Welcome to YA & Children's Lit

As some of you may have noticed, we've got a new forum name, this year! By popular request, we've dropped "Youth" in place of the more accurate Children's Lit.

Please note that this forum is for the discussion of the WRITING of YA and Children's Lit. It's not a gathering place for people who read it, or who are young adults or children. ;) Discussion of individual YA books goes to Fans and Critics, while you'll find our young people over in Age Group: Teens

Hello to YA writers.

At the beginning of the year I set myself a challenge to complete one of my novels that I've been working on. It's still in working progress. However, since discovering NaNoWriMo this year, I think I will achieve my goal. No, I don't think I will. I am going to do it! There, I've said it.

It's a completely new idea that's been floating around for a few months, but it's this last month that the plot for The Junk Room, has taken on a form. I've been using Scrivener to collect my ideas, pictures etc -it's been a godsend-and hopefully the story will find its way out.

All the best.

Hi BWBB, congrats for being the first participant post on this forum. Good luck and I hope you achieve your goal.

I'm writing a junior novel this year which should be around 30000 - 35000 words (unedited) so I'm planning to get a start on the 2nd book in the series as well to make it up to the 50000 word mark. I've been using Scrivener for Windows for my planning too. What a great program.

I've started to move towards YA, because when I wrote up a list of all my story ideas, half of them fell under that category. Young Adult is selling really well right now, and if I'm lucky, maybe I'll be published by the time my niece is old enough to read my books.

This is going to be a challenge for me, as I've never been a teenage girl in high school before (I don't know why I almost always have female main characters, but I do), and it's also dealing pretty heavily with religion (I'm agnostic myself). But I've started reading Dark Divine, since it deals with both those subjects, and whatever doesn't kill me can only make me stronger, right?

Welcome fellow juvenile lit writers!

This year I'll be writing a YA novel, HAARPER. Beyond the title, the MC's name and a vague idea that my antogonist is germs, I have no idea what I'm doing. But as a self-proclaimed pantster, I'm cool with that.

Hugs and best luck to you all~

Hey, everyone! This year I'm writing a YA dystopian, which is a genre I haven't actually written before, but I've read a lot so I figured I'd give it a try. (Usually I write YA fantasy, although I did try contemporary a few years ago...it didn't go too well.) All I have for a plot is what I wrote out on my profile at like 7 this morning (PRE-coffee!), so I don't even know if it makes sense. As a general rule, I'm a pantser.

Nice to meet you all!

Hi guys! I'll be writing a YA novel this year (surprise, surprise!) and though I have the vague ideas for a plot meshing about in my head, I'll probably wait until 12:01 am on November 1st to actually figure out what's going to happen, whoops.

Hey everyone! I'm new to the YA genre since last year, having previously been writing romance novels. But now I have an story about an ordinary 14 year old boy that needs to be told. My exams finish on the 16th so Hopefully I can write at 3333 words per day!

I hope to write my 6th novel in my "High School Series" during Nanowrimo. And then I plan to kill everyone off … okay, just kidding. I am getting a little tired of angst, though, but after teaching high school for 34 years, what would you expect? LOL and OMG! Maybe I'll try mystery animal stories next year …

Hello everyone! i'm going to try and write a children's novel this year, aimed at the 9 - 12 age group. I've been helping in a fourth grade class as part of a program at my university, so I'm hoping that maybe since I know the age group, I can write for the age group.

Greetings fellow crazies (because, really, you would have to be crazy to write for children, right? And I mean that in the best possible way...) ANYways, this is my first year with NaNo, and I am going to tackle a YA fantasy novel. Going to be lots of Egyptian mythology in the story. Can't wait!

Hi all - I'm writing a dark quasi-contemporary YA novel (I would say it's "urban magical realism", but that just sounds weird). I've got characters, a general setting, and a vague plot direction - that's about as planned as I get. The story's been bouncing around my head for six months, though, so I can't wait to get started!

Hi, everyone. I write children's poetry and I'm a picture book author. I've finally decided to take the plunge and write one if the middle grade novels that's been banging around in my head. I just have to figure out which one to tackle. This is my first time here and I'm really looking forward to the challenge and the fun.

I fit here too! :)

My target audience is somewhere from 12-17 but I hope to make it fit the feel of Narnia or Potter in how it appeals to a very broad age range. I did that reasonably well with my Wynnewood series, so I'm going to try for it again.

This is my first time venturing into YA waters (my other series is far more adult-oriented.) I'll come right out and say that this is partly a reaction to the recent noise about agents pressuring writers to 'straighten and whiten' their YA characters, and partly me writing something I wish I'd had available to read when I was younger and needing characters I could relate to. Even with that agenda of course, the story will be what it will be, and I'm excited to see what will come out of it :)

After a foray out into the world of genre literature for "just beyond the range of YA" folk, I've been drawn back in to the YA world as my writing friend kept throwing book recommendations at me. So a Dystopian YA it shall be for me this year, a style I'm quite fond of both for my own writing comfort and reading preference.

I actually came up with this idea 10 days into the August Camp Wrimo and wanted to scrap all that I was doing for that and start anew, but I felt so bad for the MC in that story that I vowed to put this one aside until NaNo haha

Hey all. This is my very first NaNo, hoping to use it as the kick in the butt I need to finally move from fanficition to original fiction. I have a couple of novel ideas that I've been kicking around for years, but the characters from the YA-leaning one have been more talkative in the last few months than the others, so that's what I'm going with. I tend to be a very slow, very perfectionist writer, so I'm hoping that keeping the goal of 50,000 *rough* words in mind will help me break out of my perfectionist ways, at least for a first draft. I'm looking forward to the experience of writing quick and dirty, and to getting to know these teenagers who have taken up residence in my head.

Hello everyone!!! Once again, I am trying my hand at YA lit!!! My novel this year has a got a little bit more of a serious theme to it, as it deals with a form of anorexia and rape. Two very delicate subjects that I hope will work together nicely! I've never really been on the forums before, so I'm really keen to meet new people, especially those who are wanting to have a little banter in procrastinating next month (which I do a lot!) and to keep motivation levels going as well! Hopefuly this year won't be the year of "I think I'll change halfway through!"

Hello to all fellow YA/Children's Lit. writers! I am a newbie writer and this is both my first attempt at writing a novel and NaNoWriMo. I plan on writing a compilation of short stories, poems, and even some lullabies to be read at bedtime. My inspiration is my 16 month old daughter. I am not looking to mass market this book, but simply obtain a copy, so that I can have my wife read it to our toddler, as she grows, then give it to her when she's older. I am also totally blind and life has brought me many challenges, none of which I haven't conquered. 50,000 words is a definite challenge for me. I will admit though, I am very critical of my writing and often wonder how it could be worded or rephrased to sound better. (Probably why I've never written a novel before! lol)I've heard about giving your inner editor a month long vacation, but this could be the true challenge in writing, in my case. My concern: How can I prevent myself from sitting in front of my pc staring off into nowhere-land, while twiddling my thumbs and not typing?
Good luck to everyone...I'm sending friendly hugs and a warm smile to you all! :-)

Hi everyone. I'm writing YA for nano this year, that much I know; the question is , which story? I have one story that I've been researching/outlining/plotting for months now, but keep coming up with more prep to do before I actually put words on a page. I want to write that story for nano, but there's a hitch. I'm worried that with all the prep work I've done, I won't be able to turn off my inner editor. Can you be too attached to a story to make it a good candidate for nano.

If I don't end up going with the plotted story, I've got several others ideas to try. I just need to figure out which story is best suited for the furious writing that nano demands. Any thoughts?

Jaime