to make money to survive, so the stresses on the characters are much greater. They can’t just blow it off.”—Agent Stacey Donaghy (quoted from Writing New Adult Fiction)
  5. Explore mental issues. Sadly, this is an age range in which many mental issues are triggered or come to fruition amid the stress. Mental and social issues are a part of our collective literary landscape, as themes and contributing to conflict and impacting both the internal and external journeys of characters. It’s an option, if not for your protagonist then for the people in her life who she may have to support with her newfound strengths and wisdoms.

All five of these manipulation strategies are, at their cores, about rocking your new adults’ stability. Remember, new adulthood is a time of change, with just about every element of their lives in some sort of transition. Good or bad, change is stressful, and stress leads to high emotions and conflict and bad decisions. Regardless of the genre you’re writing, if you wrap all that stress in your NA characters’ heightened emotions and then tie that up in a puffy bow of high expectations for an “ideal new adult experience,” you’re looking at a fiction gold mine. Mine it to the hilt!

Use the Rafflecopter form below to enter today’s “Free 1st 20 Pages Critique” giveaway. NA, YA, Adult… any fiction WIP is okay. (And you’re still eligible for the Friday Full MS edit giveaway, too.) Good luck!

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WRITING NEW ADULT FICTION Launch Week, Day 1: NA Fiction v. YA Fiction – What’s the Diff?

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Dear Readers…

Thank you for joining me for Writing New Adult Fiction Launch Week. Today, a “Free 1st 20 Pages Critique” giveaway and my answer to the question, “What the difference between YA, Mature YA, and NA?”

Enjoy!
The Editor

*Scroll down to enter today’s giveaway.

I’ll kick the week off with a quick compare-and-contrast of Young Adult and New Adult fiction. The new adult experience differs from the teen experience in important ways, influencing the narrative sensibility of each category and the actions and reactions of their characters.

Young Adult fiction features characters aged 12-18, covering a broad range of emotional, social, and intellectual development. It’s the 17- and 18-year-olds who figure into the YA v. NA discussion. Developmentally, these teens have begun looking outward as they try to find their places in the world and realize that their actions have consequences in the grander scheme of life. However, their dearth of experience affects their decision-making and perspective, contributing to the youthfulness, or lack of sophistication, that marks YA’s narrative sensibility. Even intelligent older teens who can think deeply about the world lack the emotional or practical tools to fix what’s broken, or the wisdom necessary to accurately diagnose a problem in the first place. In YA fiction, teens judge (often erroneously) then act based on that judgement (often not considering all ramifications). When they see that they messed up—which they will, because that’s where we get our conflicts and character growth—they must then react. Our goal as novelists is to push them through the judge-act-react sequence to the new level of maturity or enlightenment that comes with their triumph. We start them on their path of wisdom attainment that will kick into full gear during new adulthood. This time of life is often about the desperate desire for freedom to run their own lives and about learning how to cope, survive, overcome.

Mature YA is a label that distinguishes YA stories featuring those older teens and having explicit content. That graphic content isn’t enough to roll it over into the NA category because these young people are still struggling to process their world from the teen perspective I just described. And it’s not a matter of the issues explored—plenty of general YA fiction explores sexual attacks, drugs, murders, and similarly intense (“dark”) topics or themes, and many cover teen sexual experiences. Because these stories still deal with the teen experience, they are YA not NA. The “mature” distinction tips off readers that the sex isn’t merely alluded to or handled off-scene but rather written of in more explicit terms. This cut-and-dried definition blurs a bit when characters are still young but already in the new adult mindset I describe below. When determining whether your story is Mature YA or NA, consider your protagonist’s emotional and social levels, not just their intellect or life circumstances. It’s helpful to decide this before you craft the story so you can sculpt your character’s experience with your desired reader in mind.

New Adult fiction features characters aged 18-25 that have the independent life they yearned for and are in a “Now what?” phase. The NA experience ranges from leaving parents (or adult oversight) all the way up to first forays into careers. Leading a self-responsible life means new social circles, transitive living situations, new schools, jobs, and adventures. In essence, it’s a time of change and instability—and that means stress. Stress, of course, means conflict, which is fiction gold. Their high expectations and personal optimism often clash with reality. In continuing the self-identity establishment they began in their teen years, they explore, experiment, take risks, and start formulating their Life Plans—and keep reassessing those plans. There’s time later, in full adulthood, to settle into a Life Plan and get married and have kids. Society grants them this time of self-focus and these young people often embrace it with intensity that brings its own problems. The human brain isn’t fully developed until age 25, hindering new adults’ decision-making, risk-taking, and peer pressure issues. New adults often look back on the traumas they survived in their teen years and realize that surviving wasn’t enough—it’s time to accept and move on. And they look for meaningful love relationships, usually involving sex because, hey, it’s their time to experiment, they’ve got access to willing partners, and no one is monitoring them anymore. Many readers expect explicit love scenes. That said, there’s also a growing call for romance that is emotionally rich but not necessarily explicit. New adults aren’t looking for Mr/s. Right yet, but they are looking for deep connections, and that’s where NA romance storylines get their emotional power.

NA fiction is dominated by contemporary romance stories, but since the new adult experience can be explored in any circumstance, NA lit includes genres like paranormal, fantasy, thriller, mystery, historical … any genre that NA authors and readers desire. Just as YA is more than teen angst in high school, NA is more than love and lust at college. Both YA and NA explore what it means to grow and thrive among the universal concerns and perspectives of distinct life stages.

On the difference between the two, Entangled Embrace Editorial Director Karen Grove says, “New Adult is not just age or sex, it’s an underlying theme of finding one’s place in the adult world.” Karen and editor Nicole Steinhaus are vocal advocates for NA literature, and generously co-authored a featured segment for Writing New Adult Fiction. “The viewpoint must be youthful and without the benefit of years of experience, yet old enough to have developed a stronger sense of identity and responsibility than a teen. After all, these protagonists are experiencing many of these things for the first time.”

Use the Rafflecopter form below to enter today’s “Free 1st 20 Pages Critique” giveaway. NA, YA, Adult… any fiction WIP is okay. (And you’re still eligible for the Friday Full MS edit giveaway, too.) Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

NEWSFLASH! Free Edit Giveaways During Launch Week Aug 25-29

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Dear Readers…

I encourage writers to celebrate their writing milestones. Today my new book Writing New Adult Fiction releases and I’m celebrating with a week of daily “Partial Edit” giveaways and a grand finale “Full Manuscript Edit” giveaway starting Monday. I’ll also share tips for crafting riveting New Adult Fiction, some of the sidebar wisdoms contributed to the book by bestselling NA authors, editors, agents, and cover designers, and other fun stuff like that. Join me for this 5-day virtual book launch August 25-29. And if you’re free, stop by #NAlitchat tonight on Twitter 9pmEST to talk all things NA.

Party time!
The Editor

Writing New Adult Fiction

Foreword by Sylvia Day

“For the writer who wants to become a new adult author, or the new adult author who seeks to enrich her craftsmanship and stand out from the herd.”Tammara Webber, New York Times best-selling author of Easy and Breakable

WritingNewAdultFictionA guide for writers of New Adult fiction, featuring essential information and techniques for creating engaging stories featuring 18- to 25-year-old protagonists against the backdrop of the new adult experience. Includes advice on self-publishing in the NA marketplace and self-marketing. Find insights from best-selling NA authors as well as editors and agents.

What Is “New Adult Fiction”?

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Dear Editor…

The “New Adult Fiction” category has recently entered the publishers lexicon. Please enlighten us by defining.

Thanks,
Peter

Dear Peter…

New Adult fiction explores the hearts and minds of 18- to 25-year-olds as they learn to live self-responsible lives. Its readers are believed to be those 18- to 25-year-olds, plus the 30- to 44-year-old crossover readers who love Young Adult fiction. The dominant genres of this category, which fits the gap between YA and fiction for adults, are contemporary romance and paranormal. But similar to YA’s expansion beyond stories of love and angst in high school, readers are calling for expanded NA fare such as thrillers, mysteries, or any adventure that can befall someone after graduation from high school or an adult-regulated life but before settling into marriage, career, and family. And authors are writing it. NA imprints include Entangled Embrace and Bloomsbury Spark, but NA does appear in YA and adult fiction imprints or is self-published. I’ll cover NA themes and sensibilities here in August, when I do a week of NA-centric posts and free edit giveaways to celebrate my new book Writing New Adult Fiction, which has insights from NA bestsellers and a foreword by Sylvia Day.

Happy writing!
The Editor

News: 1 Call for Submissions & 2 Publisher-Sponsored Contests

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Dear Readers…

Summer seems to be bringing out the editors! In today’s post I share news about two publisher-sponsored contests and a call for submissions for a new imprint. Check out the rest of the post for details on these opportunities.

Heads up: I post news like this and other publishing happenings on the DearEditor.com Facebook page and DearEditor.com Google+ page. If you haven’t already “Liked” the page, consider checking it out. I do my best to keep the news and inspirational items flowing there.

Happy submitting!
The Editor

Picture book contest: LEE & LOW BOOKS announces its 14th annual “New Voices Award” for a children’s picture book manuscript by a writer of color. The winner receives a cash prize of $1000 and a standard publication contract. An Honor Award winner will receive a cash prize of $500. Click here to check out the Lee & Low Books announcement page.

Young Adult & New Adult fiction call for submissions: BLOOMSBURY PUBLISHING is announcing their new digital-only imprint Bloomsbury Spark with a call for YA and NA submissions. Bloomsbury Spark will publish fiction eBooks for teen, YA, and new adult readers. Its list will feature multiple genres: romance, contemporary, dystopian, paranormal, sci-fi, mystery, thriller, and more. The inaugural list launches in Autumn 2013. Click here for Bloomsbury Spark’s submission guidelines and email addresses.

New Adult fiction Pitch Contest: NA ALLEY, a blog for writers of New Adult fiction by writers of New Adult fiction, is hosting a Pitch Contest with Senior Editorial Director Karen Grove and Assistant Editor Nicole Steinhaus from Embrace, the New Adult line from Entangled Publishing. Entangled is interested in “submissions of any genre with main characters aged 18 to 24. ‘We’re looking for strong voices, characters who jump off the page, and unusual twists to stories. Fresh. Exciting. Bold.’” The contest starts June 5 at 1pm PST and closes June 12 at 11:59pm PST. To enter, you will be required to submit via comment at the NA Alley blog. Your manuscript must be complete and polished, and it must fall into the New Adult category. Check out the NA Alley Pitch Contest announcement post for details about what to include in the comment.

Good luck!

Newsflash! The Editor’s New Book for Writers of ‘New Adult’ Fiction

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The Editor is happy to announce her new book Writing the New Adult Novel: How to Write and Sell ‘New Adult’ Fiction, to be published by Writer’s Digest Books in 2014. This book for writers will be a hands-on guide featuring essential information, steps, and techniques to guide writers in creating engaging stories featuring eighteen- to twenty-six-year-old protagonists against the backdrop of the emerging adult experience.

Dear Readers…

You know by now that I love helping writers realize their potential as storytellers and career authors. My favorite part is guiding them in developing a personal style that both embodies their creative vision and appeals to their audience. Above all, I try to do it in a fun and supportive way. That’s the heart of this website, and it’s the heart of my book Writing Young Adult Fiction For Dummies. I’m honored and excited for this chance to do the same for writers of New Adult fiction.

Happy writing!
The Editor

Mention Erotic Scenes in a Query Letter?

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Dear Editor…

I am in the process of querying agents for a New Adult novel I’ve written. My question is, should I mention in my query letter that there are a few erotic scenes in the novel (a potential selling point)? Due to the broad definition of “New Adult,” I’m wondering if I should prepare the agent for the adult scenes. If I do decide to include this information, how should I go about doing so?

Sincerely,
Jamie

Dear Jamie…

Leave the steamy stuff out of the query. There’s plenty of steam in New Adult novels, and agents know that, so there’s no need to “prepare” the agent for it. Plus, it’s not a selling point in particular. It’s better to use the short query space to highlight your awesome hook, emphasizing what differentiates your manuscript’s plot, characters, and themes from the masses. Pitch your concept and your craft, not the sex.

Happy writing!
The Editor