A-Z Challenge: Y is for YA

I started out writing fantasy short stories when I was twelve or so. Eventually, I graduated to fantasy novels, or rather one novel that I never did finish. It was adult fantasy, going to be a trilogy, and completely fantasy-cliched. Prophecy, long journey, normal girl realizing she's someone IMPORTANT. You get the (lame) idea.

Then one day I was listening to this song and suddenly I had a SHINY NEW IDEA:

You Belong With Me by Taylor Swift. My Y song for the day

 

This idea wouldn't leave me, even though I tried to ignore it. I kept telling myself, I'm TRYING to write a fantasy novel. Why don't I finish that one first instead of starting something new and just failing again.

 

But this idea wouldn't SHUT UP so I gave in. And I wrote it in five months. Looking back, it was total and utter crap. But I did it. I wrote my first novel. I was on top of the world. Five years later, that novel has been queried, requested, R&R'd and finally shelved, but it still sings to me. One day I will dust that novel off and start fresh.

 

That manuscript was my first attempt at Young Adult and it taught me a lot. How hard writing is. How much I needed to learn and am still learning. All those stupid newbie writer mistakes that I had to stop making. And most importantly, I learned how much I LOVE YA.

 

I never even thought about writing YA until that day in the car when You Belong With Me came on the radio. Since then, I've become obsessed. YA is the best. I read it like crazy. There are so many possibilities. So much excitement and fun and newness that comes with reading and writing YA. So many feels. YA sings to me. I feel it in my bones and my fingertips and in the way it pours onto the computer screen.

 

I heart YA. And that's all there is to it.