Writers’ Questions: Adult, YA, Middle Grade and More—Who Am I Writing For?

There was nothing I hated more as a child than feeling embarrassed, but I’ll share one of those youthful humiliations with you today. 

When I was eight or nine, a grown-up family friend asked me what I was reading, listing off books written for children. I answered, with all the pretension I could muster, that I “preferred to read adult books.” I was met by guffaws, though I didn’t understand why. Later that day my mother explained that “adult books” might be taken to mean erotica.  

Now I look back at this incident and wish I could tell my younger self that technically she was right—while adult bookstores may be purveyors of X-rated reading material, in the publishing industry, Adult is the categorisation given to all books aimed at an 18+ readership.

Today, I’m an author of historical fiction for adults, but this memory isn’t the only confusion I’ve encountered when it comes to publishing’s age categories. Beginner writers are often unsure about the industry’s distinctions and what it is they themselves are writing. So, in this latest post in my Writers’ Questions series, I’m diving into the topic, with the large caveat that I myself do not write for children.

So let’s get into it. The age categorisations you’re most likely to encounter in fiction are Adult, Young Adult, Middle Grade, Chapter Books, and Picture Books. 

Picture Books are those read to children or read by them in the early stages of their literacy journey. Chapter Books are for the more advanced child reader and are long enough to be broken into chapters. Middle Grade books usually star a pre-teen protagonist and are similar in length to a novella for adults. Young Adult novels can be similar in length to Adult novels, but deal with teen characters, dilemmas, and themes. Adult fiction we’ve already covered.

This all sounds straightforward, but writers can still run into difficulties. Below are a few questions you should consider if trying to identify where your novel or novel idea might fit in the marketplace.

What age is your main character?

This seems easy, right? Writing middle grade? Make your protagonist 10. Writing YA? Your heroine is 16. But, while books for children almost always have child protagonists, Adult books could have a child protagonist too. 

Consider The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, by John Boyne, or Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield. The first is a novel dealing with the Holocaust that has a small boy as its tragic lead. The second is a bildungsroman, which follows David from childhood into his adult years. Neither is meant for children.

What length is your manuscript?

Yes, there are exceptions. J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is much longer than the typical middle grade novel. George Orwell’s Animal Farm is sometimes referred to as a novel for adults, but really it’s novella length. 

But exceptions are not the rule, and, if you’re aiming to have a debut novel published, it’s best to stick to the guidelines. There are plenty of other reference posts about this online, but basically: Picture Book – 50-1,000 words; Chapter Books – 4,000-15,000 words; Middle Grade – 20,000-40,000 words; Young Adult – 40,000-80,000 words (maybe longer for genres with heavy world building); Adult – 70,000+ words.

Is your book suitable for children?

I don’t just mean, “Does your manuscript include hot-button topics like sex?” (generally, not a topic prior to YA and not graphic even in YA). But is your book about topics that children will care about? Also consider the lesson your novel might be imparting. The younger the reader, the more didactic fiction tends to be, as we use books as tools to teach our kids how to navigate the world. 

What books would you compare yours to?

Identifying comparative titles could help you distinguish your age category, but make sure you’re looking at books published within the last few years! Children’s literature has shifted massively from the nineteenth century until today, and, while you may still feel inspired by classic children’s books, they won’t be your best reference point for saleability.

I hope these questions have been helpful in working out what you’re writing or writing next! Which topics would you like to see me cover next as part of my Writers’ Questions series? Let me know—here, on Facebook, on Instagram, or by tweeting @SVictorianist. My novel, Bronte’s Mistress, which is very much for adults, is available in hardcover, audiobook, and e-book now, and the paperback will be released next month! For updates on this, my writing advice and more, sign up to my email newsletter below. 

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Writers’ Questions: What is Point of View (POV)?

I’ve been blogging about novels for the last six years, but, in 2020, my own historical novel, Brontë’s Mistress, will be published by Atria Books (more on this here). Writing a novel can be a lonely process so, over the next year, I’m using this series, Writers’ Questions, to share some thoughts and advice about the writing and publication process.

This week we’re getting technical. We’re talking about point of view (often shortened to POV), which is something that often trips up newbie creative writers.

So many ways to tell a story... (my bookshelf)

So what is point of view?

Simply put, point of view is the perspective through which readers will experience your story. Whose eyes will they see through? Whose thoughts will they have access to? If this were a film where would the camera be?

The movie analogy is a good one, but it raises the spectre of one of the most common issues I see with beginners’ use of POV. Video is so pervasive in our culture that we are very familiar with a cinematic point of view. This moves between characters and zooms in and out, to first paint broad settings, before suggesting emotions through close and personal shots.

A novel can achieve the same effect but this is not the norm. Fiction (and especially character-driven fiction) is more about interiority than film or TV. And this will affect how you approach point of view. So let’s look in turn at each of the most common approaches to point of view in fiction.

First Person

What is it?

A character narrates the story directly using the pronoun ‘I’. Readers see/hear/experience only what the character does and are ‘present’ for scenes this character is in. Usually the reader has total access to the character’s thoughts and feelings (unless of course the character is lying or unreliable…).

In most cases this character is the protagonist (main character), but this is not always the case. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is the quintessential example of a novel in which the narrator (Nick) isn’t the protagonist (Gatsby is).

What are some other examples?

David Copperfield, Charles Dickens

Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë

What are pitfalls/things to consider?

Readers often want a compelling reason why this person is telling their story—e.g. Is it confessional or persuasive? Are they writing from their deathbed or passing on the tale to their grandchildren?

Readers enjoy a distinctive and interesting character voice if they’re reading in first person (think Holden Caulfield in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye).

Readers can’t know anything your first person character does not. This means that first person narrators often end up in passive situations (e.g. eavesdropping on a conversation) as writers struggle to convey information their protagonists aren’t privy to.

It can be tricky to vary sentence structure enough (don’t start every sentence with ‘I’!).

If your character dies, writing a death scene in the first person can be a challenge. While, if your character lives, the very fact that they’re telling the story could give away your ending and reduce tension.

Filtering language (also known as ‘thought verbs’) can creep into your prose, distancing readers from your character. E.g. There’s no need to say “I felt cold”. Instead say “It was cold.” Try replacing, “I thought he was an awful man” with simply, “What an awful man”.

First person is more common in specific genres and target ages (e.g. Young Adult fiction is often written in the first person).

Second Person

What is it?

A rarely used form, addressing the reader as ‘You’ and putting them at the centre of your story.

What’s an example?

The opening of The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern (review here)

What are some pitfalls/things to consider?

It’s rare and some readers HATE it.

It can give your novel a video game feel (for good and bad).

It’s immediately striking and immersive, so is good for pulling readers into an unfamiliar environment.

Third Person (Close)

What is it?

Also known as third person limited, close third person is the most common form of modern storytelling, but it’s one that beginners often struggle to execute.

The writer uses ‘he’, ‘she’ and ‘it’, as well as characters’ names to tell the story—not ‘I’. However, as with first person, readers still experience the novel through only the main character’s perspective.

In practice, this means that we only go ‘inside the head’ of one character. The other characters’ motives, thoughts and feelings are as opaque to us as they are to the protagonist.

What are some examples?

Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel

Most of the Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling

What are pitfalls/things to consider?

Close third person has many of the same problems as first person: an inability to share information your MC (main character) doesn’t know, protagonists acting as an observer in some scenes vs. having an active role, and the creeping in of filtering/thought verbs when drafting.

You may find repetition of your protagonist’s name and pronouns gets irritating.

It’s easier to ‘forget’ your limitations when writing than it is in first person: remember, if you describe a setting, the narration should share only the details the protagonist notices, if the villain does something suspicious when the hero’s back is turned, readers can’t see it either etc.

Third Person (Omniscient)

What is it?

An all-seeing, God-like narrator knows everything each character does and more, and can dive into the brains of different characters at will.

The pronouns are still ‘he’, ‘she’ and ‘it’ but no one perspective acts as our filter on the world. This approach can work well in sweeping epics and multi-character novels and is also great for creating irony and suspense.

What are some examples?

Bleak House, Charles Dickens

Middlemarch, George Eliot

What are pitfalls/things to consider?

It can read as old-fashioned.

The narrator’s voice can seem intrusive.

Many modern readers have a preference for close third and first.

Readers can get confused about whose head they’re in at any given point, especially if you are often ‘jumping around’.

Readers don’t develop as deep an emotional relationship with your main character.

Third Person (Fly on the Wall/Cinematic)

What is it?

A third person perspective where readers have no access to anyone’s thoughts/interior life. They see only what a fly on the wall would see. While rarely deployed, this is the closest perspective to the one we’re used to in Hollywood blockbusters.

What are pitfalls/things to consider?

This can be effective for a scene but can get dull and make readers feel distanced from the story and characters.

If you’re leaning towards writing this viewpoint ask yourself whether you're sure you wouldn’t prefer to write a screenplay.

Can you move between different points of view?

I’ve written about each of these points of view in isolation, but often they are combined, with alternating chapters or different sections of a novel being written in different ways.

For example…

Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White utilises multiple first person narrators.

Hazel Gaynor’s The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter (which I recently reviewed) moves between different first and third person sections.

You can mix and match between different voices and perspectives, but it’s important that, as the writer, you know why you’re making the choices you are.

What POV is Brontë’s Mistress written in?

My novel, Brontë’s Mistress, is written mostly in the first person from protagonist Lydia Robinson’s perspective. However, it also contains letters (also in first person) from other key characters.

I’d love to hear what perspective(s) you love to write in and why? If you want to let me know, or suggest future topics for the Writers’ Questions series, contact me—you can comment below or on Facebook or tweet @SVictorianist. You can also now follow me on Instagram @finola_austin.

Writers’ Questions: How long should my novel be?

I’ve been blogging about books written or set in the nineteenth century for the last six years, but, in 2020, my own novel, set in the 1840s, will be published by Atria Books (more on this here). Writing a novel can be a lonely process so, over the next year, I’ll use my new series, Writers’ Questions, to share some thoughts and advice about the writing and publication process. Today I tackle one of the top questions I hear from aspiring writers: how long should a novel be?

If you’re new to novel writing, there’s one big adjustment you need to make upfront. Readers think and talk in pages, while writers obsess over word count. Why? Formatting and content make a huge difference when it comes to determining how many pages a finished book will be. Larger fonts and margins will lead to more pages, and dialogue-heavy scenes will take up a lot of paper too, especially if you have a pithy back and forth between characters. Word count is thus the industry standard.

If you want some readerly reference points though, you can find the word counts of many famous books online and compare these to the editions you own. Google tells me for instance that Jane Austen’s Persuasion (1818) is just shy of 88,000 words. The copy I own from Oxford World Classics clocks in at around 200 pages.

Ok, so we’re now thinking in word count. How many words then should a novel be? First, you need to determine who you’re writing for. I’ll be going into more detail about the differences between fiction written for middle grade, young adult and adult audiences in a future post, but, simply put, children and teenage readers have shorter attention spans and tend to read shorter novels. Middle grade novels can vary massively in terms of length, depending on content, but aiming for around 50,000 words is a good place to start. For YA you’ll find lots of popular outliers on the longer end, but around 70,000 words is safe.

I write for adults, so have a little more personal experience here. The organisation behind NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), which happens each November, defines a novel as having a minimum of 50,000 words, but this is pretty misleading for the adult market. Most sources online cite 80,000-100,000 words as the sweet spot for adult fiction, with a couple of important genre exceptions. Romance novels, for example, can be closer in length to young adult fiction, while fantasy (especially high fantasy) writers have more leeway to move into six-figure word counts.

In all of this, I’m speaking about averages. There are of course plenty of exceptions to these guidelines. The later Harry Potter books grew to word counts that would be highly unusual for a debut young adult writer. Tolstoy didn’t pump the breaks and shorten War and Peace (1865-7), which is an incredible 590,000 words.

But if your word count is at either end of the bell curve you might want to consider the following questions:

1. Very long books take up more paper and are more expensive to print but readers resent paying more for them. Do you want to put off agents and potential publishers (or eat into your profits if you choose to self-publish)? Conversely, how much do you think readers would be prepared to pay for a super slim book?

2. Has your desire to write ‘The End’ led you to rush to the finish line and come up short?

3. Does your word count reveal features of your writing? For example, I tend to ‘underwrite’ my first drafts. Through the revision/editing process I have to add more—more description, more details, sometimes additional scenes. Maybe you do too? Other writers have the opposite tendency. They over-explain and repeat themselves. Is it time to get out the proverbial or actual red pen and make some cuts?

4. Did you start your novel in the right place? If it takes three chapters for anything to happen or for us to even meet your main character you may have started too early and increased your word count. Backstory is important for you to know, but readers want to start at the ‘interesting bits’.

5. Should you add a sub-plot? If you’re under word count one possibility is that your story is too simple. Adding another narrative arc could grow it to novel proportions.

6. Is your idea really a novel? If you’re struggling to get anywhere near novel length maybe your idea is best suited to a short story format. And that’s totally fine. You might also have heard of novellas (stories of around 20,000 to 40,000 words). There are many respected and loved novellas but tread carefully here, especially if you wish to be traditionally published. It is very hard for an unknown writer to have a novella acquired.

I’d love to hear about your personal experiences with novel word counts. And if you have any topics you’d love me to cover as part of my Writers’ Questions series then please let me know. You can always reach me here, on Facebook, or by tweeting @SVictorianist!