Is it YA or MG? Guest Post by C. Lee McKenzie

Today, I’m thrilled to welcome a fabulous part of our writing community: the one and only C. Lee McKenzie! She’s graciously offered to discuss the differences between writing MG and YA as a part of her Alligators Overhead tour, and I can’t wait to get started. Take it away, Lee! 

       ►   ALLIGATORS OVERHEAD   ◄       

About the book:

"Alligators, witches and a spooky mansion aren't your average neighbors unless you live at the edge of the Ornofree swamp in the backwater town of Hadleyville. The town's bad boy, Pete Riley, may only be twelve, but he's up to his eyeballs in big trouble, and this time he isn't the cause. This time the trouble arrives when a legendary hundred-year-old mansion materializes next door and the Ornofree alligators declare war to save their swamp from bulldozers. Things only get worse when Pete's guardian aunt and several of her close friends vanish while trying to restore order using outdated witchcraft. Now Pete must find the witches and stop the war. He might stand a chance if his one friend, Weasel, sticks with him, but even then, they may not have what it takes."

WHERE TO FIND C. LEE MCKENZIE:

WEBSITE  |  BLOG  |  FACEBOOK  |  TWITTER | AMAZON  |  GOODREADS

WHERE TO FIND ALLIGATORS OVERHEAD:

AMAZON KINDLE  |  AMAZON PAPERBACK  |  BARNES & NOBLE  | SMASHWORDS

                    ►   Is it YA or MG?  ◄                     

I’m always surprised when people say that they’re not sure if they’re writing YA or MG. Maybe I’m just too simplistic, but there seems to be a very clear distinction between the characters and the way the stories unfold.

When I create a young adult character, I always see them as fifteen to seventeen and on the verge of entering the adult world. If I give them a family of any sort, they’re readying themselves for independence from the home, and they’re rebelling to test their limits and establish themselves as individuals. I think they might still seek the safety net of the family or other adults in times of stress because while they’re getting ready to head out the door and be on their own, I think they might still have a Teddy Bear on their bed--a last poignant vestige of their childhood.

 

If I’m terrible and don’t give them that family, then these YA characters might suffer from loss of innocence; they’re likely to make some very bad decision with very limited experience or support; they’re growing up, but it’s often a painful period that I depict in the story. These teens can be cutters, heavy drinkers, sexually active etc. They’ve had some hard knocks and these experiences have added some very sharp edges to them. Some are still attending high school, so huge choices loom ahead: college, job, career, possibly marriage. In some cases, my characters could be facing jail time if they continue the way they’re going.

My MG characters are obviously younger than those young adults. I like to have them either eleven or twelve. These are kids who might have to cope with bad parents or no parents or bullies, but they’re still kids and there’s only the budding evidence that they’re aware of the opposite sex or career choices. They’ll notice a cute boy or a cute girl and they might say something like, “When I grow up I’m going to be an astronaut.” However, unlike those teens, the middle graders are trying to find a place to fit in their families or their communities, not leave them. Not yet.

The story comes from the characters and what they want. With my YA they usually want to recover from some loss, or they want a certain person to fall for them. Maybe they want to recover from an addiction or to escape the nightmare of an abusive home. These are very different goals than my MG characters have. In Alligators Overhead, all Pete wants is to return to his real home. He doesn’t like this new place and he acts out because of that. Yet, in the end all he really wants is to find a place where he fits.

I like to write across these categories because they are different and they allow me to create teens and younger characters who have distinct story themes. I can’t only write about teen angst. I have to write about the time before all of that comes into play, when kids look at the world from their childhood perspective for the last time. In my mind, they are distinct categories and not easily confused, but then I don’t write contemporary, realistic middle grade fiction, and that may be one reason I have no problem keeping these categories separate.

I’d love to hear what you think about this topic, especially if you read/write both YA and MG. Are the lines between the two more blurred for you?

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C. Lee McKenzie is a native Californian who grew up in a lot of different places; then landed in the Santa Cruz Mountains where she lives with her family and miscellaneous pets. She writes most of the time, gardens and hikes and does yoga a lot, and then travels whenever she can. 

She takes on modern issues that today's teens face in their daily lives. Her first young adult novel, Sliding on the Edge, which dealt with cutting and suicide was published in 2009. Her second, titled The Princess of Las Pulgas, dealing with a family who loses everything and must rebuild their lives came out in 2010. Her short stories appear in Stories for Children, The First Time and the soon to be published, Two and Twenty Dark Tales. She just published her first Middle Grade novel, Alligators Overhead, this year.