In the past, I've dabbled with general YA, Paranormal YA, Romantic Suspense YA...
...you get the picture, right?
From as far back as I can remember, it's always been some form of YA (unless you count my baby chicken story in first grade).
I love it. I love the ideas, the emotions, the angst, the glances of longing, but above all, I love that it's mostly about the proverbial "firsts".
First date, first boyfriend/girlfriend, first kiss, first love, first heartbreak (and in many cases, all the while battling the bad guys--or becoming one of them, having adventures, learning, experiencing and discovering). Teenagers are on the brink of figuring out who they are, and while they may not know for years to come--I know adults still searching--they're at that stage where they're willing to take the risk.
Everything is so new and wonderful and scary and exciting... we lose a lot of that wonder as we grow older. We forget that ability to view things like we're seeing them for the first time. Like we're feeling them for the first time. And teens feel everything about a hundred times stronger than adults.
It's that time when you're still young enough to believe in the impossible, but old enough to discern the unfathomable. It's when you question everything, but you're still able to "think" with your heart, even though you know how to use your mind to guide you.
Teens really do see the world differently, and I'm not sure if I ever moved past that phase. I still see the world quite differently from most people, although I'm sure many writers/dreamers do.
There are days when I'm so tired, it all just seems to blend together, and sometimes I don't know whether I'm coming or going... but when I get home and finally make it to my computer and open up that MS... none of it matters anymore. Somehow it all disappears as I lose myself in the story.
Because just like that, it's all new again. Like the first time.
This is why I write YA.
What genre do you write? Why does it appeal to you?
