I m writing a YA novel about a high school sophomore who goes from homeschooled to high school, and I m making it take place in 1989. I really like it so far, but I m afraid that will make it unrelatable. I m also afraid that the book won t be as good if I make it in the modern era. Will iGen want to read about Gen X? They might learn that some things haven t changed at all.
Ludwig
NO.
That is because it would be about the 80's. Which were crap.
Also, it would be a YA 'novel'. Which are crap.
Anonymous
What's with this idiotic obsession all you wannabe amateur authors have with worrying about whether or not people might be receptive to your ideas? If you were to stop and think about it for even a fraction of a second, you'd likely come to realise that polling strangers on the internet isn't going to enable you to gauge whether or not anybody is going to be interested in reading your book. Serious authors don't poll strangers to find out how they might feel about this year or that year, this character name or that one, this title or some other one. All the time you waste fretting over these completely inconsequential trifles accomplishes nothing and serves only to distract you from getting any actual writing done. I'm not going to read your book whether you ever finish it or not. Thousands upon thousands of books get written each year that nobody reads. But the people who write them don't waste time agonising over public opinion of the elements of their plots. Write it or don't. Nobody cares.
They Pelted Us With Rocks And Garbage
So don't make it YA.
Kids hate nostalgia and history. Take the Outsiders, which was actually written by someone from that era. They only read it for school.
Ender772
whats a ya novel...
Anonymous
Just write it. Present it and the audience will come.
The trick is that you need to talk to people who grew up in the 80's to get a more authentic feel. It's like the Netflix show "Everything Sucks". Having been a teen in the 90's, I couldn't relate to it. There was areas of very poor writing where the teens didn't feel like 90's teens, but rather someone born in the late 90's writing about the 90's. They had the atmosphere right, but all the characters just felt off.