This article deals with style, and every writer’s style is different. Halfway through this piece, you may say, “I’ve had about as much of this as I can take!”
So I will say at the outset, “What do I know about writing?” I sent out Members of the Cast 49 times and got close, but no agent. The fact that I couldn’t sell any agents on my book may be for reasons in this article. Of course, the book may not be good enough.
It’s nervy for adults to write about teens. We all claim to remember our teen years, but we only remember what we remember and make revisions as we age. But the nature of the problem with teen voice is not plot—we make up the plot. The problem can be our rendering of the characters in the story.
I resist the tendency to write my characters “up.” I don’t want my characters wise beyond their years and have their thoughts and dialog sound like 35-year-olds who have an MA in English or philosophy.
Kids are immature. By that, I don’t mean that they are less mature than they should be, but they wouldn’t be kids if they were mature.
I recently read Eyes on the Road by Kerri Davidson and Mark Gelinas. Kerri and Mark have written an excellent example for this discussion, and I give them kudos for writing two teenagers who are totally teen, which makes the story real. Morgan and Josh do things throughout the book for what experience tells us are the wrong reasons. But this is why the book works: Morgan and Josh feel grown-up, but they don’t think like adults. They don’t react like adults. They aren’t motivated by thoughts grounded in years of experience. And the beauty and power of “being sure you are right” at a young age make for a book full of teen missteps.
This dichotomy is the edge for the writer. A five-year-old who is fussed up about something is just as upset as a parent may be about an adult problem. These feelings provide catalysts for realistic characters.
As adult writers, many of us have characters do or say what we wish we had done or said. We write “a little justice” into our tale. And this is good—write what you know. However, be careful not to have the teen character react like you, as an adult, would act. Letting your characters be kids will make the story ring true. Then, ease them into doing a little better, and you will have the arc and voice of a teen for your characters.
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