Writing Young Adult Mysteries

Believe it or not, I still occasionally pick up some of the mysteries that I enjoyed as a young teen and read them for sentimentality's sake. At least, that's what I tell myself, but the truth is: Young adult mysteries are often better-written, more exciting and more unique than adult mysteries. Sad, isn't it?

The Young Adult genre has progressed dramatically over the last couple of decades, and to be honest, most read like adult fiction. They have more pages, more intricate plots and more adult themes than they ever had before because publishers are realizing that teenagers don't need to be coddled anymore. This is also true for young adult mysteries.

In fact, writing young adult mysteries could be the best place for you to get started in publishing. It is the most popular genre for young adults (except, perhaps, for fantasy), and if you're good at weaving mysterious tales, you could grow popular quite quickly. Following are tips on writing young adult mysteries.

Young Adults Like to Be Scared

It is no longer necessary to fill young adult mysteries with cheap thrills and tacky clichés; they like to be scared even more than adults. Take Christopher Pike, who's written dozens of young adult mysteries and continues to thrill the youth of today. His plots often deal with monsters, mental illnesses, history and other seemingly adult themes that teenagers eat up. It is no longer necessary to censor young adult mysteries for fear of sending them to bed with nightmares. Feel free to get as ugly and scary as you wish.

Young Adults Like Dynamic Characters