How To Write A (Good) YA Romance – Part 3, Emotion & Angst

Welcome to part 3 in my overly-complex and drawn out look at writing (good) romances for the Young Adult/New Adult genre.  In our previous two installments, we discussed the first four guidelines for crafting a good YA romance.  If you haven’t read parts one or two, be sure to do so first just so you can appreciate how brilliant I am.

We’ve already covered creating good main characters, love interests, sexual tension, and believable romances.  Today, we are going to take things even further, and delve down deep into what makes a scrum-diddily-umptious heapin’ helping of YA goodness that audiences can go full fangirl over.  (Always go full fangirl, people.)

So let’s get to it…

Part 5:  Describe The Emotions Of Your Characters

I think a big mistake YA authors make is they don’t delve deep enough into the emotions their characters are experiencing.  Remember that reading is a visceral medium.  People’s brains can make them experience certain emotion, if they are lead through it.  All the best romances are the ones that describe the character’s emotions in such detail, that the reader experiences those emotions themselves.

If you describe what your characters are feeling, your reader will get a better sense of the romance that is being developed.  It can also shed valuable insight into why they feel the way they do.  For example, let’s say you have a character thinking about a “sexy bad boy.”  A typical YA author might write something like:

Jax leered at me from across the room.  His glowering gaze pierced through me like a knife.  His attention made me uncomfortable, but despite myself, I couldn’t help but like it.

However, when you add emotion to that description, you get something far deeper:

Jax leered at me from across the room.  He glared at me like a predator does when stalking prey, his aura that of a hunter – strong, confident, and powerful.  I felt my tummy flutter, and my skin crawled uncomfortably beneath his steady gaze.  I could feel my heart beat in my chest and my blood quicken.  Was it fear I was experiencing?  Or was it excitement?  Something about his look made me feel as though he wanted to tear me apart.  I should have been scared, but deep down, I could feel the spark of an electric jolt that filled my body with warm desire.  He may have wanted me, but to my surprise, I realized I longed for him to take me. If he was indeed the hunter, I was willing to be his prey.

In the second example, we delve into descriptive language meant to evoke feelings in the reader that also communicate what the characters are experiencing.  When we get descriptive with emotional language, we help lead our reader through it, so that they experience what the character is experiencing.

Always try and write emotions as descriptive as you possibly can.  Not only will it make your romances more interesting to read, it will also connect with your reader better, so that they can understand what your characters are experiencing and experience it along with them.

Using emotion can also help explain why a character is attracted to someone they shouldn’t be attracted to.  Emotions are a deep and complicated thing.  Emotions can make us irrational.  If we’re attracted to someone who could be dangerous, then emotions can help justify that attraction, even if it’s illogical.

Many readers might not understand why your heroine is attracted to a vampire who wants to eat her, or a werewolf that could tear her to shreds, or a fallen angel who wants to sacrifice her so he can become human.  However, if they understand the emotion that is driving her, they’ll be able to justify the character’s actions through the emotional logic of it.

So when you can, layer in descriptive emotion that your characters are experiencing.  Trust me when I say that it will make your romance so much more powerful and believable than it otherwise would be.

Part 6:  Create Believable Angst For Your Characters To Deal With

Ah, what would YA be without angst?  Angst is the thing all fans of this genre probably crave more than anything.  It is like a drug to them.  They can never get enough!

However, much like sex, there is good angst, and bad angst.  Good angst can elevate a story to legendary levels.  Bad angst can sink it faster than the Titanic.  If you’re writing a YA romance, you better know the difference between the two, and use lots of good angst, while minimizing the bad.

First off, I think it’s important to establish what “angst” really means.  Essentially, “angst” is a form of fear or anxiety.  Think of it as being short for “anxious.”  When it comes to “teen angst” or “romantic angst,” we’re talking about fears and anxieties that stem from being a teen or engaging in romance.

Good angst are fears and anxieties that grow naturally from a relationship, and create obstacles that the characters must overcome in order to be together.  (Essentially, they’re conquering their fears.)

Bad angst are contrived fears or anxieties that do nothing more than serve the plot, in the sense that they artificially keep people from being together, and are easily conquered by anyone with half a brain cell.

It is important to recognize this distinction, because it can mean the difference between writing a great YA novel, and a YA novel that will earn you the spite of every reviewer on Goodreads.  If there is one thing YA fans are completely unforgiving about, it is the quality of the angst they get in their books.  If you wish for your narrative to rise to the top of the YA ladder, you must deliver as much good quality angst as you possibly can.

So what are examples of good angst?  Well, pretty much any insecurity your reader can relate to is considered good.  But angst that creates obstacles for characters to overcome is even better!  Let’s go over some, shall we?

Looks/Appearance:  This is probably the most common one we can all relate to.  Everyone feels insecure about how they look at one time or another – especially in high school when we are still developing.  Lots of girls feel ugly or unattractive, even if they are beautiful.  So writing about how your character feels insecure about her looks is something almost every woman can relate to.  Things like acne, bad hair, unsavory facial features, body shape, etc. are all things people fret over.

How does this create obstacles for our characters?  Well, shyness is something that stems from this type of angst.  That can be a big obstacle for a character to overcome!  Insecurity over how genuine the love interest’s feelings are could be another.  After all, why is he into your heroine, if there are better looking girls he could choose from?  Does this mean he’s using her in some way?  Does he have an ulterior motive?  These are all things your heroine might fret about and cause turbulence in the relationship over.

Social Status:  No matter where you go in life, there will always be different social status levels that people belong to.  Rich and poor.  Cool kids and nerds.  Jocks and geeks.  Good looking people and ugly people.  Popular people and unpopular people.  The list goes on and on.

Social statuses create both barriers and expectations for people.  For instance, cheerleaders are expected to date athletes.  If a cheerleader wants to date a “nerd,” she’ll be ridiculed by others in her social class and pressured to “fall in line.”  You see this all the time in stories.  The poor kid from the wrong side of the tracks falls in love with the wealthy debutant.  The nerd pines over the most popular girl in school even though she’s out of his league.

Look at the movie Titanic, as a great example of this.  The love interest is a poor artist from the low-class decks, and the main character is a woman in the rich upper-crust of the boat’s passengers.  She’s pressured by her social status to marry a man she doesn’t love, while being attracted to a man who’s forbidden to her by those in her social circle.

Social status is a fantastic source of angst, because not only does it create believable barriers that must be overcome by the characters, but they are things that most people can relate to.  After all, who hasn’t experienced “expectations” based on their social standing before?  Every YA reader can relate to being attracted to someone who is “out of their league” or unattainable.

Authority:  Let’s be honest, we’ve all had problems with authority at one time or another.  Deep down, nobody likes being told what to do, and frankly, we resent it.  But we can all relate to situations where we have no control over how we’re supposed to live or act.

For instance, parents have authority over their children.  What if your main character’s parents don’t approve of her relationship with your love interest?  Teachers are another source of authority, as are bosses at work.  They make us do things we may not want to do.  Governments are also a big source of authority over our lives.  There are plenty of examples of YA novels where a government tries to have complete rule over its citizens, even down to their love life.  Just look at The Hunger Games or Divergent to see how that works.

Authority is a huge part of YA angst because everyone can relate to it.  There are institutions everywhere that we live under that dictate how we’re supposed to behave.  What if these authorities go counter to what your main character wants?  What if they actively try to keep the main character from falling in love with the object of her desire?  That is true angst right there.

Duty/Responsibility:  Sometimes, angst can stem from the limitations we place on ourselves out of a sense of duty or responsibility.  A main character may be willing to marry someone she doesn’t love because doing so will help her family in some way, and she feels a sense of responsibility for providing for that family.  Most of Jane Austen’s books tackle this type of trope, where women must marry not for love, but for the status and fortune it will bring to their family.

Likewise, this angst can keep people apart.  What if your main character is in love with her best friend’s husband, but denies her passion for him out of a sense of loyalty to her friend, even though the husband feels as passionately for her as she does for him?

Unlike outside authority, which forces its will on others, duty and responsibility comes from one’s own moral compass.  People are willing to suffer and sacrifice if they believe doing so is the right thing to do.  This is a legitimate source of angst which can be utilized to great results.

Previous Commitments:  Going hand-in-hand with duty and responsibility, often a previous commitment can create problems for a main character.  An example of this is when a character is in a current relationship, such as with a boyfriend, fiancée, or husband, and then meets a man she actually ends up falling in love with.

Or, she meets a man who is currently dating, engaged, or married to someone else.  Because of this previous commitment, there is a serious barrier to your main character and her love interest being together, and is thus the source of great angst.

Selflessness:  The willingness to be selfless and sacrifice one’s own happiness for the sake of another is a method of angst everyone can relate to.  What if your main character suddenly discovers that her best friend is in love with the same man as her?  Would she give up and let her friend have the man of her dreams because she cares more about her friend’s happiness than she does about her own?

Or will she be willing to commit to a loveless marriage because doing so would help people she cares about?  How many times have we seen a woman agree to marry the bad guy in order to “spare the life” of the man she truly loves?

Acting Out Of Character:  Last, but not least, let’s talk about the angst that comes from acting in a way the character would not normally do in order to please, appease, or attract their love interest.  I think everyone can relate to doing things they wouldn’t normally do for the sake of someone they were attracted to.

Having your character go to a rave in order to hang out with a boy she likes, even though she hates raves, is an example of this.  Having your character dress more provocatively than she normally would and feeling uncomfortable in her “slutty clothes” would be another example.  Lying about enjoying mountain biking because the boy she likes is passionate about it, thus leading him to invite her to join him even though she doesn’t know how to mountain bike, is yet another example.

These are all types of angst your reader will be able to relate to, and they will help you create obstacles for your characters to conquer in their quest to be together.  Don’t be afraid to use as many of them as you can reasonably cram into your story.  After all, your audience LOVES angst, as long as it is done well.  So use it as often as possible.

To Be Continued…

By now, we’ve covered all the major building blocks of a good romance – characters, believability, sexual tension, emotions, and angst.  These are all essential in crafting a romance that will get YA audiences sucked in like a hoover vacuum attached to a jet engine.  But we’re not done yet!

In the next installment of this series, we’ll talk about two concepts that are mainstays in most YA Romance literature – Love Triangles, and Wish Fulfillment.  We’ll go in-depth into how each one works, examples of how it’s done badly, and how you can do them the right way to elevate your work above the drivel most authors pump out.

As always, if you enjoyed this article, please feel free to comment on it, share it with others, of just tell me how brilliant I am.  All feedback is always welcome and appreciated.