How to Write a Teenage Novel

Formulate an idea. This means a series of decisions you need to make early on in your mind, and stick to. Do you want to write for boys or girls? For boys, follow the idea of action and suspense. Maybe horror and science fiction can also appeal to boys, but it will also be the interest of many girls. So first thing's first, decide on your genre. The teenage section has dozens of genres, including romance (which goes hand in hand with comedy in most successful cases), the supernatural (think Charmed, Twilight by S. Meyer and Wicca by Cate Tiernan), comedy, horror, race (think Malorie Blackman's N&C trilogy), science fiction, real life (diaries), action and many others. The best sellers are those who successfully combine many different genres with each other.

This combination of genres may seem confusing when you look at it face on, but remember that teenagers are very easily bored. You need to keep them interested, and the best way to do that is add things they don't know, or don't suspect. You want to write a page turner, remember.

Once you have a genre, think of where you're going to go with it. What is your plan? Are you going to have one character, or alternate between characters in different chapters? Who is the voice, the narrator? Where is your main character heading? Try to find a main character people can relate to. Don't make them perfect, people won't like them, and they can't relate to them. They need to have flaws.

Try to draw on real life situations, but just exaggerate them a bit to increase their interest. If you had a really bad date once, you can incorporate it into your comedy romance. A first hand experience is always better than making something you've never experienced up, and the reader will get a realistic representation.

You must find whatever you're writing interesting. Otherwise, you'll never finish it. Plus, if the writer doesn't want to read their own book, who will read it? This audience is pickier and more cruel than many adults, so you need to bring everything you've got.

Use language they'd understand. Look up the local slang on Urban Dictionary if need be. This audience wants to think the narrator is talking directly to them. So talk their language, but beware you must dictate how much slang to use in your teenage novel, you don't want to make your book incredibly dated.

Try to add a little reality into everything. That's what adds complexity to best sellers. No matter how unrealistic the storyline is, it's always good to have something normal to focus on. Like, if it's a novel about witchcraft, you can give the main character family issues. Or a crippling shyness with the guy they like. It makes the character, and your story more realistic, and believable, no matter how ridiculous the actual storyline is.

Always remember who your target audience is, and where you are heading with your novel. The main character should undergo some kind of crisis in the middle section, and it should be resolved by the end. Or if it's a series you're planning, leave something missing that you can pick up on. It doesn't need to be a cliffhanger, but anything that will provoke questions will do.