Laurie Halse Anderson: It helps to be
an emotionally stunted person. I still feel like
I'm fifteen, and I have the temper tantrums and taste in music to prove it. I don't think
many authors worry about finding a voice or keeping it fresh. You have to write what is in
your head. If it turns out you have a YA sensibility, then --- duh --- you are probably
writing YA fiction.
Garth
Nix: I simply write for myself. I am the audience. For some reason, this seems
to work out as being suitable for teenagers. I think this probably relates to my own
preference for what are sometimes considered the old-fashioned literary virtues: strong
plot, identifiable characters, narrative pace and a relatively straightforward prose
style.
Sarah
Dessen: It's a constant challenge. I am a bit of a pop-culture junkie --- I
subscribe to a lot of magazines and watch entirely too much television --- and I think
that helps. My own high school experience is from the late 1980s, and everything is
different now. I think eventually that my narrators are going to have to grow up, if only
because I have a lot of other stories I want to tell that aren't from my teen years. But
even though the music, and clothes, and many of the issues have changed, some things will
always stay the same, like the problems teens have with love, and friends, and parents. It
helps to stick to those universals.
Meg
Cabot: I think back to the ten years I spent assistant managing a freshman dorm
at NYU. Once four thousand 17 year olds have yelled at you because there is no vegetarian
entree in the cafeteria, you can't help but get the voice. The voice will never leave you.
Unfortunately.
Chris
Crutcher: I rely on immaturity and the nagging memories of all the wars I lost
as an adolescent. I also work with kids in therapy, so I get many fresh stories, told in
their native tongue.
Walter
Dean Myers: All that's needed is your best and truest voice. People still read
Dickens and Shakespeare.
