School’s out! Spring is making way into summer, which is one of the best reading and writing seasons for YA authors. Teen bookworms all over the country are ready to toss the textbooks and cuddle up with some new YA reads. At SparkPress, we’re ready for the Best Writing Summer Ever, and are kicking it off with this SparkPress YA author roundup to help you get ready for summer.

We’re bringing you a diverse collection of tips from 5 SparkPress authors, some that we see as the best and brightest in YA Fiction.  Read on for 5 tips from best-selling, award-winning spring 2016 author Sandra Kring, then check out what some of our other YA authors have to say,  including Colleen Oakes, Jessica Stevens, and Melissa Clark.

Sandra Kring
best-selling author of Running for Water and Sky

ALWAYS THINK OF YOUR AUDIENCE

Teens, young adults, roiling with the emotions of youth, seeking escape, endearment, and empathy. So be authentic and above all…

TELL THE TRUTH

Teens are at fragile points in their lives. They crave independence and validation, yet secretly yearn for guidance, for someone to trust. Someone they can relate to. So allow your protagonist to show her fears, to put herself on the line. Let her openly wonder if she is worthy of love, where she fits into this world, whether or not she will ever be understood. Most importantly, let her give voice to her turmoil and angst as if no adults were listening. Teens seek truth in real life, and they demand it in the fictive dream.

EMOTE

In the real world, teens and young adults are electric with insecurity, hormones and rage. Your writing should reflect this. So be super charged—sensory, vibrant and raw. Let your characters’ feelings be clear. Let sadness bleed with agony. Let their fear bubble to panic. Let dislike blister with hatred, and let love swell to obsession. In YA fiction, your characters’ emotions should feel over the top.

ELEVATE THE DRAMA

While you challenge your readers’ minds with plot twists and story hooks, remember to appeal to their hearts by creating drama. Be warned though; avoid melodrama. To do this, flatten your characters’ reactions in response to emotional crisis. Moan instead of scream, clench jaws instead of bursting to tears, stiffen necks instead of fainting from fear. The key here is that your characters will struggle against their emotions. This builds inner turmoil and heightens drama by creating a constant potential for outbursts and rage.

NEVER TALK DOWN TO YOUR READERS

Teens are complicated. They might lack experience, but they crave independence and respect. So avoid lecturing or patronizing them. Layer your plot with emotional truths and challenges. Make their thoughts and conflicts complicated. Teens are keen and will scoff at characters that don’t reflect those they know in real life.

STAY IN TEEN MODE

Remember, it’s about the audience. TEENS. So stay in “teen mode” while you write. No author intervention. No moral pontificating, parent-preaching or adult lecturing, unless called for by plot.  Get into that mindset and stay there. Listen to music that sends you back in time perhaps, lets you recall what it was like to ache like a teen. To long like a teen. Rage like a teen.

Remember, it’s not about how YOU thought as a teen, but how it felt to be a teen.

About Running for Water and Sky, May 2016:

They say that right before you die, your whole life flashes before your eyes. But what they don’t say is that the same thing can happen when your soul mate is dying. After spending most of her 17 years being shuffled between families that don’t want her, Bless Adler has no intention of opening her heart to anyone. And then she falls in love with Liam Reid. The closer Bless lets Liam get, the more fearful she becomes. Then her new friend, Maylee, convinces her to go see a local psychic?and the woman’s glimpse into the future is anything but reassuring: Bless’s absent father, drunk and bitter. A frantic crowd gathered at the beach. Liam lying in a pool of blood, a gun at his side. Now Bless has 14 blocks to reach Liam on the shores of Lake Michigan. If he’s still alive, she’ll beg for him to fight for his life. If he’s not, she’ll say good-bye to the first person who made her want to fight for her own. Edgy, intense, and emotional, Running for Water and Sky is a story of the elation and angst that comes with love, and the challenge of learning to trust when betrayal is all you’ve ever known. Discover this book and more at SparkPress.

About Sandra Kring:

Sandra Kring is the author of five novels, including bestseller The Book of Bright Ideas, which was named to the New York Public Library’s Books for the Teen Age list in 2007. Her novel Carry Me Home was a Book Sense Notable Pick and Midwest Bookseller’s Choice Award nominee. She lives in Northern Wisconsin with her high school sweetheart; they have three grown children. Writing is her greatest passion, but she also loves reading, music, and movies. Running for Water and Sky is her most recent novel, published in spring 2016.