T3 - YA Character Development

A little different twist for the Therapeutic Thought today. audrey4j asked about the way YA characters are developed--compared to adult-read books.

She wrote, "I've heard that teen boys want stories that don't go deep into characterization or added details that slow the story (romance, too many characters, etc), but I didn't pay a lot of attention because I didn't intend to write YA. But here I am, writing YA! Any comments/instruction?"


So while I might not be able to write about whats selling or what editors/agents want, I can shed some light on a person's development during this time period.

According to Erik Erickson, the Adolescent stage of development (ages 12-19, depending on who you quote) marks the beginning of when what we do makes more of a difference than what is done to us. The YA reader is neither child nor adult, so they are grappling with who or what, exactly, they are.

They are trying to define themselves with their actions, which can be translated into behaviors that alter their appearance, such as tattoos, piercings, and dying their hair, or where they choose to spend their time (church v. mall v. the downtown "strip" where they ride in each others' cars---you know you did this). All of it is an attempt to figure out the main question children this age want answered: "Who am I and where am I going?"

This can be summed up by saying a YA will have an identity crisis (indeed, Erickson was the one who is credited with coining this term). Life gets bigger and bigger the longer they are in it, and they realize they no longer are the center of the universe eventually. They grapple with social and moral issues. Teens are building up their ideals, because at this time, it's easier to think in terms of ideals than reality, because a teenager has little experience. So give them something to idealize, care about, ponder.

The most significant relationships teens have are with their peers. They most likely aren't going to want to read about a teen hero's problems with his parents. Romance is burgeoning during this stage, so not including a romantic theme would be a mistake (according to developmental theories, anyway).

The main thing is for the reader to identify with the character, so your YA character should be struggling to find their place in the world, what they want to do with their life, who they want to be. It's cliche, but coming of age stories work for this age group.

So I guess I'd have to respectfully disagree with whoever told you deeper characterization wasn't for this age group, as characterization is all of what I wrote about above and more. Don't sell teens short and just give them fluff. This is the time where they are experimenting and need to be reminded of what all is out there, both good and bad.

Whatever else you might want to say about Twilight, it had great development of the characters of Bella, Edward, and Jacob. They had their own limitations, motivations, and goals. They had their own quirks (Edward's insistence of no sex before marriage, Bella's clumsiness, Jacob's intensity) and flaws (Edward's, um, desire for blood, Bella's dragging along both boys, Jacob's temper and obsession). Even if it hadn't been a world-wide phenomenon, these are the kind of characters YAs want to read about.

For a little advice on where you can go to read about adolescent boy development in particular, I have to direct you to one of my favorite cartoons, Zits. It's about Jeremy Duncan, a teenage boy plagued with parents who know nothing, boredom and angst. Hilarious, and SO TRUE. Google it to find out more.

Treatment Tuesday - Teen Bonds with Lasting Impact

Today's assessment is for Raquel. She's writing a contemporary romantic suspense about Rainey* a woman with a traumatic past. Beaten and abandoned at a bus station at 8, she awakes from a coma with amnesia. She enters the foster care system and is disappointed by an almost-adoption before going into a locked-down high school where she truly doesn't belong and gets picked on. But one troubled boy, Tate*, befriends and her protects her in the tough school, actually killing one of Rainey's bullies in self-defense, which brings about their separation when Tate leaves the school.

6 years later, she's handing out blankets to the homeless at the start of the book and encounters a hurt man in an alley. She discovers that it's Tate, and she gets him to the hospital. Turns out Tate's a Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agent working a case in San Diego, where she lives. Eventually they work on a case together because the drug ring he's after is operating through free clinics like the one Rainey runs for runaways.

Through her clinic being burned down by a thug, the DEA wanting her to help Tate with a sting, and being abducted by gang members, Rainey questions her faith and her purpose. She's not sure if God has abandoned her or if she's supposed to be reaching out to the hurt and lost on the streets.

* Names have been changed to protect the fictional.

Raquel wants to know: How would Rainey react to a returning love interest? How would the increasing danger and trouble affect her since she'd been in a similar situation as a kid? Would her faith be renewed...would she become bitter? Would she be reactive, or proactive? Would she be whole, or still be searching for the parents that hurt and abandoned her? Would that still be a major issue with her?

I think you are definitely asking the right questions to get to the inner workings of Rainey's psyche. I'd say you're on a roll, actually.

Many people come from a past far more tragic than Rainey's. Her background, while sad and definitely dreadful, wouldn't be enough to hold a strong-willed woman back. She could have all sorts of diagnoses from the events of her past, most likely post-traumatic stress disorder. She could also have an Acute Stress Disorder (which usually only lasts a few days...click on it to read more) from any of the things you mention happen to her 6 years later, like getting abducted by gang members.

You've written in a "returning love interest," and that makes things interesting. The bonds and attachments we form in high school are perhaps some of the strongest in our memory. Especially the bonds that ended abruptly and left little closure. We can probably all recall a painful breakup with someone we thought we were "in love" with and find ourselves wondering where that person is now.

Tate represents that sort of bond for Rainey. Him showing back up is going to be pretty huge for her, especially if you don't have her already attached to some other guy. They'll be drawn to each other, the bond will be tentative at first, as if remembering the painful separation, but eventually, they'll slip back into the comfort of having known each other so well. That attachment can strengthen Rainey as she goes through all these calamities, since she'll be going through it "with" Tate (and likely, as a direct result of her even knowing Tate). That's really going to seal that bond.

I think if you play up the intense emotional whirlwind Tate's cropping up will put her through, I think you can get away with her moving from one misfortune to the other without being the shell-shocked victim. People react differently when they're in love. They can scale mountains, fight bad guys, put on a brave front...you name it. Case in point:

In the movie M. Night Shyamalan's The Village, Ivy Walker is in love with Lucius Hunt. So when he's stabbed, she sets out through Covington Woods to go get medicines for him from the towns. What happens to this blind girl with love on her side? Her escorts bail on her, she nearly falls into a mud pit, her cape made of the safe color yellow is now completely brown, she is chased by one of the Those We Don't Speak Of creatures, manages to kill it by sidestepping just in time for it to careen to the mud pit, then she runs headfirst into a fence that she then proceeds to climb...blind, I might reiterate...to get to a road where she encounters a man she doesn't know who thinks she's a little loco, gets the medicine, and then is on her merry little way like, "Oh, all in a day's work." But Ivy Walker pre-Lucius would have scoffed at setting one toe into Covington Woods.

So, even if you don't want the love interest to blossom too soon, the reader will follow along (in my humble opinion) if you give them enough sizzling expectation before all the stuff starts really happening. Don't underestimate Rainey's desire to help Tate with his job. Perhaps you'll need to up the stakes for Tate so that ups the stakes for him wanting Rainey to help. Maybe he needs to be up for promotion, or the drug ring has something to do with one of his own family members. I think Rainey would give life and limb to help him (after the initial awkward phase of "why did you leave me to deal with the fall-out of you murdering that boy all alone?" of course)...because Tate gave the same thing to help her so many years ago.

Which brings me to that event when she was in high school. You wrote that Tate killed the boy in self-defense. What if it was in defense of Rainey? Perhaps that's what you were implying, but I took it as the other boy came at Tate instead of Tate really saving Rainey from harm's way. But if you make the backstory more involved, that would increase Rainey's feelings of needing to repay the one act of kindness she was really shown her whole life. I think she'd be proactive for sure if this was the case, not reactive. Make sense?

You make the call on the parent issue. She was beaten and abandoned, and you said she didn't remember where she was or who she was, even. So you can make that a major side story for her (because it would be), or leave it alone if you feel you've got enough going on in the book. I don't think a reader would question her not trying to search for her parents. After all...look what they did to her. Maybe she'll visit the woman's grave who almost adopted her a few times, grieving for the lost family she could have had.

If you go this route, I'd think Rainey would be a very lonely young woman, maybe not depressed, but searching. Maybe she throws herself into the dangerous street work because she doesn't have anything to lose...not even a cat or goldfish. She could even be reckless at times, going where others don't dare go (maybe that's where she finds Tate). She doesn't have anything grounding her, holding her back. But Tate could change all that.

About her faith...that's so individual, it's a hard call. Some people are strengthened and upheld in their faith through trials. Others are brought low, and need assistance to set themselves upright again. The answer for this question might be found in Tate. Do you plan on him being a Christian? Saved from his wayward youth? Or is he bitter and disgruntled, maybe poking fun at her wavering faith? I think these questions will help you consider how to handle her faith response to all the crises.

Long, I know, but hopefully this has given you something to chew on. It was a rather complex (but intriguing!) situation you set up, with multiple questions that I did my best to touch on all of them. If I missed some burning question, or a new one cropped up, drop me a comment in the section comment and I'll do what I can to help. Thanks for writing in!

This service is for fictional characters only, so any resemblance to real life examples is entirely coincidental. Any other fictional character assessment questions can be directed to charactertherapist (at) hotmail (dot) com.

Q4U: Do you ever struggle between making a character devout in their faith or struggling? What pushes you over the edge to decide on either path?

Treatment Tuesday - Superteen Love

This week’s assessment comes from Megan. She’s writing a YA about six teenage foster kids who develop superpowers. Way different premise, and challenging due to some of the issues she’s got her two MCs working through.

First we’ve got 17-year-old Lisa.* She was adopted at the age of two after being found abandoned in a car. Her adoptive parents died in a fire when she was 12, putting her in foster care and creating a fear of fire. After years pass in a stable home environment, she feels safe and comfortable. She’s intelligent and overly curious, often to her own detriment, and she’s opening up to friends and a possible new love.

Her love interest is Derrick,* also 17. He was burned by his mother as an infant which put him in foster care. As a young teen, he rebellious and into drinking, sex and playing hookie. His superpower manifested a year ago. It took an elderly couple to help set him straight so he could excel at school and home. Derrick refuses to date or let anyone get close to him because he’s scared he could hurt someone with his superpower if he loses control. But that’s exactly what happens when he lets his guard down with Lisa and almost hurts her, causing him to close himself off and push her away.

* Names have been changed to protect the fictional.

Megan wants to accurately portray the relationship between these two teens. She’s got the desire and attraction they feel and Derrick sending mixed signals of overprotectiveness/closeness/standoffishness. Lisa pushes his buttons, wanting to figure him out and enjoying the mystery of a first love. Both struggle with their powers and both continue a cycle of getting close and then stepping back as they start to open up about their pasts.

Megan wants to know if this is realistic and if I have any recommendations. And you know I do! ☺

First thing that struck me is the role fire plays in your novel. You’ve given both your MCs tremendously traumatic histories, both involving fire. When I read that she’s actually afraid of fire, my head swarmed with possibilities to show this fear, like a high school bonfire, 4th of July fireworks, flames of candles in a restaurant…things like this.

Lisa was 12 when her adoptive parents died (more on that later), so that’s plenty old for her to really have an overwhelming fear. The specific term would be pyrophobia. So you’d have to give her a pretty good reason for showing up at a bonfire, but if you up the stakes—like for a high school girl with a first crush, Derrick would only have to ask her to be there—that shouldn’t be too hard. Also, she might have to wrestle with the burn scar Derrick has. Initially that would probably freak her out. Just something to think about.

I’m not sure what Derrick’s superpower is, but your premise would be so awesome if Derrick had a superpower that involved fire. MAN! That should make an agent or editor take notice! The idea that the heroine and hero should be polar opposites. She’s scared of fire, so he’s a fireman…or to put it in more heroic terms…he’s TorchMan or something like that. Conflict is embedded in a premise like that. And then you’d have a nicely rounded character arc for your heroine to go through…that of dealing with her fear of fire, which love would help her conquer. Every teen girl (and probably adult) reading your book would absolutely sigh at the end of it.

So about Derrick. I’ve worked a lot with foster children, so likely some of what I have to say would hopefully apply not only to him, but also to your other characters. Foster care is something you just about have to have experience with on some level to truly get how the lives of these children differ. Most foster children—on average—are shuffled through at least six different homes before they are 18 and emancipate out of the system. SIX HOMES. Many of them are depressed and overly sad…but this is manifested as anger and tough-man/tough-girl syndrome. Many are forced to get counseling, and it can take years for a therapist to make a dent in this type of anger. I know it took me two years to get to a working place with one 10-year old boy.

I’m not trying to say that an elderly couple couldn’t step in and make a huge difference in his life…but it would take time. So make sure to have some time lapse between when he’s taken in to the time when he’s excelling at school. Otherwise, that might seem contrived and a little too convenient.

Not all foster children are little balls of anger. Some take to it quite well. They are just thankful to have a home and food and to be clean. But the other aspect of Lisa’s situation to consider is the ongoing grief she would have over her parents death. For all practical purposes, her adoptive parents were her real parents…and her grief would be the same as what anyone would experience losing their parents. So start your book off with her in a new home and feeling safe and comfortable, but have her remember and grieve over her parents. This wouldn’t be so prominent with Derrick, since he would have been in foster care since he could remember.

As to teen romance, gosh…most anything would be realistic. I mean, do teens really know what they’re doing anyway? I’m sure there are two steps forward and one step back. One thing for sure to include in teen romance is friends. The proverbial “Feeler-Outer” who sort of paves the way for their friend. The backup friend on the cell phone who will call you at your signal to get you out of a stick situation. Teens have independence issues…and definitely run with the pack mentality. So their romance would be influenced by their friends. Perhaps this would lend a bit more credence to Derrick’s mixed signals (in addition to his fear of losing control and hurting her)?

That’s about all I’ve got. If you’ve got more questions, send me an email and I’ll see what I can do. But I’m intrigued by your premise…and hopefully have given you a few ideas. (It would be totally weird if you made a comment in the comment section that Derrick DID have a superhuman power of throwing fire, or something!) Anyway, thanks for writing in, Megan!

This service is for fictional characters only, so any resemblance to real life examples is entirely coincidental. Any other fictional character assessment questions can be directed to charactertherapist@hotmail.com.