Introduction to Writing Young Adult Fiction

Introduction to writing young adult fiction with Gwenda Bond

Young Adult, or YA, fiction is a much loved and frequently misunderstood category. In this class led by New York Times bestselling author Gwenda Bond, we’ll be leaving aside the arguments about whether YA literature is a genre, a marketing term, both or neither, to focus on the craft elements that the best YA shares in common. YA is uniquely focused on experiences and stories told through teen characters. We’ll talk about how that immediacy impacts the writing and work through readings, group discussions, and exercise prompts to analyze and unlock methods of finding that authentic teen voice in your work. We’ll also talk about structure and pacing. All this will culminate in a final YA manuscript that will be marked by the instructor.

Whether you’re someone who’s been working on your YA novel for some time or just curious to learn more about it, this class is designed to make you engage more deeply with what it means to write YA fiction. This three week class is completely asynchronous so you can work on it on your own time.

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Meet your instructor

Gwenda Bond is the New York Times bestselling author of many novels. Among others, they include the Lois Lane and Cirque American trilogies, and the first official Stranger Things novel, Suspicious Minds. She and her husband author Christopher Rowe co-wrote a middle grade series, the Supernormal Sleuthing Service. She also created Dead Air, a serialized mystery and scripted podcast written with Carrie Ryan and Rachel Caine. Next up is a rom-com duology from St. Martin’s Griffin, Not Your Average Hot Guy (2021) and The Date from Hell (2022).

Her nonfiction writing has appeared in Publishers Weekly, Locus Magazine, Salon, the Los Angeles Times, and many other publications. She has an MFA in writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She lives in a hundred-year-old house in Lexington, Kentucky, with her husband and their unruly pets. There are rumors she escaped from a screwball comedy. She writes a monthlyish letter you can sign up for at www.tinyletter.com/gwenda. Visit her online at www.gwendabond.com or @gwenda on Twitter.