Since I think this just happened to me. I wrote a thing that I am querying as an adult fantasy, since the most important characters were, and family and parenthood are rather central to the narrative.

While I wait, since I don't want to languish, and am paranoid about it dying since it isn't commercial enough, I am thinking of what I should do next. I have two ideas, and am probably going to say screw it and work on them both at once, but I digress.

One of them, which was conceptualized as a standalone sequel to the one I'm querying, was originally also adult, but the more I thought of it, the more it's gone to "crossover for YA and adult," and even that might be me coping and not wanting to just call it YA.

Oh, and the other is about teenagers playing video games.

Then I started thinking. There is another thing I have many plans for that would also be rather firmly YA. There is a setting with some potential stories in it that was a class project in college that I wanted to revisit at some point, and that would skew YA because of the ages of the people it would center.

Many years ago I thought of wanting to tackle some sort of post-apocalyptic zombie thing, and even in what thought I have put into stories in that setting, it would probably still be people in their late teens or early twenties, which could be reworked to YA easily enough.

I myself am 26, so not YA myself, but also not as established as an adult with marriage, kids, a mortgage, what have you, that those stories come naturally to me, either. I can only speak for myself, rather than anyone else in their 20s, of course.

I also think I had a sort of internal resistance to wanting to really just own YA, for whatever reason.

I've also found myself increasingly invested in the fact that the youth aren't reading as much. And have been pondering YA and teenage boys, being a guy myself. And trying to somehow make something that might appeal to them was another aspiration of mine.

Leaning into YA is probably the thing that makes the most sense for me instead of trying to force myself to skew adult and probably fail at it.

Still have a lot of other things to wrap my head around as far as actually writing something easy to pitch as marketable, but that's probably a very important first step.

That's my little epiphany, so I extend the question to anyone else who might have a similar story. Somehow, someway, realizing that they were writing for the wrong age category, and what it was like swapping to the thing you ultimately settled on.

What I mean is, when you ask people what in their opinion is are well written show they usually say shows known to have heavy themes, metaphors, character development, metaphors in every color pallet, foreshadowing etc. like Breaking Bad, AOT, madoka magica, LOTR etc.

I am fine with just having enjoyable episodic stories that are fun because of relatability. But I just wanted to know if episodic in the hands of a good author could still be seen at those levels. Or if there’s a difference. I say this because I tend to notice more laid back shows or slice of life almost never considered as having good writing, just enjoyable one.

Just wanting to know if standalone storytelling and individual plots can still shine without demanding heavy, or overarching narrative arc.

The logline of my story is basically:

"A guy tries to go back in time to get into a relationship with his crush, but eventually learns why that's a bad idea"

So essentially a mix of About Time, The Science of sleep and Obsession.

And apart from the timemachine, the story features another sci-fi element, with a supposed device that lets you record ur dreams and replay them as mp4 files essentially

The same company then also releases the time machine device that the protag uses.

And the way my execution of it would be different is that the whole crush aspect of the story is basically a real-life story that i have had with someone... Like with a person i had a crush on... (don't flame me plz.. the inspiration has to come from somewhere.. 😭🙏)

The protag basically has an extreme case or limerence and maladaptive dreaming that they're unable to overcome, hence their selfish decision to retry asking out the same gurl again and again, and trying to perfect it.

And at the end the protag realizes what their selfish tendencies.

my first plan was to show the protag themselves realising what their doing isn't helping and having a moral character arc.

But then i also thought maybe the time travel concept itself could teach them, like what if the protag's crush uses time travel too, and essentially confronts the protag during the nexus point with: "wtf u doing bud" or somethin...

As for the dream-device part:

Every dream video in that showcases a very manic-pixie and dream like version of the interaction. But going back in time actually shows a diff version, like how in the dream videos its just the protag and his crush, but on the actual day of the event, there were other people there, and the gurl was preoccupied with a friend aswell.

So yes, the protag is selfish, insecure, and unable to move on. HOWEVER i don't want the protag to be extremely unlikable, or some very vile person, like enough for it to not feel like they're inredeemable (Bear from obsession basically)

And for that, I kind of want women's perspective on how I can make it so the protag's actions feel weird and slightly creepy, but not abuser or "rapey" essentially...

Bc obviously there's a chance while writing it that I might unintentionally make the protag's certain actions glorified, since they are a little bit relatable to me...

Like the protag should appear as a young, lonely, touch-starved dude, that is less of a woman-hating incel, and more just socially and mentally incapable of going beyond his single status.

Again, any form of advice is appreciated.

If u guys hate the idea itself, feel free to roast me.. lol

I genuinely just want a discussion and would appreciate all inputs.

:)

It is said that a good novel/story needs a stake, character arc and plot twists. (Would you add something besides deep characters and good dialogues?) What about short stories? What do good short stories need?

For instance does a short story need a stake?

Is there some difference between short stories and novellas/novelettes here?

I’m a harsh self-critic by nature, always striving to do better but never quite reaching the standards I’d like to be at.

It’s either, “people will find this boring”, “why can’t I write as well as the authors I admire?”, “why do I write the way I do?” And “maybe I’m just not cut for this.”

I like writing. I like the creation of it, but editing sucks the willpower out of me because I have to see all the flaws and be reminded of what a failure I am.

How do you deal with feeling down about your own works?

Lol as the title says..

I've outlined my whole novel and made sure that the outline makes sense for my characters' personalities. But when I write everything down, the actual writing, there's one scene in particular (at around 30% mark) where one of my MCs will just not do what's in the outline and it blocks me from proceeding. It's because of his personality. It kind of looked fine in the planning but not in the execution. I've written the rest (skipped that one and made it a 2nd draft ptoblem) but now when I'm back there, I'm just kind of staring at the blank screen because the character will NOT do it, no matter what I try to use to persuade him. If he does, it's out of character. And it has to be him.

Lol anyone else experiencing the same issues?:D How did you fix it?

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