Great article on YA writing in the WSJ (here). What Kids Want in A Novel by Malie Meloy has several great points, but there are one or two which I find better than most, including:
"Don't write down. Kids read up. After hearing that my book takes place during the Cold War, some parents have worried that their children won't know the history. But all information is new information to kids. They're designed to absorb it, and they follow the emotional story."
"This might be the most important one: Stuff has to happen. Right from the start. Roald Dahl said, "Children are a great discipline because they are highly critical. And they lose interest so quickly. You have to keep things ticking along." I think that should be true of books for adults, too. I complained to a friend that I had stopped reading three much-admired novels in a row because I was on page 60 in each and nothing had happened."
Some of the aspiring writers in the writing group I was a part of were YA writers. I don't think I could do it, particularly fantasy YA. I find it hard enough just writing for my own level of reading, I would imagine that writing YA would be as hard as writing from the opposite sex point of veiw. Still, a good article.
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