Writing from the perspective of a gifted teen

[DMM87]

Hi. I have a dilemma regarding the main character of my YA novel and I was hoping that some of the writing vets here could help me out. My issue is this: my main character is a "gifted" teenage girl, but a couple of my beta readers (degrees in English, but not professionals in publishing/editing) have commented that she doesn't act like a "normal" teen. At first I didn't think that was an issue, because that was what I was going for. I remember going through most of my middle and high school years not being able to relate to most of the characters in books aimed at people my age. As an adult (only 24), I have a background in education of the gifted. My education has allowed me to understand that my social awkwardness and quirks are/were most likely a result of my IQ. I wanted to capture that in my writing as I feel the voice of a "gifted" person is grossly underrepresented in YA literature, and when it is represented, it is often stereotyped or completely inaccurate. However, all of my young adult fiction research has referenced the idea of finding the "authentic voice" of a teenager. My character doesn't have the typical teenage voice. I never had one, and I'm writing for the teens out there who are growing up feeling like I did; disconnected from their peers and characters in books due to the way they perceive the world. But apparently, all the other teenagers in the world will think my character is a "fake". So, what do I do? Do I "dumb her down" by taking out some of her quirks, thoughts, and vocabulary? One suggestion I was given was to address her quirks early on in the novel, but I'm already trying to "tell" less. I suppose I could try and present my novel as adult fiction, but if that's the case, will teens really read it? Perhaps I should just scrap the idea. My novel is not finished and has a long way to go before it is ready to be queried (grammar is my weakness), so changes are completely possible at this time, although I fear losing her voice altogether. I'm clearly conflicted and any advice would be helpful and appreciated.

[polymath]

One issue may perhaps be voice, the voice of the gifted teenage girl. I've encountered narratives written by post college age writers with younger character's voices in the voice of the writer's education and age cohort. Diction, for example, of a teenager is more idiomatic among a peer cohort than a college age writer's peer cohort. Also, younger women and men tend to speak women's language outside their inner cliques, which tends to be less assertive and confident than that of a maturer woman who's been through the wringer of college classroom and business meeting participation requirements. Suggested reading Changingminds.org: Women's Language, Robin Lakoff's ten elements of women's language. Hedging, Politeness, Tag questions, Emotional emphasis, Correct grammar and pronunciation, Lack of humor, Direct quotations, Extended vocabulary, Declaration with interrogative intonation.
http://www.changingminds.org/explanatio ... nguage.htm

Many of my high school acquaintances were gifted and more or less emotionally healthy. I managed to score the lowest GPA of my graduating class's honor students. I caught some flack from older adults for not living up to my potential, but they didn't understand it was a deliberate effort, and not so easy to stay low, without going too low. It kept me somewhat off everyone's radar. My intelligence quotient had little to do with my performance. I attempted to not to stand out, but stood out anyway through my quirky loner personality. My intelligence is a consolation consequence of my socially inept and emotionally dysfunctional personality, not the other way around. Perhaps something similar might also be what the readers mean when they say the gifted teenage girl isn't acting some norminative, credible, expectable way for her innate personality traits.

[maybegenius]

What you're talking about is one of those really difficult bits about writing YA literature - creating an authentic teenage voice. There are a few possibilities here.

1.) Unless your betas read a lot of YA literature and really know the genre, they may have a biased opinion. Many people who don't write for children and teens have certain ideas about what kidlit is. That it has to be "simple," for instance. Or that the dialogue must work a certain way. Or that it's sort of frothy and silly, because teenagers are all frothy and silly, of course! (/sarcasm) So, they may have a point, or they may be coming from a place where they already have a biased opinion about what YA literature is. I've had readers tell me they felt my writing was too "deep" for teens and they thought YA was supposed to be like Twilight, so. You know.

2.) They may actually have a point. Sometimes our adult mind clouds the reality of our teen years. I was also a socially awkward, highly intelligent teenager who had all sorts of quirks and oddities. But I was also a teenager. I was melodramatic, oversensitive, a little selfish, and I made some stupid decisions. I didn't think or speak the same way I do now. You don't have to dumb your character down (please don't!), but you may need to age her down a little bit if she's acting too maturely. And by "maturely," I don't mean "maturely for a teenager." I mean acting like an adult in a teen's body.

3.) Your dialogue and voice for her *might* be coming off as stilted. Like you're overthinking everything you have her think, say and do in order to drive home this point about her intelligence and quirkiness. If she authentically has a large vocabulary and regularly uses "big" words, then that can come off as a quirk. If she generally speaks normally and tosses out a word like "odoriferous" every once in a while, it will come across as forced. Yes, I did pull that example from Shiver. Loved the book, but I didn't buy Grace saying "odoriferous milk" for one second. Don't try too hard to force her into a box. Let her speak in her own voice. Let it flow out of you without trying to reign it in or tweak it in order to "prove" how gifted she is.

4.) Tied into that last point, the voice may be inconsistent. If your readers feel like the narrator is channeling different people, or there's a change in the tone of their thoughts/speech, it's very noticeable.

I'd recommend reading some of John Green's books if you haven't. He writes YA, and his characters tend to be these quirky, sort of nerdy (or completely nerdy) teens. They're intelligent and witty, but they're also awkward and slightly immature and undoubtedly teenagers.

[cheekychook]

If your main character is not a stereotypically "normal" teen then I think it's fine, even necessary, for her to have a voice that illustrates how she is different. If her gifted mind causes her to speak more maturely, or more precisely, or just in a manner other than typical "teen-speak" then that's how she should speak. Teens/children who are "gifted" very often have a more mature, less typical style of speaking---that doesn't mean they're more mature or "adult" in all ways---they still have many, if not more, of the same issues that hound all teenagers---insecurity, uncertainty, fear of rejection, search for self (hmmm, by those descriptors I'm still a teenager....). My point is that if young readers can relate to the struggles of your character, and her voice is true to her, then your story will still reach them. And the teens you are trying to target will probably have absolutely no trouble identifying with being out of step with their peers in terms of language and manner. Don't change your character or her voice, just keep her real.

[bcomet]

Some of my favorite books have had distinct characters that don't act typical. And many teenagers relate to that fish-out-of water feeling from an array of perspectives.

I personally have a pet peeve with YA voices that talk down or are reduced. You can always tell when an adult is putting their own dialogue in the character's mouth or what they *wish* the character would be saying/thinking, etc.

I think you might experiment by workshopping (separate from the novel) a while with the character development. (Donald Mass has some great exercises for this in his book, Writing The Breakout Novel Workbook, that I love and return to again and again.) Then let him/her become/be who they are and then get (the author over-voice) out of their way (if it is) and they will have their own voice.

It is magical when the character is that clear. They take on a life of their own and will fight with you if you "voice-over" at them.

With Beta readers, if the same comments are coming up, you may want to listen closely.

What I have observed, is that when a character is distinct, they carry an authenticity that makes them believable, quirks and all. At that point, your readers will even start to tell you what that character would do. (It's very fun. Just check in with the fan sites for some of the popular YA out there. The readers will argue endlessly over what Bella or so-and-so would do or say.)

I agree with maybegenius that John Green is well worth the read. In Looking for Alaska, the protagonist is way intelligent as are many of the other characters in the book, even the ones with more typically-teenage, awkward traits.

There can be a huge discrepancy between being inexperienced (or innocent or young) and sounding like a bubblegum teeny.

Hope these thoughts are helpful.

[androidblues]

There is no such thing as a standard teen voice. When you try and create a teen voice for your character you end up with a fake shallow sounding character. One of my favorite narrators, Charlie, from Perks of Being a Wallflower, didn't have the standard teen voice yet he was a teen. Like maybegenious and bcomet said John Green does the intelligent teen well. Please don't dumb them down to Twilight level, but don't a Maggie Steivater either. Having teenagers talk like this 'Hey gurl' 'Wat up' 'No you di'nt' and etc is stupid. I'm a teenager and I don't talk like that. Just let their personality shine through. That's the most important thing. I'm a gifted teen, I speak English, and I have a pretty good grasp of the language. But I would never use slang, unless it was awesome or epic fail. Yet I don't use words like odiferous? or chagrin.

[sierramcconnell]

By what way is she gifted?

Just because she's gifted, doesn't means she's going to speak differently than her peers unless she's gifted in linguistics and studying them voraciously.

I have a gifted character, he's gifted, but he acts just like everyone else aside from being just a tad dark and psychotic at times (it's the blood). He talks the same, acts the same, and yet he's intelligent, can make mechanical things work like you would never dream, and could talk circles around the best of them and has since he was a child.

But he still gets rilled up as a child would, because that's what he is. A child. He's not an adult, even if he is smart. He's a child, who hasn't learned all the important social skills that it takes to make that intelligence work properly. Just because you're smart, doesn't mean you have the experience to make it work.

Or something like that. It's hard to explain.

Maybe they're saying she doesn't seem authentic or well rounded.