Hello friends! Many of you have asked me how young adult and adult novels differ. It is a great question, and today’s blog post is dedicated to answering that question: What is the difference between young adult and adult fiction?
Historically, the lines between children’s, young adult, and adult novels have been loosely defined. I will attempt to put parameters around them. Emphasis on attempt. Young adult fiction, aka YA, is a category of fiction written for readers from 12 to 18 years old.
Fun Fact: The YA genre is targeted to adolescents, but many of its readers are adults.
YA genres include the same ones you’d find in adult fiction. Common themes are friendship, family, first love, and relationships. Stories centered around the specific challenges of youth are called coming-of-age novels. Coming-of-age stories feature adolescents growing into adults, and tackling related personal problems along the way.
My forthcoming novel began as an adult novel, however we decided that young adult was the better fit due to it being a coming-of-age story. I’ve made two modifications to facilitate the switch to YA. The first one is starting off with my protagonist at a younger age. The second one is ensuring romance is PG. That’s all. The complexity of writing and length of the book have remained the same as when it was an adult novel.
Now, to add clarity, this was the case for my book, but if you were to research the length of novels, many websites will indicate word counts for adult and young adult. Some that I’ve seen have 50,000-70,000 words for YA, and 60,000-80,000 words for adult. Other websites recommend 50,000-90,000 for adults novels. My book is approximately 65,000 words, though we are editing and that could change. So, while it is safe to say adult novels are usually lengthier than YA, that is not always the case. The lines are close.
Young adult fiction was developed to soften the transition between children’s novels and adult literature. In the 1960s research on adolescents experiences emerged which led to more adolescent focused literature. One of my favorite books in high school was The Catcher In The Rye. It was written for adults in the 1950s, but the themes of adolescent angst have become aligned with young adult literature. In my local bookstore and library, the young adult shelves are next to the adult shelves, separate from the sectioned-off children’s books. And this separation is consistent across the board. YA is essentially its own island, and what an important island it is. YA serves many literary purposes. It provides enjoyable reading for young people, while focusing on real-life experiences and challenges in easier-to-grasp ways.
Hope you found this blog post on the difference between young adult and adult fiction helpful. Do you have any other differences you’d like to share? Any questions I may not have answered? Do you read YA, adult or both? I’d love to know.
Wishing you safety and wellness. Blog you soon.
