Themes

It depends on the publisher, marketing, etc., but there really isn't a line for YA.

Try doing a search for "edgy YA" and find some books by authors who are writing less "clean" stuff. Lots of sex, addictions, self-harm... all kinds of drama.

 

Yea, I'm getting the idea that my idea of over the line for YA is way short of what's already on the market.

 

Yes. Depends on what you have read. There's nothing thematically over the line in YA. I've read YA that tackle sex, including scenes with blowjobs, drugs, people prostituting themselves for drugs, sexual violence, suicide, murder, etc. That stuff is all there in YA fiction.

 

Like others have said you have you're pg YA then you have things like Monument 14 or Looking For Alaska that have quite a few mentions of under the belt action even if there's only one real scene of it for the later. The former.....has some scenes in it that sparked some heated words on Goodreads. More on the way it handled a certin thing, and the whole creepy peeping tom thing then it`s YA rating. Still, if a book can have that stuff and still get published as YA you should be good.

 

I apologise if this type of thread has already been conceived, but seeing as I've just joined I thought it might be nice to get to know other members and their reasons for writing. More specifically, I'd like to know what themes interest you. What cause do you champion?

Being an in-training ecologist, my chief interest lies with the natural world, but also what one may call anti-anthropocentrism/human supremacy. Essentially, I'm wholly against the mentality of "human exceptionalism", as often advocated in certain belief systems. This is not to say I'm anti-religious, nor am I provoking anyone to argue on the matter. Processes of the natural world, such as decay, also fascinate me. I suppose anything related to trees, mountains and the idea (folly) of human dominance over nature, even the smallest of insects, is an overriding theme with my work which I can never really seem to shake off. But no, I'm not one of the tree hugging types!

I understand if the thread needs to be locked either for having been made before or because it may incite argument due to the personal nature of its content.

I look forward to your responses.

Thanks.

 

A theme that captures my attention is mystery. Which may seem vague. I've always loved the Alfred Hitchcock, Twilight Zone type of stories. Where you think one thing is happening and then "boom" the twist happens. I understand those are shows and not books, but they are stories and themes nonetheless. I really enjoy where I think one person is clearly the villain, yet they are not.

I also enjoy a theme that teaches me something that causes me to reflect on my own life and choices. Something that makes me think "Wow, I never saw it that way before."

 

Forgiveness, especially of self, is an underlying current in my work. Also, in various different expressions, the idea that the past is rarely what it seems and almost never what were told.

 

Broken families seem to be a major theme that occurs in my works (though honestly, I never planned it that way)

Mystics: MC's father murdered her mother.
Paradise mourned # 1: The MC and the MC's wife have an abusive relationship.
Paradise mourned # 3 The MC mourned over the death of his wife.

(I know I skipped # 2, but trust me, family issues there)

Nerium: MC's soon-to-be-husband breaks off the engagement.

I really didn't notice it until I started comparing my work, but family problems occur a lot in my work.

 

Redemption and atonement, moral absolutes vs. utilitarianism, and perseverance in the face of apparent futility are the big ones so far. My personal favorite story I've written deals with two of those at the same time.

 

I find myself writing about found families a lot; can't quite brain well enough at the moment to translate that into a pithy theme.

Something I'm really fascinated by is the butterfly effect - I like analyzing how tiny actions affect the flow of history (or in this case, plot).

I'm also into the cyclical nature of time and how patterns tend to form and repeat themselves, even directly being self-perpetuating. A rather glum micro example of it is how abuse is frequently carried on through generations/families, while a more macro example would be the rise and fall of entire societies, always followed by the rise and fall of the next.

Moral grayness and relativity are big ones, because I'm basically a moral nihilist myself. I like seeing people do the wrong things for the right reasons, the right things for the wrong reasons, and doing the right things for the right reasons and still fucking up. I like there being no real 'right' answer or solution and seeing how the 'wrong' one can still have a good outcome.

Others already said it, but it ties into my moral questionability: redemption and forgiveness. I like seeing how bad someone can be and still be forgivable. I think it's very cathartic, that one - the concept that you can screw up pretty terribly and still bring it back around and people can forgive and welcome you.

Unreality is a favorite, too. I'm kind of an existential nihilist as well, I guess

Despite all of this sounding somewhat awful, if I have an overriding cause behind my writing, it's that I want to spread positivity. Ultimately I want my writing to make people happy. So no matter how bad it gets, I think the theme I come back to is "it will get better" - maybe not in the way you want or expect it to, but it will get better.

 

Longing. I like to play around with the theme of longing. What we long for. The ways we long for things. Just the idea of it in general makes frequent appearances in my writing.

 

The underlying theme of pretty much all my stories is how in the midst of chaos, two people can carve out their own safe haven that's insulated by their love and mutual respect for each other.

 

Is "dick" a theme?

*goes back to writing smut*

EDIT: Three different people immediately "liked" this post. I see we have a common interest.

EDIT: Now we’re up to eight.

 

Oh yeah that's...definitely an over-arching theme in my work as well.

 

Nihilism as an appropriate response to failure and existence in general.

 

Hmmm, I think there's quite a few themes that are close to my heart. But I'd say the biggest is finding a home. Not just physically, but with people too. Sometimes it's fixing what's broken in the blood family, sometimes it's finding a new one, or even finding a physical place. (The last one is my current draft, actually.)

I think it comes from not really feeling welcome in society. I'm on the autism spectrum, and it's left me feeling like an outsider. So my books are about finding places to belong.

 

Madness/mental trauma. The brain is an infinitely fertile subject to explore, and I'm finding it makes for good material to pit unsuspecting characters against.

 

My stories (not that there are that many of them) keep having characters who treat each other either substantially better or worse than they would be expected to. For example, in The Princess and the Caffeine, the King sells the princess to the dragon expecting her to be eaten, and the dragon befriends the princess and obeys her directives on humane dietary choices. (Yes, it sounds silly. It's a 650-word fairy-tale short.)

I'm not sure what this is at its core. I could summarize it several different ways, but none of the ways make me say, "Yes! That's it!"

 

Looks like my thread caught on. Very interesting, everyone.

 

I suppose the overarching theme in my stories is "broken" people. But I don't fix them, it's not about that for me. It frustrates me that most things focus on 'healing' what's 'broken' and I have a hard time accepting that view. Instead I focus on my characters learning to function through the broken, and other characters loving them, not in spite of them being 'broken', but specifically because in the end they're not broken, they don't need to be fixed. Their experiences make them strong, not broken. They're perfect the way they are. Because that's all anyone really wants anyway, right?

And dick of course, because romance and erotica just isn't the same without it

 

That's very similar to the stuff that my books centre around; exploring these characters who are very damaged but who aren't broken. And the romance is always based around characters who love them for them, not because they want to fix them. In fact, when the lead finally lets her guard down and starts showing more of who she really is, that's when her love interest really falls for her. Because he loves her for being her. In the main plot it's much the same. The lead has to figure out her own way out of her problems and a lot of that is them learning to accept themselves with their faults, and then grow from there instead of trying to paper over the cracks and pretend to be who everyone else thinks they should be.

The final message in all my book is that if you're honest about who you are then people will love you for that. No matter what bad stuff you did, no matter how broken you feel, if you are brave enough to show people what's in your heart they'll love you for what they see there.

Sadly they won't let me put cocks in teen books

 

Innocence and Corruption.

 

That's why I decided to have my characters in their early 20s. I can have all the sex, drugs and rock and roll that I want. Of course, this might lose me some readers though, but I don't care.

I'm not really sure if I have any themes, so to say, that I and drawn to, but I certainly love to work with emotions, loneliness, anger, longing and love. I like to move my characters through various natural elements (weather, environment, street scenes or pastoral) and have the environment they are in effect their emotions.
I particularly like to have my MC observe the love relationships of the other couples in his life, sort of like Nick in The Great Gatsby. I like him to be rather lonely, but holding out for any sort of relationship other than all the crap his friends put themselves through.

 

Surprised in all these responses there's no love for the natural world. Anyone? Where are my fellow botanists and zoologists! Not to say I disagree with anyone's chosen themes; they're all very significant and pertinent. Quite happy with this thread, it's given me good markers for people.