A question for other YA writer's about appropriateness...

[washingtonwriter1968]

My MC has just found out information about her origins. She just found out that her beginnings were violent and as a result the man she thought was her father is not her father, it is the said father who explains this to her.

My ? is this with our audience how close to the line can I be without crossing the line of appropriateness, and where is the line drawn.It is hard as the theme of domestic violence and what you should do in this sticky situation runs through the entire content of this novel. I know it is a hard topic but one I know many teenagers face.

Any comments would be appreciated.

[maybegenius]

In today's YA lit, almost anything goes, honestly. The line for content is pretty much drawn at erotica (no erotic, descriptive scenes featuring sex acts) and extremely graphic/visceral violence. And even then, it's iffy and depends on how the scene is written. In YA, it's less about the topic you're writing about and more about how you execute the subjects. In the execution, it must be relevant to a teen audience. Domestic violence, sexual assault, abuse, kidnapping, and more have all been written about successfully in YA lit.

Just make sure you keep the execution relevant to your teenaged audience and that nothing is gratuitous, and you should be fine.

[polymath]

A subgenre and frequently of young adult known as bildungsroman, pronounced bill-dunz-roman, has protagonists who experience moral and psychological growth. If there's edgy circumstances in a young adult narrative, if they're gratuitious, there might be, probably, a backlash. If they're artfully checked and balanced with moral and psychological growth, there might not be as strong a backlash.

[washingtonwriter1968]

A subgenre and frequently of young adult known as bildungsroman, pronounced bill-dunz-roman, has protagonists who experience moral and psychological growth. If there's edgy circumstances in a young adult narrative, if they're gratuitious, there might be, probably, a backlash. If they're artfully checked and balanced with moral and psychological growth, there might not be as strong a backlash.

@ Polymath
This is exactly what I am trying to do here. I want my audience (primarily young females) to be able to talk about the issues of date violence and rape issues. I know that this is something that young girls are dealing with. I also know that most adults are uncomfortable with the subject. We do not want to believe this happens but it does. I am using this platform to be able to deal with the hard issue,as well as entertain them.

My MC will definitively experience psychological and moral growth out of what she experiences here. I see her changing forever in very definate ways as a result of this experience.

[dios4vida]

A subgenre and frequently of young adult known as bildungsroman, pronounced bill-dunz-roman, has protagonists who experience moral and psychological growth. If there's edgy circumstances in a young adult narrative, if they're gratuitious, there might be, probably, a backlash. If they're artfully checked and balanced with moral and psychological growth, there might not be as strong a backlash.

@ Polymath
This is exactly what I am trying to do here. I want my audience (primarily young females) to be able to talk about the issues of date violence and rape issues. I know that this is something that young girls are dealing with. I also know that most adults are uncomfortable with the subject. We do not want to believe this happens but it does. I am using this platform to be able to deal with the hard issue,as well as entertain them.

My MC will definitively experience psychological and moral growth out of what she experiences here. I see her changing forever in very definate ways as a result of this experience.

It sounds like you have a good handle on what you want to do with this subject. The best approach in my opinion would be to stay true to the character's growth through this hard topic but don't go into unnecessary description of said violent acts. To explore the emotional scarring is perfectly acceptable, even encouraged if you really want the depth of the character to be seen and grow through it.

I think that if you write something that makes you cringe, rewrite it. Don't sugarcoat anything (teens hate that). If you wouldn't see it on the news - like the actual acts or gory aftermath, stuff like that - don't write it. The rest - emotional pain, aftermath that doesn't involve intimate areas or bodily fluids - that's okay. They're the facts of the story.

Just my humble opinion.

[Falls Apart]

I think there can be "lines" for appropriateness in YA. However, domestic violence, rape, etc., are not necessarily over that line unless taken to the extreme. For instance, domestic violence in YA is generally limited to yelling, hitting, even shooting, but if it's downright chilling, like a man shoving his wife in the stove, turning it on, and leaving her there, that's not usually YA. Rape is generally implied, faded to black, or sped through. A graphic depiction is an almost definite no. As a general rule, if something is either (a) brutally graphic or (b) an unusually cruel or sadistic form of violence, you're on shaky ground. Not that these things are necessarily innappropriate for teens--I'd actually disagree with that sentiment--but you will have serious difficulty publishing. Best of luck!