Believe it or not, I still occasionally pick up some of the mysteries that I enjoyed as a young teen and read them for sentimentality’s sake. At least, that’s what I tell myself, but the truth is: Young adult mysteries are often better-written, more exciting and more unique than adult mysteries. Sad, isn’t it?
The Young Adult genre has progressed dramatically over the last couple of decades, and to be honest, most read like adult fiction. They have more pages, more intricate plots and more adult themes than they ever had before because publishers are realizing that teenagers don’t need to be coddled anymore. This is also true for young adult mysteries.
In fact, writing young adult mysteries could be the best place for you to get started in publishing. It is the most popular genre for young adults (except, perhaps, for fantasy), and if you’re good at weaving mysterious tales, you could grow popular quite quickly. Following are tips on writing young adult mysteries.
Young Adults Like to Be Scared
It is no longer necessary to fill young adult mysteries with cheap thrills and tacky clichés; they like to be scared even more than adults. Take Christopher Pike, who’s written dozens of young adult mysteries and continues to thrill the youth of today. His plots often deal with monsters, mental illnesses, history and other seemingly adult themes that teenagers eat up. It is no longer necessary to censor young adult mysteries for fear of sending them to bed with nightmares. Feel free to get as ugly and scary as you wish.
Young Adults Like Dynamic Characters
When writing young adult mysteries, throw away every conception you’ve ever believed about the average teenager. Not all young adults are obsessed with dating, worried about homework or striving to become “popular”. Your young adult characters can be just as dynamic and interesting as adult characters, and in fact, they should be more so. your characters should have backgrounds, hopes, dreams, relationships, hobbies, likes, dislikes — the whole works. Feel free to dive into the minds and souls of your characters to bring them alive on the page, even as they are unraveling whatever mystery you have concocted.
Young Adults Will Smell a Rat
Your teenage audience is far more clever than you think, and they have higher expectations than adults. If you attempt to pull a juvenile trick – such as leading them in an obviously wrong direction – they’ll get frustrated and never read anything you’ve written ever again. Young adults are smart, clever and extremely hard on authors. Be honest and forthright with them, however, and they will be loyal to every book you ever right.
Young Adults Want Older Characters
Never write a young adult mystery whose main character is thirteen years old and expect a young adult audience to go for it – won’t happen. Young adults (i.e. teenagers) want to read about characters who are older than them. The typically accepted age groups for young adult mystery characters are seventeen to twenty-two, and the older the better. Teenagers want to read about adult ideas and themes, and they become exasperated with younger characters.
If you enjoy mysteries and you want to join a field of excellence, writing young adult mysteries might be the way to go. They sell more books, reach a larger audience, and honestly are given the best of both worlds.
