After yesterday's post, I've had more considerations about sex in YA books and it concerns me. No, wait, it doesn't concern me. I meant how it relates to me. Interesting. Anyway, I am now wondering what my readers will think of the change. Will they notice it? Will they welcome it? Will they shun it? Will they CHALLENGE it? Bring it on. Will it be that much different? I can tell you that the writing process has already been very different for me. I would love to sit down with authors who regularly write sexy scenes into their books and find out what their experience is like. And not a watered down version, either. Not that that will ever happen.
My other thought, or fear really, is that when my editor gets off from vacation on January 3, she will read my email where I tell her all about this fabulous new book that is spilling from my pen and she will tell me she is not interested. Because that would really suck. The only book I have started and never finished for my editor was a zombie novel (I know, it sounds cliche, but what's a horror fangirl to do?). And that was just one chapter. I am already 32 pages into the new book after writing for two days. I feel like I could finish it in about three weeks, if I am given the time to work (which involves a combination of a)my husband taking over for parts of the day, even though he has his own work to complete, b) my daughter actually going back to her nap schedule instead of screaming bloody murder for an hour and then us having to force her asleep in the car, and c) my mom coming over multiple days for multiple hours. Will the stars align and allow me to finish this book in the speed that my brain and body want to write it? Will my audience applaud the new additions to my writing oeuvre (a word I have not used until now)? Will my editor tell me to bring it on? The new year promises many exciting, unknown things. Just the way I like it. As long as it doesn't involve nap times.
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3 comments:
Hi, Julie.
I just finished Jonathan Freisen's Jerk, California, a YA novel that a lot of students have admired. The way it handles sex is pretty interesting. A character is pregnant, so some sex has obviously been going on, but it happens completely offstage. Two characters have a sexually charged moment that doesn't quite get to consummation, and it's very effective.
The way the book leads up to the moment probably determines a lot of how it plays out.
There is nothing worse than hearing 'we're not interested'...but you'll never know without taking the shot.
I have very mixed feelings about the level of sex in YA books. Like anything 'taboo' I think as long as it's handled honestly from the characters point of view, then it's fine.
I wouldn't be too concerned if I were you. Write them, at the worse, they don't feel right in the end and can be redone in a way that does.
Good luck.
Gary, I feel like I covered the "and they put their clothes back on" arena in my next book, and I was hoping to touch more on the deed. If to get a healthy female perspective on it. And Brian, I feel mixed, too. I took a little time to think about what I wanted with the book and who this character was, and the sex doesn't feel as gratuitous to me as it first did. It's still a leap, though, for sure.
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