I mainly write YA fiction, which means my nun’s brain thinks I shouldn’t include sex because parents will be horrified and get all protective of their precious teens who have definitely NEVER heard of or had sex even though they aren’t 12 anymore.
#People #LOL
Moving on, for NaNoWriMo 2019, I decided to write NA instead (or, as I like to call it, the REAL YOUNG ADULT, BECAUSE WHEN YOU ARE 13 TO 18, YOU ARE A TEEN, NOT A BORING-ASS ADULT. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG WITH BEING A TEEN. BEING A TEEN IS AWESOME. SHUT UP PUBLISHING).
Get mad if you want, but in my mind, a young adult is someone between the ages of 18 and 25 (30 tops).
The point is, that’s my age bracket, so obviously I wanted to write about the experiences of that age bracket. The experiences I don’t feel comfortable writing about in YA because they don’t fully align with what I remember struggling with when I was a teen. Meaning uni time, being fully responsible for myself, and sex as a normal part of everyday life. Okay, not only sex, but there’s sex in it let’s quit being so prude, it’s dull.
Writing my first sex scene in a NA contemporary book was hilarious and even liberating.
Just. Like. The. First. Time. Itself.
(Disclaimer: When it goes well.)
I let them kiss, I let them touch, I let them feel.
Man, it was so natural and fun, honestly, why are people so weird about sexuality?
My main struggle with this book is avoiding focusing too much on anything romance-related because that’s cool but not my main plotline or my genre. I also was cautious not to include explicit descriptions because the book isn’t erotica (and because I’ve never read erotica, so I have no clue how to write that anyway).
I love exploring the lives of these characters, their complexities, mistakes, and dreams.
BUT, I miss writing sci-fi and fantasy. I miss creating worlds from scratch and having my characters perform impossible feats. I’d like to try writing NA SFF, but I don’t think I’ve found the voice for it.
Let’s see where this first NA experiment gets me.
I think you’re safe as long as it’s not your main plot line.
Confession: reading a YA book aloud to my mom as a teen, I skipped a chaste kiss because I was to embarrassed to say that sentence with her listening.
By the end of the book, the love story is gaining prominence, but I won’t let it win!
I was so embarrassed too! But that made me more curious to read, because it was the only way I could know what a kiss feels like when I was 14-15 or something (my first real kiss came a couple of years later).