How to Know if Your Story is Middle Grade, Young Adult, or Adult

The difference between Middle Grade and Young Adult is that there’s no blood and no kissing in Middle Grade.

 I have a child protagonist, so that means it must be Middle Grade.

 I’m not sure if I’m writing Middle Grade or Young Adult!

 Kidlit is kidlit. I don’t need to define my story as Middle Grade or Young Adult.

These are just a few variations on what I hear from writers who are trying to figure out what exactly it is they’re writing. A few more: Do I have to age up/age down my character? Does the story read too old/too young?

Why do I even have to put a label on it at all?

Let me tackle that last one first: you need to know if your story is Middle Grade or Young Adult or Adult. Not because some money-grubbing corporate publishing overlord wants to push labels on you, but because these books tell different stories to different audiences. Ignoring that puts you at risk of writing a book that appeals to no one.

So, what is the difference between Middle Grade, Young Adult, and Adult?

At a reading about ten years ago, I heard Newberry Award-winner Kelly Barnhill sum up the differences between Middle Grade, Young Adult, and Adult so succinctly, and so memorably, that I have leaned on her short-hand definition ever since. Here’s what she said:

 Middle Grade books are all about, What is this big world I’m living in?

Young Adult books are all about, Who am I in this big world I’m living in?

And Adult books are about, How the hell did I get here?

Nailed it, Kelly. (No surprise. Kelly’s brilliant and if you ever get a chance to see her read or speak – do it. You’ll never forget it.)

This really is the essence of the differences between Middle Grade, Young Adult, and Adult.

Let’s dig into her short-hand a bit, to understand why what she said is so dead-on right. 

Middle Grade: What is this big world I’m living in?

As an age group, these young people are beginning to turn away from their parents as their main source of information and their main filter through which they learn about their world. They’re stepping out on their own, seeing the world through their own eyes, navigating new situations, finding friends and allies (and sometimes enemies), and discovering that they can have an impact on their world.

They are exploring their agency.

This is the key to Middle Grade. And, yes, in Middle Grade the horror is more the creepy kind than the bloody kind and the relationships they develop are friendships, not romantic love interests (though a crush is okay). But this isn’t what defines Middle Grade. Nor is it just an age thing. It’s the exploration of agency that defines Middle Grade.

Antagonists in Middle Grade attack a protagonist’s agency, their ability to move around their world, make allies, and have an impact on their world. The protagonist is locked in a power struggle with the antagonist to maintain their agency.

When you are writing Middle Grade, you need to think like a middle grader. You need to see the world through the eyes of a twelve year old. As a grown-up, you might think a busted bike isn’t that big of a deal – and it isn’t, compared to a busted car. But when you’re twelve, you don’t know what it’s like to have a busted car with a $1600 repair bill. You $200 bike is your whole world. It’s how to get to the park to meet your friends. It’s what you ride through the neighborhood on when you’ve had a bad day and you need some air. Losing access to that bike is devastating. When you write Middle Grade, you need to set aside your adult life experience that tells you a busted car is a way bigger deal than a busted bike and remember what it was like to be twelve. Remember what the world looked like to you as you were just learning how to navigate it.

Young Adult: Who am I in this big world I’m living in?

As an age group, teens have learned that they have agency in this world. That they can navigate their world on their own, make friends and allies (and enemies) on their own, and have an impact on their world. The big question on their mind now is, Who am I?

They are exploring their identity. What kind of person are they, and who do they want to be?

This is the key to Young Adult. And yes, the horror can be bloody and they can tumble into breathless romantic relationships. But these experiences are part of their exploration of their identity, of who they are and who they think they want to be. This is what defines Young Adult.

Antagonists in Young Adult attack a protagonist’s identity. They make them question who they are and whether they have what it takes to become the person they want to be. The protagonist is locked in a power struggle with the antagonist to preserve their evolving identity.

As with Middle Grade, when you write Young Adult, you need to see the world through the eyes of a teen. They are having so many first-time-ever experiences. First time driving. First time falling in love. First time feeling the pressure to succeed. First time making big decisions on their own that will impact their life. Again, you will need to put aside your life experience that may want to make light of those first-time experiences, given everything you know about your second and third and fourth experiences with these things. The first time, everything feels huge and urgent and overwhelming. Teens don’t have years and years of life experience to temper these feelings and put them into a larger perspective; they’re at the very beginning of their experience-making. So live in those first-time moments again. Remember how BIG they felt. Remember what it felt like to think your pain will never go away, or to have no idea what might happen next.

Adult: How the hell did I get here?

In most cases, writers know if they’re writing an adult novel or not. But where it can get a little fuzzy for writers is when they have a child or teen protagonist. Then they start to wonder, if I have a child protagonist, does that automatically mean I’m writing Middle Grade?

No. Having a child or teen protagonist doesn’t automatically mean you are writing Middle Grade or Young Adult.

Where Middle Grade books explore agency, and Young Adult books explore identity, adult books tend to explore a character’s life experience.

These stories may be focused on one event or time period of that character’s life, but they exploring the string of choices and chances that triggered this moment and how that influences what the character does next. They can go as far back as childhood, and have a child protagonist. But they bring an adult level of reflection and meaning to the events of the story. The adult voice is palpable; it’s understanding and processing and making meaning of things at a level of life experience that a child or a teen does not have. There’s a sense of looking back, of telling the child’s story to understand the adult that character will grow up to be, even if that adult character is never on the page.

Who are You Writing For?

If you’re wrestling with whether you are writing Middle Grade, Young Adult, or Adult, the first thing you need to ask yourself is, who are you writing for? Who is your ideal reader? Who do you envision reading your book?

If you’re still not sure, ask yourself what’s at the heart of your story. Is your character exploring their agency? That’s Middle Grade territory. Their identity? That’s Young Adult. Their life experience? Adult ground.

Once you’ve decided what you’re writing, make sure you remember your readers. If you’re writing for middle graders, step into their shoes to make sure your story is both relevant and resonant with their stage of life. Ditto for Young Adult and Adult.

Till next time…

Happy writing,

Erin

Photo Credit: Aleksei Ieshkin on Unsplash