AJ Betts is an acclaimed Australian YA author and here delves straight into the heart of writing for a YA audience: staying true to young people and their voice. In addition, she makes note of everything else around dialogue that matters — characters’ actions and tones. To me, that means characters should have things like physical quirks that show their nervousness for instance, even if their dialogue doesn’t. All of these sorts of elements come together to give a complete picture of a character and a story as much as dialogue does.
Who are your favourite YA authors? Do their characters have traits as described above in the quote?
Great quote! I haven’t read anything from this author, but I want to read Zac & Mia. 🙂
Great point! I think that Maggie Stiefvater is able to capture this so perfectly