I've been working on a new story that I'm hoping to push into a short novel, and I'm wondering if it could work as YA. I originally drafted Christie as a 19 year old woman living with her fiancee, but to be frank, I hated her. It's not a good sign when you don't like your main character, so I revised her and now she's a teenager with a lot of different personality quirks and I like her a lot better. Since the main character is a teen, it seems fit that it'd be a young adult novel despite the fantasy connotations - 'adult' books never have kids as the main characters.
My synopsis so far:
Christie is a young teenager who lives with a college-aged relative (a cousin or something) called Neil. She's happy in the 9th grade, and she's really emotionally close to Neil, so to her, life is great.
Until she wakes up one morning and finds out that her Neil is gone. Along with whatever random possessions of his that she thinks to look for - his metrocard, his skullcap, an engraved watch from his dead - they're all missing. All of the phone numbers are scrambled, too, the people that pick up have never heard of Christie or Neil.
She freaks out. She stays in the house, doesn't go to school, ignores the ringing phone, and stops sleeping almost entirely because she's so sure that she's gone insane.
After two or three nights without sleep, her mind has gone to hell and her body is freaking out on her, and she begins hallucinating. She embraces the release, and in one of the hallucinations, she sees a near-androgynous being. The being is called Petra (for now) and it is eternally young. Christie learns that she has slipped into the wrong reality, a shadow of the past or the future, and Petra offers to guide her back.
Thoughts? Thanks, guys! :)
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4,243 / 50,000
Abr 19, 2008 - 14 55
I think it would work as a young adult novel just fine, but would it be better categorized as urban fantasy? Because that sounds like the route you're planning to go with it. . .
1,819 / 50,000
Abr 19, 2008 - 20 55
That's definitely possible.. I hadn't been familiar with the genre before, but after wiki'ing it, that does sound close to what I was aiming for. Thanks, Sam!
50,059 / 50,000
Abr 20, 2008 - 16 36
I hope that you pursue this as a YA novel - it's got a great feel to it and I think you could push some boundaries and come up with something really special. What's the theme of your story? If you haven't already seen it, rent Donnie Darko, a great movie which has a similar feel to your story, but is perhaps too dark to work for teens...maybe.
Good luck with your novel!
teamgis2
www.prokidwriter.com
59,041 / 50,000
Abr 23, 2008 - 12 32
I think this sounds really interesting! Some up-and-coming urban fantasy writers that I can name are Cassandra Clare and Holly Black, so if you want to check it out, I would highly suggest anything by them.
I really think that this could be something really good, it's definitely piqued my interest, that last paragraph. Definitely keep going with it, I think it would be a great YA urban fantasy =)