Short Stories for YA

pbw

Can any TBers give me some advice about structure, length etc and other tips for writing stories for YA? What's the upper band of the the age group? And as for novels - say a Coraline length novel, or Matilda, how many words would those be?

Any advice you have to offer me?

dorothyd

Tracy has a lot of info on her blog, PBW!

Tracy

PBW - Here's my blog link http://talltalesandshortstories.blogspot.com/

I wouldn't really class Coraline and Matilda as YA.

The best thing to do is to read widely in the genre.

pbw

Great - thanks.

pbw

So what is the target audience of

a) Coraline?

b) Matilda?

Two very different authors, two different epochs (they were writing in). Both stories have outstanding, very appealing heroines.

heather

I would say they were both children's books, too young for a YA tag.

Lou Treleaven

Yes, 8-12 for Matilda, and the same for Coraline only it's quite scary... my nine year old doesn't want to read it yet, although she has seen the film. Re short stories:- look at what the publisher asks for - they usually specify length. Full novels can vary from 20K to 80K but I'd say aim for 40K at a rough guide, at least to start with. Lengths are far more flexible for YA than for other age groups although some publishers prefer short and snappy and some are happy to embrace the epic!