So You Want To / Write a Young Adult Fantasy

So you want to write a young adult novel set in a fantastical world. You want your protagonist to find they are destined with a great mission, are thrust into a dangerous war beyond their control, or accidentally uncover a hidden secret that reveals what they never knew until now.The young adult novel comes in different flavors depending on the author, ranging from science-fiction to paranormal romance to fantasy. Some can be original stories, while others are inspired or loosely based on familiar stories from Fairy Tales around the world.

Necessary Tropes

• Coming of Age Story - Typically young adult novels center around kids growing up.
• Chosen One - The Protagonist, destined by prophecy or public opinion to lead revolution.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble - The world seperates people into cliques that are based on personality type.
• Crazy Homeless People - When there are multiple factions that exist the Protagonist is the one who subverts faction loyalty, sometimes they are known as factionless.

Choices, Choices

• Sci-Fi vs Fantasy - Typically Sci-Fi stories take place in the dystopian future while Fantasy stories involve the hero joining a supernatural society.
• Revolution vs Status Quo - Typically the Protagonist is involved with either being a figure head for revolution or for keeping the status quo.
• Pick the Main Factions:
  • Antagonist Faction
    • Established Government - The Empire / Hegemonic Empire / People's Republic of Tyranny. The Antagonists who are typically already in power at the start and are at risk of keeping hold of their massive amount of power. Essentially A Nazi by Any Other Name.
    • Rebel Faction - Rebels With Repeaters / Ancient Conspiracy / Brotherhood of Evil / Corporate Conspiracy. These antagonists are typically trying to dethrone the current good guy regime in favor of a new world order. Sometimes this is done via
  • Protagonist Faction
    • Established Government - The Alliance / The Federation / The Good Kingdom / The Republic. The Protagonists who are typically already in power, but at risk of losing it. Rarely a monarchy, because
    • Rebel Faction - La Résistance versus the Antagonist government. Destined to overthrow the status quo.

Pitfalls

• Most Writers Are Adults - Even though the story takes place in a fantastical setting, Adults are still writing the books and as such don't have the proper perspective sometimes.
• What Do You Mean, it's YA? - Sometimes writers forget their target audience. In the bad cases the author may insult or have no interest in appealing to their target audience.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic - Sometimes Protagonists don't hit the mark and could easily be the Antagonist if they weren't the main character. Examples being an MC who is abusive to their love interest or MC who is trying to takedown a government that is actually doing good for the world.
• Romantic Plot Tumor - A problem that can make enjoying a story difficult with too much focus on the romance. This is most troubling in either Fantasy or Paranormal genres, especially with the main leads.
• Damsel in Distress or Faux Action Girl - Sometimes a writer poorly handles creating their female protagonists, resulting in them having an Informed Attribute or always having to be rescued by someone.

Potential Subversions

• Chosen One - Perhaps the Chosen One is prophesied not to be the hero, but instead the villain. Or that the prophecy doesn't include the hero at all. Or that the prophecy has a questionable origin?
• Look up the Evil Overlord List before developing your evil empire as you don't want a cookie cutter copy of what's happened before.

Writers' Lounge

Suggested Themes and Aesops

• After the End - Something happened prior to the Protagonist's story that leads to the main conflict. Common conflicts are war or natural disaster, but also can be personal to the protagonist such as the murder of their family. This usually is shown as the driving force to get them started on their adventure.
• Masquerade - Sometimes the Protagonist is part of a world that is hidden from normal people. This hidden community tries to keep itself separate from humanity, but the Protagonist will sometimes bridge this divide. This is commonly used in Urban Fantasy Young Adult stories.

Potential Motifs

• Love Triangle - Most Young Adult media follows a protagonist who ends up in at the very least a love triangle.
  • The Gentleman or the Scoundrel - Common when the protagonist is female. Nice guy vs dirtbag.
  • Betty and Veronica - Common when the protagonist is male. Girl next door vs seductress.
• Motifs - Sometimes there's a recurring theme or symbols present in YA, whether it has to do with an original work or pre-existing materials.

Suggested Plots

• Alien Invasion
• Broken Masquerade - When the hidden world is being exposed to normal people and the protagonist is either the instigator or only one who can resolve it.
• Deadly Game - The Protagonist is put into a murder tournament as part of a societal norm. Typically the Protagonist's goal will be to put an end to the games.
• Empire with a Dark Secret - The society that the Protagonist lives in has a dark secret as to why it is oppressive.

Departments

Set Designer / Location Scout

• High School / Boarding School: Because nothing says YA like being in a school. Many a Young Adult novel will take place in a school or academy. Because even in the future or alternate dimension school is hell.
  • Absurdly Divided School: Each clique has been officially stndardized into the equivalent of the Four-Temperament Ensemble or another weird way.
  • Academy of Evil, Academy of Adventure, Extranormal Institute, Hero Academy, Military Academy, Military School, Ninja School, School of Hard Knocks, Spy S Chool, Superhero School and Wizarding School are all quite common versions of this. And now typing school so much has made school look like an alien world.
• Bad Future - Grimdark world where people are struggling to survive.
• Forbidden Zone: An area that clearly is not the Rebel's Home Base, otherwise it would be Landmarking the Hidden Base, am I right?... guys...
• Magical Society: If the world is fantastical.
• Elemental Nation: Separating the nations or factions via elements.
• Multicultural Alien Planet: When you want varying races/species for a Sci-Fi setting.
• Police State: You can't spell oppression without militarized police forces.
• Lady Land / No Woman's Land: When you want to push the gender wars in the novel.
• False Utopia: When you want the Dystopian to look from the outside like a good place to live. Then the twist reveals the secret truth.

Props Department

• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot - Give a male protagonist a sword and a female protagonist a bow and arrow.

Costume Designer

• Cool People Rebel Against Authority - The people who are rebelling are the ones who look cool while everyone else is either bland or in dehumanizing combat gear.
• Faceless Goons: Make sure the Evil Empire that the YA Protagonist is rebelling against has easily replaced goons wearing matching uniforms, complete with masks that hide their identity.

Casting Director

Keep the age of the protagonist in the teens, preferably between 13 and 18. The most common age is 16 for the first book and then to have the character be a year older in subsequent books.

• The Protagonist - Action Girl if female. Typically will end up being the Rebel Leader.
• The Rival - Often they will be an Evil Counterpart with the option of becoming a Friendly Rivalry when the Face–Heel Turn occurs. If they will eventually become romantically involved there will be Unresolved Sexual Tension.
  • If Male: Barbaric Bully, Big Man on Campus, The Bully, Frat Bro, Jerk Jock, and The Quarterback.
  • If Female: Alpha Bitch(And Subtypes), Pom-Pom Girl, Go-Getter Girl, School Idol, or Spoiled Sweet.
  • Either gender: Child Prodigy, Student Council President, Teacher's Pet, Token Rich Student, or an Unknown Rival.
• The Love Interest - Can be male or female. Often is either the Childhood Friend, The Gentleman or the Scoundrel, or that guy parents don't want their teenage children dating.
• Antagonist - Often an older person who is leader of the society the protagonist is a part of or a rebellion that will undermine the setting's status quo. Because Evil Old Folks are often a symbol of old ideas that will be replaced by the Protagonist's new ideals.
• Faceless Mooks - The Antagonist will usually have an army of faceless minions that will be masked. Their job is to oppress the common man so that the Protagonist will eventually kill them in droves later on in the story. Examples; Deatheaters from Harry Potter, Peacekeepers from Hunger Games, 6ers from Ready Player One.

Stunt Department

• Keep blood and gore to a minimum. Bloodless Carnage will keep product from becoming too adult, but be sure to Avoid the Dreaded G Rating at all cost. Throw in a little bit of blood if necessary. The goal is to be violent enough to be for teens, but not gruesome enough that they won't be allowed to purchase it.

Extra Credit

The Greats

• Harry Potter series - Harry Potter is a Chosen One who is meant to defeat Big Bad. He is sorted into one of four school factions. By the end of the series he's the only person who can lead the rebellion to stop the Big Bad's evil regime.
• Divergent
• The Hunger Games trilogy. Katniss Everdeen is from a District of people which is a coal mining town. She is then forced to fight in a Deadly Game against people of other Districts. By the end of the series she becomes a figure head for the rebellion.
• Vampire Academy
• The Maze Runner
• Scott Pilgrim
• The Zodiac Series is not only incredibly well-written, but it's unique in that it's more sci-fi than fantasy.

The Epic Fails

• Twilight - Commercially successful, Twilight is criticized for depicting a toxic relationship as romantic.
• Handbook for Mortals - It's filled with plot holes and grammatical errors, which lead to an investigation as to how it made #1. Author and Publisher bought their own books to become #1 on the NY Times Best Seller list. And used celebrity endorsements to sell copies.