Writing for Young Adult vs. New Adult

Writers often struggle to find the line between young adult and new adult books. The confusion is understandable. Besides their similar names, the two categories are equally fast-paced and accessible, with a distinct narrative voice characterized by the personality of a book’s protagonist. But young adult and new adult have important differences in the protagonist’s life stage, their preoccupations, and the emotional journey they experience during the story.

Life Stage

The new adult category serves adults who still enjoy the fast pace, emotional satisfaction, and straightforward reading of YA books but who no longer relate to characters going through high school (The Hate You Give), summer or part-time jobs (Dumplin’), first relationships (Eleanor and Park), and other teen experiences. That’s why new adult characters are more likely to be in college (Fourth Wing), internships (Hot Dutch Daydream), apprenticeships (The Lost Apprentice), or first full-time jobs (Minimum Wage Magic).

But an aspiring author might pen a full manuscript about a high schooler in a first relationship and still be told it comes across as new adult. Or they might be writing a fantasy story in which young teens take on adult responsibilities, so how can they fit their work into the right category?

The answer is a little bit in the content you write and a lot in the things your characters care about.

Graphic Content

In young adult books, violence and romance may both be major players. However, the violence won’t be described graphically, and sex scenes are likely to happen off the page. Graphic language will be either absent or carefully limited. There’s a movement underway to introduce younger YA and older YA as sub-categories that will probably help refine which books include these elements, but I’ll have to report on that as the cultural conversation progresses.

In new adult fiction, sex, violence, and language can be as graphic as the author desires. Some books take so much advantage of this that there’s a perception of new adult being simply YA with on-page sex. This is a misconception that comes from not understanding the emotional needs of different readerships.

The Characters’ Journey and Preoccupations

A subtle but all-important factor in determining whether a book suits an older audience or a younger one is the nature of the character’s personal growth and the things they care about. YA characters are introspective. They are figuring out who they are, and that often requires accepting some painful shifts in the truths they used to consider fixed, like their own identity and their relationships with loved ones. This can give a bittersweet flavour to many endings; however, the reader ultimately recognizes that some things must be lost for this self-actualization to be gained. The journey toward accepting it marks the character’s—and, vicariously, the reader’s—new growth and maturity.

New adult characters, on the other hand, have already gone through the angst and coming-of-age arcs of their teen years. They know who they are. If they don’t, that’s a character flaw that sets them behind their peers and is likely the source of many difficulties in their life. Instead of sorting out their internal world, most are trying to make a place for themselves in the physical world. They might be renting their first apartment, starting a business, entering the workforce, or seeking higher learning. Whatever they pursue, they are trying to build the foundation upon which the rest of their adult life will sit.

Dealing with Risky Behaviour

You might want your YA book to engage with themes like crime, violence, smoking, and various kinds of injustice. How do you do that without pulling it into new adult territory? The secret is in how your characters and the narrative itself relate to those subjects. In YA both usually maintain, at their core, an idealistic desire to feel optimistic about the world. Consider these scenarios:

• A character steals from a tip jar, because they know no one’s going to stop them. They’re right. Life goes on as normal.
• A character, overcome with bravado, steals from a tip jar. Soon afterward they are either caught or shamed, or their own conscience gnaws at them.
• A character, out of desperation, guiltily steals from a tip jar.

In the first example we don’t just have a cynical character; the narrative itself confirms that their cynicism is correct. That’s characteristic of an adult book. In the second, the narrative offers commentary on the action. Even if the character justifies the action to themselves, the events of the story indicate to the reader, “You and I both know this was wrong.” And in the third, the action itself is a commentary on the desperate circumstances that lead people to do wrong. Both the second and third options do just fine in books for teens or even for younger kids.

Let me be clear: this isn’t about moralizing at your reader. You don’t want to do this in a heavy-handed way. You’re just keeping in mind that your audience doesn’t yet feel adult-level cynicism about the world and will probably find it either unrelatable or depressing. This is why, for example, Tamora Pierce’s Briar Moss faces his war-induced PTSD in the YA novel The Will of the Empress while Rebecca Yarros’ war-college students in Fourth Wing learn to harden their hearts.

Some Differences are Optional

Many readers of new adult books are still drawn to the kind of idealism we see in YA novels, although they may prefer it to be hidden under a layer of grittiness. This is why most major characters are ultimately likeable, redeemable, or at least given a backstory that explains their harmful actions. Similarly, while some new adult books revel in smut, others have little romance or keep it off the page. Graphic language and descriptions of violence are entirely optional. Some books, like those in Rachel Aaron’s DFZ series, are practically indistinguishable from YA in these respects. Only the age of the protagonist, her stage of life, and the goals she’s pursuing push the books into New Adult.

You might also enjoy:

Middle Grade vs. Young Adult Novels: The Definitive Guide

How Do You Know if Your Fiction Idea is Good?

What a Literary Agent Wants Writers to Know