Teresa asked Leah Raeder:

What advice would you give writers who aspire to write New Adult? I myself am writing in that genre, and I would just like some tips from my favorite NA writer. :)

Leah Raeder Wow. This is an excellent question.

My primary advice: don't be afraid. New Adult is, well, new, and that means it doesn't have to conform to the expectations and conventions of long-established genres/categories of fiction.

HEAs aren't mandatory. Romance isn't mandatory. Sex isn't mandatory. (Though one of NA's strengths is that you can write gloriously graphic sex scenes, unlike in YA. And I think we should be seizing this opportunity better--like, you know, by showing gay sex.)

The majority of New Adult squeezes itself into boring molds: white, straight, beautiful people fucking. Bad boys seducing virgins. Sexual trauma as the default backstory for "damaged" girls. Misogyny, both from the so-called "heroes," and internalized misogyny from the heroines themselves (slut-shaming, girl-hating, why does no heroine ever have any female friends who are not competitors?, etc.).

We can do better than this. NA is a wild, untamed frontier. I've refused to conform to the emerging popular conventions of this subcategory, and I hope others join me in doing so.

Let's see some fucking queer characters already. Let's see characters of color. Let's see characters with disabilities. Let's see characters of limited economic means struggling to make it in an increasingly class-hostile world. Let's see characters who don't go to Ivy League schools, but rather community colleges--or who skip college entirely and enter the workforce.

Let's see moral grayness, in all forms. Flawed characters. Hard choices. Angry, diabolical, ruthless heroines. Antiheroines. Unlikable characters who eventually grow and change and win your heart.

Let's see reality in its whole rainbow spectrum, not the same fucking rich white boys banging naive disempowered virgin girls.

Be brave. Take a risk. Shape New Adult into the glorious thing it can be. Dare to be diverse, and I'll have your back. And so will my readers.

Bring it.

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