genre
Why YA?
May 07, 2011
Sometimes when I have the “What do you do/I’m a writer/Oh, what do you write/Books for kids” conversation with new people, I get a Look that I’ve come to recognize. It’s the “Oh. For kids. So not real books” look. (It’s similar to the “Oh, fantasy” look, but that’s another blog post.) I always find it amusing–and a little sad–because it makes me realize that these people have forgotten what it was like to read books when they were a kid.
Is the end nigh for end-of-the-world fiction?
Apr 19, 2011
The other day my friend Ellen pointed me toward an article on Tor.com by Scott Westerfeld discussing the reasons he felt dystopian fiction–or “dyslit,” as he calls it–is so popular among young adults right now. (He also talks about post-apocalyptic fiction, as it often gets lumped in with dystopian.) It’s a great read, so definitely go check it out. Of course, it made me ponder why I think dystopian fiction is popular, but since I’ve already written about that, it might be time to talk about why I feel it will stay popular.
What is Dystopian Fiction?
Dec 02, 2010
Just tonight, a brand new twitterfriend asked me, “What is a dystopian novel?” I’m guessing that she read my bio on Twitter, which says I’m working on a dystopian novel, and was curious about the term. I answered her as best I could within 140 characters, but as I lay wide awake in bed trying to sleep, I kept thinking of everything I wanted to say about the subject. So instead of flooding Twitter, I decided to do the next best thing: blog about it!
Often the first question people ask me when I say I’m a writer is, “What do you write?” The second question tends to be, “What the hell is a dystopian?” I think that sometimes even those who do feel familiar with the term don’t have a complete understanding of the genre. I’ve come across more and more people who think dystopian fiction is brand spanking new, because of the huge swell of popularity in the genre with writers like Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games) and Scott Westerfeld (Uglies) making waves in the YA market. And it’s definitely true that the genre has exploded recently, which I love because it’s one of my favorite genres of literature. But it’s been around a LOT longer than a lot of people new to the genre might think.