Explicit Sex in YA Novels
I’m losing my latest revision battle for Lost Along the Way, which I thought was going to be a ‘young adult’ title. This was my intent for it, to be read by young men, the same sort who come to my table at cons and buy my books; but—I was told I need to exclude any explicit sex [the book had none], and also—remove all the allusions leading to sex, and the non-explicit depictions. My character is 17 years old, and a narrative describing a scene of ‘we rubbed against each other until we came’ is apparently too explicit for YA. It’s his age, the sex would violate certain laws yada yada yada. “Just because it’s got a gay youth in it, doesn’t make it Gay YA,” according to one early reader.
I read an article on the ‘Gossip Girl’ books, about 17 year old private school girls, and one girl is nailed by her boyfriend in department store dressing room–it’s just narrative, it’s not explicit, and much in the form I’ve written ‘Lost’ scenes in–you know it’s going on because the narration talks you through it—but in a non-erotic way. So I have to remove even non-erotic narrative from my book because he’s a 17 yo boy, and yet these books feature their teens girls, engaging in sex? GTFO.
So I went back with my Gossip Girl evidence in my hand, and to help me, I even brought Alex Sanchez’s Rainbow Boys. What I got? Same thing. The person he’s having relations with is 21. It’s a crime. :/ I really don’t want to exclude scenes from this book; I want to talk about the feelings and experiences this young man is going through, and sex is a part of what he’s going through. I can write it non-erotic, I’m not out to titillate here, I know the difference between turning the reader on, and making the reader think - I’ve done both before, I’m not a n00b. I suppose if I want to do it my way, it won’t be YA after all. That brings up another thing that a friend mentioned while discussing this: why not just write the sex in there and make it an erotic work. I can’t, because Andrew is still 17, and the book really isn’t about his getting laid as a means of recovery [this isn't yaoi, yo!]. He’s trying to recover from violence, in the worst atmosphere possible—in a peer group filled with violent men. The sexual tensions are there because they’re gay, but that’s not the focus of the book. I had to put sex in its place in Gadarene as well; lucky for me I had CB Potts there to bring in just the right amount of eroticism. Sure, it’s an erotic read, but the story overall isn’t made to ‘get you off’ or ‘bring romance to your afternoon’.
The manuscript gets handed over to uber-editor Casey at the end of the month.
I have three weeks to kick it into gear on this one, wish me luck.
I have a ton of pictures to upload to Flikr, but no ambition for it right now. It’s storming here, which is why I’m awake this early—that and the whole time-zone adjustment thing… I should have my Flikr updated this weekend.
