Crossing Over

The novel I completed started, as so many do these days, in the month-long throes of Nanowrimo. It was a YA novel, and it was good. Not perfect, by any stretch of the imagination. But it was gritty. Gritty in a way that made a backroad in Tennessee feel like the interstate.

See, the book was about sex. But it pulled no punches. The opening sex scene (yes. OPENING. SEX. SCENE.) contained no heaving bosoms. Nothing quite so PG. It was all grit and anatomy. The way a teen girl might play it back in her mind. It made romance novels seem like picture books.

The scene felt true to the story.

The story is not a pretty one. It's set in a town kind of like the one where you would have found West Side Story a few decades ago. But only without anything so sweet as jazzdancing in the streets.

So I was kind of conflicted. Because it seemed pretty dark for teens. But yet it was also real and true.

It was around that time that I wandered into Writer's Digest Community, and found the Young Adult/Crossover group. They are a group of writers who write for teens. Almost. Their stories and mine, would be best if the age range started around 17.

In my mind, YA is the most diverse audience of them all. There's a big difference between a 12 year old and an 18. Heck there's even a difference between two 18 year olds. An 18 year old in LA, who's brother's in a gang is different from the 18 year old who's spent all her life in Christian girls boarding schools in Utah. And they need different stories.

We write for those teens. The teens who've left Barbies behind eons ago. Or never even bothered to own one.

We've just passed 100 members, and I think we're one of the most active groups on WD. You're welcome to join us, if this is your niche.

Also, even if this isn't your niche, feel free to poke around WD. I've met just as many great people on there as in the blogosphere.