what makes a good YA novel?

[Anonymous No.20610309]

I'm trying to work out what makes a YA novel so popular and able to affect millions of people. For example, The Hunger Games? Of course we have the basics: solid plot and characters, but there's something else. It's to do with human relationships - new, strange, fertile ground for 'young adults' indeed, what with young love and exploring sexuality etc. So in the Hunger Games we have the latter but framed by a dystopian socio-political order that at all points threatens and disrupts those emotional bonds.

YA writers, what else goes into a great Ya novel? What makes it connect and affect millions of people?

[Anonymous No.20610485]

>>20610309
Teenage girl with two orbiters and they have a weird, unrealistic love triangle that is blatantly favoring one of the orbiters
An authoritarian government with a very non-descript name and their motives can just be " Grrrrrr, we must be evil and oppress people but comically blunder in every way when we try to do anything to stop the main character"
Worldbuilding doesn't matter that much, have it take place in eitehr some generic fantasy world or balkanized America

[Anonymous No.20610567]

>>20610485
don’t forget the mc has to experience trauma (death of close relative or friend, implied sexual assault, ‘skipping meals’ poverty, etc.) and push everyone away while other characters fight to comfort her for the bullshit ‘dark feminine’ behaviour

[Anonymous No.20610734]

>>20610309
>diversity
>inclusion
>queer representation
>strong female characters fighting against a fascist dystopia

[Anonymous No.20610736]

boilerplate Jungian archetypes

[Anonymous No.20610809]

>>20610309
There are no good YA novels, kids too young to read grown up literature are too young for the more explicit things typically found in YA novels so should stick to children’s books. Kids too grown up for children’s books should read grown up literature. This inbetween of validly themed books serves to just hamper the development of teenagers and infantilise adults.
As to what makes it popular you want something that is easy to self insert into whilst simultaneously provide huge wish fulfilment and faux tribalism that act like star signs or Myers Briggs results for the (inevitably primarily female) audience, Harry Potter does this most enticingly to people as an ordinary child is revealed to be a magical wizard millionaire and goes to magic school where you are put in a house with an animal mascot based on your personality (this competitive house system is a real thing in British schools but the placement is pretty much arbitrary irl). As other anons have said you want a fmm love triangle because it strikes the egos of the female dorks reading this garbage.
>connect with millions
By being lowest common denominator, like crap tv shows and superhero movies

[Anonymous No.20610831]

>>20610309

[Anonymous No.20610929]

kek this thread is unironically kino

[Anonymous No.20612222]

>>20610309
>What makes it connect and affect millions of people?
They have to be written effectively - characterization, construction of scenes, syntax etc. Otherwise following some pattern pobably won't work.

[Anonymous No.20612285]

>>20610809
Agreed. I know an 'I love books' manic pixie dream girl and it's all vampire and werewolf trash. She's 30 btw.

[Anonymous No.20613430]

>>20610309
It should be fun

[Anonymous No.20613669]

It has to be a millennial power fantasy, specifically for the mediocre white female ones who peaked in high school and can't get over Chad picking Stacy over them. Or you could can go the John Green route and reverse it. Basically, pander to millennials, 'cause no ACTUAL young adults read this shit.

[Anonymous No.20613680]

>>20610309
Popularity is either stochastic or manufactured

[Anonymous No.20613861]

>>20610309
https://www.city-journal.org/why-is-young-adult-fiction-so-popular

[Anonymous No.20613862]

>>20610831
This would unironically become a best seller.

[Anonymous No.20614410]

>>20610309
Good YA novel:
>Catcher in the Rye
Popular YA novel:
>whatever gets the most marketing $$$, ad space, and has a white foid with her rack out to promote it

[Anonymous No.20615232]

>>20610485
fpbp

[Anonymous No.20615422]

>>20613669
I just need to pander to more easily spellbound demographic, I guess. I'm only interested in money here.

[Anonymous No.20615557]

>>20615422
just write and self-publish romance or erotica

[Anonymous No.20615575]

>>20615557

Make sure it's full of lesbians. Millennials on Book Twitter will go crazy for that shit. You could even do what Bischoff said (controversy creates cash) and have one of 'em be a tranny and rake in the dough.

[Anonymous No.20615598]

>>20610809
I'll disagree with you. YA novels are to tv-shows what light novels are to anime - essentially the same thing in written form. When you're 12-15 years old, you don't want /lit/, and even if you read it, you mostly won't understand it. YA mends the hole by letting books still be read while being easy and fun to understand. However they shouldn't be much read by people older than the intended age group of the novels.

[Anonymous No.20615621]

>>20615575
don’t even joke. I am seriously considering writing homosexual supernatural romances under a pseudonym for some cash

[Anonymous No.20615802]

>>20610309
Lesbian Urban Fantasy Vampire Romance got pretty high ratings
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35992313-the-one-who-eats-monsters

[Anonymous No.20615845]

>>20610309
THG was good precisely because it did more than just the usual "teenage angst in written form + authority is BAD" stuff most YA books do.
Of course quality doesn't sell in todays market. What matters, especially for YA works, is to be as inclusive as possible. The more BIPOC LGBTQ+ characters you can cram into a pseudo-story set in a comically evil dystopia ruled by a totally-not-Trump leader, the better.
Additionally, you'll need a twitter account that averages at least 20 tweets per day about either current political issues or quirky tumblresque writing tipps.
Then, and only then, will you become a successful YA author.

[Anonymous No.20616232]

>>20615845
I see . . . agents/publishers won't take submissions without a strong social media presense? Seems cringe.

[Anonymous No.20616249]

>>20616232
Oh no, it's worse than you think.
The social media presence is for advertising your work that you self-published on Amazon.

[Anonymous No.20616286]

>>20610309
the only good YA is Maximum Ride outside of that fantasy-like stuff like redwall

[Anonymous No.20616671]

>>20616286
hate to tell you but MR was trash

[Anonymous No.20616888]

>>20616286
>reading that prologue
Holy cringe, I hope the rest of the book is better

[Anonymous No.20618632]

>>20615845
Are John Greene's books read because of his YouTube channel?

[Anonymous No.20619791]

monetizable value

[Anonymous No.20619794]

>>20618632
partially, his fame extended to tumblr during its prime. he was incredibly active on both platforms, but as soon as tumblr got sold out to yahoo AND his books/film adaptations were criticised for their cringe factor (and the fact he was a man writing YA for young girls primarily), his popularity fizzled out

[Anonymous No.20620941]

>>20619794
is Wattpad a good place to start a YA career?

[Anonymous No.20621164]

You have to be willing to participate in cancelling campaigns against other YA authors in order to get rid of your competition.

[Anonymous No.20622103]

>>20620941
no idea bud. I don’t write YA

[Anonymous No.20622173]

>>20610309
>>20610485
You're almost there but you're missing the biggest point which is that it needs to be something teenagers can easily self insert into
The whole appeal of the hunger games is that it made kids imagine "what would I do if I were in the hunger games"
The books have a plot but it's basically just "the MC enters the hunger games" and it doesn't get more complicated than that until she's actually in them

[Anonymous No.20623658]

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/10/the-8-habits-of-highly-successful-young-adult-fiction-authors/280722/

[Anonymous No.20623896]

>>20623658
YA is such trash. everyone over 22 who reads it seriously needs to be killed.

[Anonymous No.20623978]

>>20623896
The truth is that the majority of entertainment media, literature and music included, is either for children and teens, or appeals to childlike sensibilities of immature adults.

[Anonymous No.20624242]

>>20623978
>appeals to childlike sensibilities of immature women
fixed

[Anonymous No.20625164]

>>20624242
Fair enough

[Anonymous No.20626146]

>>20610736
no

[Anonymous No.20626201]

>>20615621
Do post anon if you do. Also consider checking out the new 'dark academia' and english inspired 'cottagecore' thing this is currently very very popular with rich white and second generation brown teen girls. Lmao good luck anon if you do it Im rooting for you go make some money off these bitches

[Anonymous No.20626219]

there isn't a special ingredient that made Harry Potter or The Hunger Games more popular than every other YA novel. They just got lucky.