Do you automatically know the age group you're writing for?

I tend not to worry about it until after it's done. I assume that I'm writing for adults most of the time, though it always feels to me (as a person who read without limits imposed upon her) that the line between adult and YA can be blurred at times.

I think it's helpful to know the target age group while you're writing. Otherwise, your characters, plot, voice, and length might not match. You might end up with something that doesn't really work for any age group. And a character whose age is not defined might not behave in a consistent way.

Yup. I'm pretty confident when I start a MG novel it's gonna end a MG novel. Ditto PBs.

Though I have had a novel I thought I was writing for adults turn into a YA. But that's not all that uncommon.

Hope that helps!

Rue

Yes, I do know the age group once I start writing. Otherwise the voice and the language won't suit the audience.

I have made minor adjustments with age of characters, but only a year up or down as the story develops.

Just today I wrote a piece of dialogue where my MC said "Hil-freakin-arious." But as I wrote it, I knew that it had to change. Much as I liked it, freakin' just isn't OK for the age group for this particular book. If you don't know your audience, your voice is going to be all over the place, and there will be a lot to fix later. And you are likely to end up in a mess.

That is not to say that an idea might grow to be different and turn out to be more suited to another age group, but I find that tends to happen early on in the drafting stages.

I'm having some problem figuring out which age group for the novel I'm plotting now. Usually I know beforehand though.

Not sure how to figure out if it's for YA or Adult.

It is quite difficult to define a clear age group you are targeting nowadays because times have changed (e.g. Children are actually reading violent contents from an adult novel.), of course in exception to ridiculously childish books which are definitely meant for kids.

I will suggest you should just write whatever you think is your best idea and let friends and family members of different age groups to read it and you can survey on their level of enjoyment. Then you will get a feel of the age range which your story appeal to. Good luck!

What age range would you put the Harry Potter books at? They're considered MG no? But what are the ranges of the actual ages?

Somewhere between 6 and 12?

I'm not 100% sure where my MS sits age wise. I do know it's aimed at children - somewhere in the 8 to 13 range I think... But I'm hoping that adults will like it too - in the same way many adults liked the HP books.

I wouldn't say I "know automatically". I decide what age group I'm writing for, and I write accordingly.

RuthD said:

I wouldn't say I "know automatically". I decide what age group I'm writing for, and I write accordingly.

Click to expand...

This.

I suppose the more you are around kids, the easier it is to know right from the beginning what will make sense.

And the fact is, you're writing to a target range, not a specific age. So there are really only a few things that have to be understood.

Kids go through phases of development. They reach certain milestones. Before the age of 8 or 9, for example, most don't have the capacity for complex tales that require them to remember details, see connections and make inferences. So if your story has that in it, it must be middle grade.