Why I write YA.

As the badge to the left shows, I’ve signed up to do S.A. Larsen’s Young Adult Teen Tuesday.

Although I won’t be doing this every week, Tuesdays will be when I discuss all things YA related. Which of course is a bit like cheating for me, because I mainly write YA.

But then, I’ve always been a fan of leeway. 😉

So… there are more than a few things that I’m wondering about YA, so I’ll probably get around to it eventually, but for today, I think the Why I Write post is a good idea.

Why do I write YA? It’s actually a question that I have asked more than once since I started Doorways. See… when I saw my one main character and he got me considering the idea, I thought I’d write a modern Chronicles of Narnia.

Within a few days though, I realized my mistake. See… the character who inspired me is… well… Not standard hero material. Nor, for that matter, is he standard brooding hottie material.

Oh no, don’t get me wrong. He broods. He’s hot. He’s heroic. When he wants to be. Which is interesting because more often than not, he doesn’t give a…

Also… he grew up in a pretty much medieval world. So… eighteen is plenty old to do certain things. Certain things that puts Doorways in a very interesting situation where it’s YA, but for older audiences. Doorways itself isn’t that bad, but the rest of the series will definitely push limits of what a lot of people consider to be “rules”.

But you know what? I decided to be brave and write it anyway. Because it’s a damn good story. Even if I say so myself. And the characters are awesome. And they happen to be teenagers.

So, I guess I could post about how I want to influence young minds (uh… optimistic), or how I love the possibilities of coming of age (I do), or how it’s an interesting market to be in (don’t care). Instead, I’d say I write YA because my biggest story idea is YA. And because my inspiring character holds my mind hostage and only characters with guns and wicked cool super powers survive in my thoughts with him guarding them. Sounds like I’m complaining, but then, there are worse things than having a hot guy cruising around in my imaginary world. Much much worse things.

Do you write YA? Why or why not?