Why I Write YA & What Made Me Go Indie
– Guest Post by
Miranda Wheeler
Whether
or not I wanted to write YA wasn’t a question from me. Young Adult is easily
90% of what I read for entertainment, and has been since I discovered a love
for reading in the beginning of middle school. That being said, being sixteen
myself, part of me feels that no one understands what it is like to be a
teenager than a teenager. Those younger haven’t experienced it, and as one
ages, there are inevitable distortions. Besides where my place as a writer came
in, there are several elements I really love about YA. Not only is it crafted
for an age group I most intimately relate with at this point in my life, but it
also has clear differences from other genres. In a purely YA novel, there is
little obscenities – the profanity is kept at a minimum (which I have always
found to be more effective), any present gore is rarely nauseating, and in most
cases, there is no sexual content
present – and if it is, it is not overtly graphic. The writer is also
simpler – despite a clever darling here and there, it does not get tangled and
worn with hackneyed prose like some adult novels – whilst at the same time, the
intelligence level of the protagonists, or at least narrator, does not
underestimate the reader (which seems pretty common in middle grade, although
there are a variety of exceptions). The most important thing for me, however,
was the hope. YA readers do not settle with unsatisfied – and rarely indulge in
a tragedy. They want a character to fight for something they believe in, to
overcome, to fight the odds, to complete the development arc, to deal with
gritty things in the most human (or inhuman) ways. There is something
mystifying about trying one’s best to deliver that.
Going the indie route was a less black and
white decision. My mother is an indie YA paranormal romance author (Bonnie
Erina Wheeler of The Erris Coven Series),
and it’s fair to say I’m tech support. She’s a smartie – learning as she goes
and getting quicker and more independent – but from the beginning I did a lot
of assistance in figuring out the publication websites, formatting into
templates, and aside from one presently purchased from an artist she wasn’t
satisfied with, I’ve done the majority of her covers. She, of course, kept me
updated on all of her review processes and what she was learning, and at some
point I found myself with a Facebook friends list and a mass of Twitter
followers filled with people from the indie world. The most influential pro in
going indie was that I knew how to do it, and I had an idea of what to expect.
At the same time, I’ve previously been published with short stories in formal
magazines and the like, and also through my mother, I know a few people who are
actively involved in the traditional publishing industry (those who vehemently
are against the indie movements). I’m addicted to literary magazines that boast
the importance of a low-residency MFA program and traditional publication
(indie isn’t not even on their radar) like Poets&Writers.
I’ve read books filled with interviews with agents and publishers cover to
cover. Then there’s the satistics. Something around 2% of querying authors get
picked up by an agent, and the majority of the 98% are never read. In the
traditional world, we hear of Christopher Paolinis and Alexandra Adornettos,
but most agents and trad-pub authors frown upon publishing youth. Inevitably,
though, there’s something about the indie that really gets to me: it’s rising,
it’s the underdog, and it’s scaring the willies off the publishers. There’s
something here, in this business, that hasn’t even been tapped – it’s the
iceberg that took down the Titanic, and we don’t even have a clue what’s under
the water at this point. Why not go indie?
Connect with Miranda Wheeler
About Miranda Wheeler
A current high school student, 16-year-old author Miranda Wheeler lives with her loving family in her hometown of Torrington, Connecticut. An avid reader, she’s been whipping through books and producing novel-length projects (though none published prior to Something Of A Kind) from the early age of eleven. Having previously released short stories, some published in magazines such as TeenInk and others via “indie” mediums, she has many plans of continuing to write, as well as pursuing other passions and an eventual teaching career. While the official cover is a work in progress and the title won’t be released until the promotional media is obtained, several other projects are in the works: a YA steampunk novella, a YA paranormal romance, and a YA sci-fi-series, in addition to unofficial talks of a Something Of A Kind sequel.
Buy the Book
About Something of a Kind
As a 17-year-old artist, Alyson Glass had her future mapped – she’d go to art school, study in Paris, and eventually make enough bank to support her single mother. The trouble is, things don’t always go as planned – especially a sneak attack of stage-four ovarian cancer.
Suddenly motherless and court-ordered to move in with her estranged father, Aly’s forced to leave behind her New York hometown for the oddities of Alaska. Ashland seems like cruel and unusual punishment – at least until her dad ditches her at a local restaurant and she crashes into a super-hot, guitar-playing diner-boy with a horrific home life.
Noah Locklear is used to waiting – waiting for his shift to end, waiting until his drunkard parents go to bed, and waiting for the day he can get his sister away from their dysfunctional family. The summer before senior year, the elusive researchers that ruthlessly pry into Ashland’s history shatter a final cord with Noah’s abusive father, one of the town’s elders. Unfortunately, as far as his parents are concerned, the new girl who’s changing everything belongs to the outsiders. With their relationship increasingly forbidden, the struggle of knowing who to trust reveals that nothing is what it seems.
As Aly encourages Noah to investigate the legends he’d always written off as stories, they uncover the one thing their fathers can agree on: there’s something in the woods.
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