The
differences between writing books for adults and for teenagers
Sophie
McKenzie
I am very much at home writing from a teenage point of view but
I love the challenge of adult books too. Essentially I don’t think about the
age of the reader as I write; I’m primarily writing for myself.
So what are the
differences?
Clearly an adult thriller is more likely (though I’m sure there
are exceptions) to have adult main characters and a longer and more complicated
plot than a book for younger readers.
Thrillers are essentially escapist reads – though the best of
them are thought-provoking too - and my storylines often put ordinary people
that readers can hopefully relate to, into extraordinary situations. Because
young people are generally less powerful in our culture than adults, I think
this means my younger thrillers probably read as slightly more exaggerated than
my adult books do. It’s not that the events I describe couldn’t happen, but
children have less freedom in real life – and so fewer opportunities to take
daring risks and get into the kind of danger described in my books.
There are differences in the writing process too. I found my
editor’s response to the first draft of Close My Eyes really interesting. One
of her main comments was that I had over-explained certain elements of the
story and she wanted me to cut these back. There were many, many places in that
first draft where she wrote ‘this is already implied’ in the margin. I guess I
was used to spelling things out a little more than she felt was necessary. It
was a useful lesson.
Likewise, whereas when I write for teens I try to keep back-story to a minimum, I felt I had a little more leeway to give background on the
characters and their relationships in my adult books. Certainly when writing Trust in Me (my second adult thriller,
to be published in 2014) I often worried that I was putting in too much
background. However, once I’d finished I realized I hadn’t at all, I’d simply included
a level of detail in the first draft that had taken me three or four drafts to
accomplish with Close My Eyes.
And what remains the
same?
I’d say there are more similarities between my adult and teenage
thrillers than there are differences. Fundamentally, whatever age group you’re
writing for and whichever genre you’re writing in, all that really matters is
the story. I try to start all my books with a clear sense of whose story I’m
telling and what is driving them. There will always be some goal or need that
they have – and plenty of obstacles getting in the way of their achieving it.
That is the story and everything must drive the narrative towards telling it.
The only real difference is that with an adult book I allow myself a little
more time to look at the scenery along the way!
