fantasy or realism?

YA fantasy is also quite popular. If that's what you want to write, write it. Now, if you have great ideas for contemporary YA, go ahead, but don't force yourself to write it.

It's possible you are one of the 4 people alive who only has one talent, but I find it improbable.

Why don't you write a book that YOU like, and not worry about the audience. I can't say for sure if this is true, but it seems like writing a book about a subject you love would provide a much more meaningful experience for both you as the writer and the reader.

Good luck to you!

If your book is too overtly about 'message' it might turn some YA readers away. Embed your message in stories that stand on their own. Terry Pratchett's 'Tiffany Aching' YA fantasies are great examples.

You will do the widest good if you reach the largest audience you are capable of garnering with your books. And you will garner the most interest by writing whatever you're best at.

In other words, write whatever excites you most. You're not going to reach anyone if you write in a genre where you have no competence at engaging with your audience because you have no passion for the genre they like to read.

When it comes to art, you don't really reach into other people's hearts. What actually happens is you reach into your own heart, and other people recognize what you find there as something that exists inside them too. So the best art comes from the artist being true to themselves. You shouldn't be trying to pander to what you think others will read -- they will read whatever you want to write if you write it well enough.

satyesu said:

... This is where my OCD kicks in. It's telling me to write realistic/real-world drama/...(I don't know the term) instead of fantasy because more YA's will read it and thus the positive influence I might make will be disseminated to more people.

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If there's one thing young adults love, it's someone writing a book to browbeat them with a Positive Influence Message.

Seriously, as others have said, you'll do far better writing a story you're excited about than writing one specifically to create a "positive influence" on Future Generations. The former does the audience the courtesy of crediting them with the brains to both enjoy the story and draw their own conclusions about its ramifications in their own lives and situations. The latter approach threatens to stray from writing a book for young adults to preaching at them from a pulpit of I Know Better Than You What You Need To Improve Your Life; while you're patting yourself on the back for imparting your wisdom and enlightening their little minds, roughly half the audience has tuned you out and the other half is actively rebelling against your authority. The only ones nodding along are the brownie-point suck-ups who already believe/know what you're telling them, and are simply enjoying the validation. (Either that, or they're listening to their iPods and nodding along with the beat...)

Get down in the trenches with your audience. What do they want, to help get them through life and figure out their problems? A good story, or a Positive Influence?

In other words: give 'em a good story. They get enough grown-ups patting them on the head while imparting Positive Influences. Heck, some of us grown-ups get enough of other grown-ups patting us on the head with trite Positive Messages; it's ten times worse when you're younger.

So write your story. Some readers of general fiction won't read books with fantasy elements, but some fantasy readers balk at straight-up fiction because it's just too much like the reality we're trying to escape. But I'd lay odds that most readers would prefer a story to a blatant attempt to Influence them, even Positively.

(This message brought to you by Grown-Ups Who Still Bristle When Someone Tries To Sell Us A Message/Morality Lesson Thinly Disguised As A Story.)

Not what you asked, but it's not hard to write fiction that makes a positive impact. It doesn't matter if the good guys win or lose. If the good guys are good, then readers will want to be good like them. By "good guys" I don't just mean guys that are good, I mean the characters you most relate to, i.e. the MCs. We tend to want to be like people we relate to, real or fictional. So just make MCs with attributes you endorse and you will have the impact you want.

Ditto everyone else who said write what suits you, not what has the biggest market.