Ingrid Jonach

Hi! I write in first person, so I am probably well-placed to answer. I have to say I often land in first person after trying third and realizing it just doesn't work for the story. I write YA, which is generally considered a natural fit for writing in first person. My stories tend to be personal journeys, rather than action or adventure, so first person allows me to show the full breadth of the journey by revealing the inner workings of the protagonist's mind. There are ways to achieve this with third person, but I find first person more immediate and therefore more effective for me, at least. My stories also tend to have an element of mystery and I find that telling the story in first person means the reader can only know what the protagonist knows and therefore are forced to undertake the same journey as the main character. I agree that this can create difficulties with the reader in terms of connecting - especially if they are worlds apart from the protagonist. I hope that gives some insight into at least one author's reasons :-)

Hi Julie! I've only recently started watching reviews on youtube. I agree that a lot of them seem to focus on the YA genre. Maybe it is the right generation for vlogging? I have received a bit of fan mail and it is REALLY awesome. It seriously makes my day. I have a contact form on my website. And I always draw on my teen years when writing YA. Most of my characters contain personality traits from my friends (not naming any names!) and many scenes are inspired by real life events. x

I knew I wanted to write a teen romance, so I was definitely writing YA from the outset. It was a conscious step up (in terms of age group) from the children's books I had written previously. I tend to follow the old rule of your main characters being a year older than your target readers - in which case my readers for When the World was Flat (and we were in love) would be 15 and 16 years old. I only use this to confirm it is YA though - as there is really no limit to age-group for books! I am extremely proud of writing YA and am happy to explain to people that I write commercial fiction, not literary fiction. I do think there is some stigma attached though, which I think would be nipped in the bud if any critics actually attempted to write a YA novel themselves. YA novels have their own challenges, like capturing the teen voice and the range of emotions and drama without being condescending or turning it into a soap opera.

I am going to represent Australia here and say anything by Victor Kelleher. His works span children's and adults too, but some of his YA novels are: Taronga; The Ivory Trail; and Papio. These are all pretty old though (I think one was even published as far back as 1984). And another Aussie recommendation would be the Tomorrow When the War Began series by John Marsden.