Tips for Writing New Adult Lit
By Kitsy
Clare
I’ve
written young adult novels, even award winning ones, so I wondered how much
harder it could be to write new adult lit? It seems like a natural extension of
the YA genre—following the teens we love to write about into their heady twenties,
with all of the challenges that come with moving away from home and the drama of
first long-term loves.
Well,
it’s yes . . . and no to the idea of new adult being simply an extension of YA.
Sure, NA lit is geared toward 18 to 26 year-olds. But we’re not the same people
in our twenties that we were as teens. We have new concerns such as finding an
apartment, a job and a career path that takes us in fresh, uncharted
directions. Hopefully we have at least a little more maturity than at
seventeen. J
I wanted
to do the genre justice, so I read and studied up. I spent lots of time piling
through my own notable twenty-something experiences: crap jobs, weird
boyfriends and hot dates; exciting trips; apartments furnished with castoffs in
marginal (or trendy) neighborhoods, and a perverted boss who drove me to quit
that job and land a better gig.
So far in
my new adult writing adventures I’ve learned a few things, which I’ll share for
anyone wanting to explore the genre. It’s not just about the romance. You can’t
only write a string of sizzling sex scenes. You also need a strong plot
peppered with spicy characters. Yes, you need a swoonworthy love interest, but
not a clichéd type who’s been done a zillion other times. Granted it is about the two leads getting to know
each other, the dating or working together—the mounting sexual tension. But we
ladies enjoy the wooing more than just the banging-yes?
The NA
saga must well written, with engaging turns of phrase and lyrical lines. Vary
word usage please; don’t repeat the same phrases, such as “his lips curled up”
or “her breath hitched” over and over ad nauseum. Keep readers turning pages
not only for your unexpected plots twists, but also for your snappy dialog and
sensual prose.
I found
that there’s no one right new adult category. New adult fantasy, thrillers and
realistic contemporary stories are equally popular. The characters don’t
necessarily have to be troubled or “broken” though many compelling stories have
this. Characters can also be funny, ruthless or as filthy rich as a movie star.
They can be cowgirls living on a ranch or city dwellers living in converted
lofts. And there must be a barrier that keeps them apart, until later. It could
be work-related competition, an unreliable old boyfriend who comes back and
needs to win over his long-lost love, or anything that the leads must push
through to be together.
Start
from what you’ve experienced, writing about the type of guys who you always
found hot! For me, it begins in the big city, my city—Manhattan—and the art
world I knew so well, even as a twenty-something. The characters in my NA
romance novella, Model Position are
slightly broken. They’re also ambitious, artistic, and looking for love, maybe
in all the wrong places!
Book
title: Model Position
Author: Kitsy
Clare
Genre: new
adult contemporary romance novella
Release
date: February 20, 2014
Publisher:
Inkspell
Blurb:
In
Manhattan’s glitzy gallery scene love and art are perilous games.
Will
Sienna dare to play?
All too soon, artist Sienna Karr will graduate art school
and be flung out into Manhattan’s glamorous but cutthroat gallery scene.
Luckily, she’s just met Dave Hightower, heir to the hippest gallery ever. He’s
asked her on a date, and offered to introduce her to the gallery owner, his
intimidating aunt Lydia. Sienna’s excited! Now she’ll be able to climb the
ranks and make those all-important art connections.
Trouble is, she’s falling hard for the sexy live drawing
model, Erik, whose sizzling green eyes seem to pierce right into her soul. Dare
she risk losing those potential art contacts for love? Erik insists that Sienna
is a real talent and her painting stands out above all the others. But she
worries that he whispers this come-on line to every pretty art student who
flocks around him during breaks. And her friends worry, is Erik up to her pay
grade? What kind of guy chooses modeling for a living? Who is he, really? Her choice may be her ruin—or
not—but she must decide fast. Everything in Sienna’s super-organized life is
turning to terrifying yet sweet chaos.
Author/Book Links:
Blurbs
in praise of the book:
"Kitsy Clare paints a provocative picture
with words - a sexy montage of art, beauty, lust and love as colorful as any
artist’s canvas." -Share
my Destiny, romance book blogger
"A captivating and sensual work of
art!" -Jaycee
DeLorenzo, author of The Truths About Dating and Mating
“Model
Position is sexy, suspenseful and oh, so hard to put
down. Kitsy Clare mixes a skillful, fast-moving story as Sienna, a
talented but uptight art student takes on the trendy New York art scene.
She’s caught between the pull of ambition and the possibility of steamy, but
true-blue love in the form of Erik, a delicious male model with no
connections. Or is he true? And is Erik really all he seems to be?”
-Helen Mallon, author of Indecent Exposure & other short stories;
Book Reviewer, Philadelphia Inquirer
Excerpt
Excerpt
#1:
I prop my
canvas on the easel and squeeze oil paints onto my palette. I’ve been looking
forward to this last new class of spring semester. It’s so different from what
I normally do: computer art—neat, digital prints. But oil paint is buttery and
sexy, with a warm pinesap aroma that I could inhale all day. I make sure my
paints are in a perfect color-spectrum line, from cadmium yellow and permanent
rose, all the way to the darkest ultramarine blue.
I’m like that.
At home my shoes are arranged from lowest to spikiest heel, and the dresses in
my closet are color coordinated. Order is good. Chaos is scary. I’ve known that
since my mom went through her third divorce. Three hubbys done in by her
sinkfuls of dirty dishes, mountains of wrinkled clothes, and hoarded bags of
dresses from shopping sprees she couldn’t afford! No mess in my life. Not
happening. You could eat off my apartment floor.
So far in class
we’ve only done charcoal drawings, so oils will be an interesting change.
Though I don’t have high hopes for today’s model. The live models have been a
motley crew: a guy in a clown suit and Medieval court jester’s hat, a dowdy
lady in a diaphanous gown, and a skeletal girl in a bikini who bit her nails
and paced during breaks.
Where are
all the sexy male muses?
“Hey, Sienna!”
Dave Hightower saunters in and chooses the easel next to me. He hands me a
steamy cappuccino.
“For me?
Thanks, Dave.” This is why I like Dave. Well, that and his passion for expensive
Italian sweaters, leather dress shoes, tight black denims, and the body to work
them. I sip my drink and look around at the other guys in class, all dressed in
the arty grad-school uniform of paint-spattered jeans and T-shirts with
slogans. I shake my head and return to the more pleasant sight of the
well-dressed man next to me, who’s flashing me an array of professionally
whitened teeth. I can’t help but admire Dave’s perfectly coiffed black hair,
longish but combed back neatly. He has chiseled features and a strong brow, as
if he’s carved out of marble. Intimidating, really. I’ve never dated a guy as
put together as Dave.
But I feel
like I should.
Don’t get me
wrong; I’m not a snob. Dressing like a slob is fine for freshmen, but we’re in
our twenties now.
This summer
after I graduate, I’ll be pounding the pavement, searching for a lucrative arty
job to replace my part-time gig retouching perfume ads for Chanel. Artists have
to present well in the real world. They have to pay their car loans, credit cards,
and apartment rents like anyone else.
Dave Hightower
catches me admiring him and grins. “Ready for our date later?”
I just met him
two weeks ago, and he asked me out during our last class. I’m looking forward
to it and to getting to know him—and his family’s gallery—better.
“Sure, where
are we going?”
“I’ll take you
over to Studio Hightower, my aunt’s gallery,” Dave suggests offhandedly, as if
I am not already completely aware and awed. It’s been all Merry, Harper, and I
have talked about since we found out Dave was in this class. My two best
friends here share charcoal sticks, drawing paper, and essential buzz. “There’s
a show at Hightower you’ll like,” adds Dave, “of wildly painted neon
environ-scapes.”
I nod. Sounds
off-putting. I prefer the order of photorealism and crisp digital art, but I
keep my mouth shut. After all, it’s Dave Hightower.
Anyone who has
talent and ambition would kill for a solo show in Studio Hightower. It’s on
West Twenty-Second Street in the heart of Chelsea, the hottest
gallery district in Manhattan.
“Hey, always up
for new art,” I say. “I like wild art done by a loose hand.”
“Manually
manipulated is the way to go,” Dave says suggestively as he waggles his
eyebrows and puts his fingers into plastic gloves.
Plastic
gloves for painting? Germaphobe.
I’m a clean freak, and even I don’t do that. I quickly ease my judgmental
cringe into a fetching grin as I search for a funny comeback. “I wonder who our
next model will be. Do you think Mr. Court Jester will make a repeat
appearance?”
“I’m betting on
Nightgown Lady.” Dave squeezes out his last color with an oozy splot.
The teacher, a
soft-spoken man in faded corduroys and wire glasses, announces that the model
will be out momentarily. From across the room, I exchange anticipatory glances
with my friends, Harper and Merry, and pantomime a fake drum roll. They snicker
and do drum rolls back. The class turns its attention to the small stage in
front of our easels. It’s been set up with risers and a red velvet curtain, as
if it’s a Broadway production.
Then the model
emerges, and I almost spill my cappuccino on Dave’s shoes.
The sexiest
male muse I’ve ever laid eyes on pads out, all oiled coordination and sleek
muscles. He’s at least six-four, and every chest muscle ripples and cuts in the
right place. His hair’s sandy and shaggy, and his jaw is square and resolute
with a gold-dusted five-o’clock shadow. But it’s his eyes that strike me most;
they’re emerald green with a slight upward slant toward each cheekbone, as if
he hiked all the way here from a northern land of sun and wind.
Author Bio:
When Kitsy Clare isn’t creating romances on her Mac Air,
she teaches writing workshops. She also loves to draw, travel, read spicy
romance, sci-fi and all kinds of thrillers. She divides her time between New
York City and her Catskills studio, where she enjoys the sounds of birds,
bullfrogs and the random coyote.
She also writes young adult fiction as Catherine Stine.
Her YA futuristic thriller, Fireseed One
won finalist spots in both YA and Science Fiction in the 2013 USA Book News
International Book Awards, and was an Indie Reader Approved notable book. Her
YA Refugees, earned a New York Public
Library Best Book. Ruby’s Fire, the
new companion novel to Fireseed One,
is receiving high praise from reviewers. She’s a member of RWA, SCBWI and SFWA.
She loves her readers and enjoys hearing from them.
2 Art of Love wristlet bags (US
& Canada)
One
Kindle with built in Wi-Fi plus 5W USB Charger (US/Can)
Ebook bundle of Ruby’s Fire and
Fireseed One (INT)
$50 Amazon Gift Card (INT)
1 ebook of Model Position (INT)
