Nathan Bransford - The Forums

Generally tend to switch over mid book? I have a situation sort of, where the main girl is coping with loss without her guardian around mid novellette. (The second 5,750 words.) From that point it become sort of a military sf coming of age story. In fact by the first 5,750 words, the main boys mother is not even shown in the, but simply implied to no longer be with us.

I think there are plenty of YA - and even some middle grade - where guardian are out of the picture.

Well there is a guardian, thats the issue. He just kind of dissappears mid book. Its slowly becomes sort of like a teenage wasteland.

I'm no expert in YA by any means, but just because a guardian disappears doesn't automatically change the age group of a book. There are plenty children's and YA that have characters dealing with these "grown up" issues for the first time, or trying to accomodate these new paradigms into their worldview. That's the whole point of YA literature.

I'm wondering if by "switch" is meant genre, tone of the story, or the plot, or the character arcs? Am I close? Just trying to understand your question so I can pitch in properly.

I would say of course the tone should stay consistent throughout. The story arc & character arc should follow a logical, well thought out course. If there's a big change in the plot at the midpoint, then that's cool as long as the characters exhibit in-character changes, if any.

I think dios4vida is right that YA fiction is about that period of turmoil and change where everything can potentially be up for grabs. I'm not an expert in the genre either, so don't take my advice as anything close to gospel.

If you notice (which you may not, I just read a lot of the genre), in many YA fiction the adults are either the antagonists, dead, or have a reason to be absent. And actually, off the top of my head it is almost always the case in sci-fi/fantasy (Hunger Games, Twilight, Mortal Instruments, Divergent, Harry Potter). It makes for a dull book if the characters have to ask permission every time they're going to do something. At the end of Divergent for example...

Yea I'm leaning toward adults are dead situation. (Adults are alive in part one and two, and the early parts of three. Its a six parter.)