YA literature can be filled with the energy of youth.

Are you aiming for adult fiction? Or maybe you’d like to be a part of one of the most lucrative and growing branches of literature out there — YA literature. Books for teenagers and young adults are a huge market, and they also pose a unique challenge for writers that can still be very artistic and literary. The best YA lit, after all, doesn’t pander or condescend; it isn’t writers dumbing down their work. Rather, YA lit is an attempt to give a window into the world of young people and show a sympathetic view of the problems they face. For this reason, the best YA is, of course, able to also be enjoyed by adults. Here are a few reasons why you might want to consider writing for a slightly younger audience.

Greater focus makes for better writing.

Sometimes you’re working on a novel or story and it seems to be floundering. There just isn’t enough reason to care about the characters or interest on your part in what is going on in their lives. Try thinking about it as from the perspective of one of your teenage characters. You might notice that things suddenly take a much more focused and dramatic turn. Things seem inherently more dramatic when, like a young person, you believe small events to be be the entire world. The social jockeying in high school, for example, can seem pretty ridiculous once you’re out of it, but for teenagers it’s deadly serious.

Write what you know.

A lot of my audience here is made up of young writers, people who are just starting out, and there’s no better way to begin than to work on a project that has a firm foundation of experience. That’s why the first novels of so many great authors are largely or partially auto-biographical. You’ve already lived through the teen years; you’ve experienced the awkwardness, the heartache, the feeling of being young and either wishing to grow up or wishing you never did. Experience can often be easiest to write when it comes from genuine experience. Write about the way you felt as a teenager, and don’t hold anything back.

YA stories are in high demand.

From a publishing or career standpoint, writing YA can be a very clever move. While the budgets and market shares of other genres continue to shrink, YA continues to grow. Books like Twilight and Gossip Girl are dragging the quality level down, but they prove there’s a tremendous appetite out there for books for young people, about young people. What can you contribute to this genre? What can you teach without being preachy? Can you reassure worried teens that all of this drama will seem silly someday? Can you show how exciting it is to be alive when it seems like anything can happen?

Remember, the best YA does not stoop or become dumb. Its writing can be just as literary as the best adult fiction. Don’t hold back on your writing quality; just be true to the perspective of a young person, which might be a little more simple, a little more blind or selfish, than an adult perspective.