Garth
Nix: As in any
literature, there are only so many themes and plots. Fortunately, it is possible to write
new and interesting books even when revisiting the same themes or even the same plots.
It's all in the execution. It has been said that most authors return to the same themes
over and over again, whether they're aware of it or not. However, it is possible to do
this in many different ways, and if the books are good, and the stories absorbing, most
readers will not even be aware of this return to the same thematic underpinnings. Once
again, the story is what's important, and it can wrap itself around a multitude of themes.
Meg
Cabot: Given the horror and despair I remember my teen years were fraught with,
I don't see how you can avoid writing about these themes, and still call yourself a YA
author. The teen years were, for most of us, a painful mess, and to portray any teen's
life as being carefree and filled with fun is not only dishonest but I think actually
harmful, as it may help to build up the already unrealistic Barbie/Ken expectations in the
hearts and minds of kids --- especially girls. While I suspect many of my peers in high
school (the cheerleaders) did have a carefree and fun-filled teen experience, the rest of
us were stuck on the sidelines, riddled with acne and self-doubt and bleeding cuticles. To
suggest that anything else is normal is to suggest that they (the cheerleaders) are today
universally happy and well-adjusted individuals, which I can assure you is not the case,
as that would mean what goes around doesn't actually come around, and if that is true,
then WHAT IS THE POINT???
Chris
Crutcher: Those are the same themes addressed in a lot of good adult fiction.
Look at Pat Conroy's Prince of Tides, or Alice Walker's The Color Purple, to
name just two. I don't find myself writing a lot about those things on purpose. Those are
things that pop up in people's lives, be they children or adults. I keep my stories new
and fresh with my storytelling voice. My father told me a long time ago that all the
stories have already been told. You name the story, he said, and it's been told, probably
several times over. It matters who tells it and how it's told.
Laurie
Halse Anderson: Funny thing --- some of the major overarching themes of
literature --- all literature --- are alienation, love and family. But I don't set out to
write about themes. I try to tell stories about people. When my books are published,
somebody who understands themes usually writes to tell me what my books are about. This is
quite helpful.
Sarah
Dessen: I do write
about all those things, sometimes all at once. But it doesn't ever really get boring, as
long as you're able to take a fresh perspective on it each time. That's why characters,
and especially the voice of a narrator, is so important. The relationship that my
character Halley has with her first boyfriend in Someone Like You is vastly
different from the one Caitlin has with hers in Dreamland. As a writer, if you're
covering the same ground in the same way each book, it's boring to both you and the
reader. But there area million different ways to tell a love story, or the story of a
life. You just have to find a new perspective.
Walter
Dean Myers: For
some reason I write a lot about difficult father-son relationships. A literature
specialist, Darwin Henderson, pointed this out to me. It's an issue made fresh by being,
somehow, alive in me.
