Addicted to YA discussion

I think most YA books should have some kind of positive message in them, even if it's subtle. As humans, we usually base our behaviour on our surroundings; the things we've had exposure to. So when we're reading books, either subconsciously or not, we tend to soak up the information and it may influence our behaviour. So, for example, if someone reads a book with a female protagonist who allows herself to be abused by men, then the reader may then absorb that and they may start to believe that abusing women is OK. You see, even if the moral of the story is kind of hidden, I believe most YA books (or any books for that matter) should have some kind of positive message to send to the reader :)

I wholly agree! No matter what the lesson is! I read one book last year that had an inner message on the consequences of holding on to things that you have to let go, and I really appreciated it because it added something to an already good series! I also agree with Petitcroissant on the YA part because it will help younger readers grow as a person!

Petitcroissant wrote: "I think most YA books should have some kind of positive message in them, even if it's subtle. As humans, we usually base our behaviour on our surroundings; the things we've had exposure to. So when..."

Totally agree! Including a bad message in a book sends the message that the behavior shown is acceptable. However, providing strong, good examples can set role models to show teens that they can achieve their dreams.

:) I'm glad you guys agree with me, Danielle and LilyCat (Agent of SHIELD). Society is pretty corrupted these days and we need to try our hardest to influence change to make the world a better place. And the first place to start is what we teach our generation and future generations to come. Like both of you said, especially young people need to get good messages so that they can become better people. Hopefully, in the future, we will live in a world where everyone treats each other with respect :)

Yes, it has to have some kind of message or character that will teach us something, like when i read 'The short second life of Bree Tanner', Bree worked so hard to let go of her past, but she couldn't she was just given second chance to life, i think this message in this book is 'The past doesn't define who we are, but who are we now', there are so many books where the message or character is pretty clear, i really do admire messages in books, it does teach us something in life.

Absolutely!!! I think that's one of the reasons that there is a genre aimed at young people. When you're young, it's sometimes hard to discuss things with people around you, whether that's due to embarrassment, fear or having nobody there to listen. Reading a book can shine light and maybe help them in some situations, or at least make them feel like they're not alone. Not just that, but depending on the topic can help young people understand situations, and to maybe even know what to do when /if it occurs.

This is what bothers me about NA books now. New Adult is supposed to be about young people setting off in their life as a new adult. For example, college/uni, moving out, getting a job, falling in love. Now? It's smut lol. Stahp.

Definitely a yes- I mean even just small hints; like recently I was reading queen of shadows and it was saying how it's not a weakness to ask for help, or Harry Potter- I know it's mainly a kids series, but I mean seriously the lessons you learn!
So yes, I do think there shud be lessons but not FULL ON.

It should. Every book has to have a special (life lessons) message, or something that readers can think about and learn from. Books have to have some effect , that will make you sit down and think "What did i just read?" "What did i learn from this book?".Every story has a special messsage or life lesson we can all learn from.

I think YA novels, like any other novel for any age, is capable of teaching life lessons. I just don't think that they are as in your face as the ones in middle grade and younger. They're more entwined with the story and characters and also more convoluted. What I mean by that os hat books geared more towards younger audiences tend to have really positive and optimistic lessons that kids can grow from, and YA has more gray messages that are more truthful about life and how things will not always be as fair and great as you think it would.

Literature, and storytelling in general, is always about imparting your views of the world via fiction. The most important thing when writing though is that you have an entertaining story to tell. If not, and you're just trying to get across a message: a) most people will see through it as you, the author, wagging your finger at them and b) you might as well just write a non-fiction book about the topic.

It's a balance between being overly preachy and having nothing to really say in your writing. You'll know when you've hit the right tone for yourself.

Wow. All the above comments hit the proverbial "nail on the head." I concur with all the comments above, and just want to add my vote to all your comments. In my novel, Bridgetown High, I have touched on several subjects including drugs and alcohol, and bullying. But the main subject is about hatred, versus love and forgiveness.

I don't think writers should be telling people what to think. The best books invite us to think for ourselves. I don't think YA fiction should be trying to do anything other than tell great stories which are true to the world they are set in. If you try to teach a life lesson, you have people getting their comeuppance, or one of the kids who does drugs ODing, or the bad girl coming a cropper. It doesn't matter how well you do it or that you aren't preaching. Story comes from the characters, not from the writer's morality.
Reading encourages people to think and to empathise. That's all we need to do - learn to think for ourselves.

PS that doesn't mean books don't teach us things - I just don't think writers should set out with the intention of teaching us.

Marie's comment about romances with abusive-tending partners is interesting - see those novels don't jibe with a lot of people but it's because they aren't fundamentally truthful. Controlling people are not fun to live with. Nor would those relationships be a healthy or sustainable place for most people to be.

Obviously we build fantasy into novels but at some level they have to be emotionally truthful. Beauty and the Beast may be a fantasy but the idea that beauty is internal is not. I think if we are honest as writers, our stories will be meaningful.

I think if there’s a good plot with characters that pull you in, there’s no way you won’t gain anything. If it’s in first person, you’ll feel like you’re experiencing things you never have before. More important than “life lessons” is making people think. We don’t read fiction books that are just like our own boring lives. We look for something different, new, fantastical, adventurous, sensual, funny, etc. to get away. Fiction takes us to places we’ve never been and we get to think about how’d we feel and what we’d do. We get to experience things we’ll actually never really experience. Pushing our minds helps us think and grow.

I don't think every YA book (or adult book, for that matter) needs to have a message, but the story will be richer if there's a deeper meaning, or if it evokes some emotion from the reader. As a writer, your values will come through unconsciously in your writing, so you won't need to try to force life lessons into the story. I hope this helps. Good luck, and happy writing!

I read something about great books raising questions but not posing answers. Lessons in books are fine, I think, as long as the writer doesn't hit the reader over the head with it. I mean, To Kill a Mockingbird is amazing and so many lessons can be learned without Harper Lee ever having to say "racism is bad"

I think any really well told story will reflect the human element and bring some form of message, but when messages are shoehorned into a story it takes away from the storytelling.

Life lessons are already a part of YA novels, even if we don't realize it. Sometimes, they're hard to find, but they are there. Of course, there are the obvious ones like stand up for what's right and, fight for what you believe in, and always try your best, and all that. But then there are ones like one action can affect so many people. I don't want to sound like I'm writing an English paper, but maybe that's unavoidable. So, I kept thinking about that fact when I was reading Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas. There are going to be spoilers, but they kind of are needed to argue this. Anyway, in Assassin's Blade, Celaena saved Yrene, and then Yrene went to the Torre Cesme and saved a bunch of other people and then taught them what she knew of fighting so they could protect themselves. So Celaena had a hand in saving and protecting all those people Yrene helped. If Celaena hadn't, then however many people Yrene healed (including Chaol) would have very different lives.
Also, you can learn to appreciate everyone in your life, even the people you hate. Think about all your favorite books and take out the villain. What's left? Nothing. There's no story because you need the villain. So books also tell you how important everyone in your life is, whether you love them or hate them. And things are never black and white anyway. If villains are doing bad things, they have a reason, no matter how twisted it might seem. But they're people and they're not completely evil.
Okay, I could go on and on, like people don't realize how important it is to find a community that love and supports you, or don't take anything for granted (that one is obvious, but unless life takes everything precious away from you, they're just words. But with stories, you can see what happens when you take everything for granted, and then you learn to not make that mistake). Those are only a few more examples, and I don't know if those are even intentional. But my point is, life lessons are in YA books, whether we want them to be or not. It's just a matter of how hard you're looking for them.

Yes definitely

Yes, I actually think life lessons should be in books for all age groups. Yes, there are books that are meant for pure entertainment, but all truly marvelous books teach us something!

I think life lessons are fine in all kinds of writing genres - they're often a natural part of the characters' journey. I think that's the key, though: They have to be a natural, organic extension of the characters and the events they go through, not something that's included for the sake of their being a moral to the story. Part of that means not being too heavy-handed with the lesson, but it's also about knowing your characters and knowing what makes sense with regard to how they would respond to a given situation/what it would take to make them change.

Basically, life lessons work best when it doesn't necessarily feel like the reader is being told a life lesson, but rather they're enduring an experience alongside the characters in the story and learning and growing with them.

I believe all stories have life lessons in them. Just some people don't notice.But there is always some life lesson to learn from a book.

There's always a life lesson in a story somewhere. They may either be big or small, obvious or hidden. But it's there.

I think all stories have life lessons whether done intentionally or not. In children's books, the lesson is more intentional. In YA, it's hidden a bit more but still there. As a teen, you don't learn so much from people telling you what's right or wrong. You learn from experiencing (making mistakes, getting messy, all of that) hence the subtle life lessons in YA. For examples, in "Letters to the Lost" we learn that no one is perfect and you can't judge someone by an initial perception. None of this is ever really said but when I closed the cover, it's what I felt. Just my thoughts!

Natasha wrote: "I think all stories have life lessons whether done intentionally or not. In children's books, the lesson is more intentional. In YA, it's hidden a bit more but still there. As a teen, you don't lea..."

I agree; I also think that every story has a lesson. YA books can actually teach you a lot more than they seem. It's like how people learn from experience; YA readers learn from the characters without actually having to go through those experiences. If you really think about it, you could probably come up with an important lesson from every YA book you've ever read. It's generally not the first thing that pops into your mind because when you're picking a book to read, your first thought generally isn't 'hmm I wonder what life lesson this book can teach me' and then you don't usually analyze every word to find it. But I don't think that's the case for any book, unless it's like, a specific nonfiction book you're reading purely because you want to learn something.

Also, a lot of the lessons are similar, if not the same. Realizing you're not as alone as you think and that you generally have more people you can rely on than you think is pretty common, I think. Trusting others to help you is another. So is the idea that you can't sit around and wait for change, and that one person can make a bigger difference than you think. Also getting to know and relate to an antagonist and really realizing that everybody is a person, everyone is human, and not always all that different from you. I don't know; these are just a few themes and lessons I've noticed

I agree with Kiswa, sometimes it’s great and informative but sometimes it’s just annoying and melodramatic

I agree too - if it naturally becomes part of the story that's great but don't try to force a life lesson into a story and definitely don't try to write something purely for the sake of a life lesson.

Sometimes, but other times I just want to curl up with a YA for fun, even when it might not be realistic, because that is the magic of reading - you can be transported to a wonderfully different world, and sometimes, people need to get away from everything for a bit.