And that's awesome

I'm up at 4:00 am. Why you ask? Well in about an hour I'm supposed to be up, getting things packed in order to go this Triathlon. Fun stuff.

My friend keeps trying to talk me into doing one of these things. And I just laugh. Not because I think it's the most ridiculous thing ever. No. I laugh at the image of me running distance. HA HA HA that's so funny I could just pee my pants. I can swim distance fine, that was my thing in HS. Did it in college for fun. I can bike forever. But running, yeah ... I'd die. I can Sprint around a baseball diamond, but if you asked me to run a mile, ha ha ha, I wouldn't make it. I fail at pacing.

Now, I told people this, and some actually said well if you can swim distance you can run it too. Because they think it's the same thing. I try to tell them it's totally different. For me at least it is.

But this got me thinking, When people try to compare writing different novels in different age groups and genres and how it's all the same. And again, I beg to differ.

Just because someone can write a great MG novel doesn't mean they can write a great YA. Reason being this: Voices and actions must match the ages of the character, right or wrong? MG- you're writing for junior high 5th and 6th grade audience. They still think things like Farts, Burps and Turds are funny! YA - This is the older junior high student possibly ready for HS, or just getting out of school forever. All the way up to 17-18 years old. (But even adults read it, like me) We're not finding humor in belches, passing gas, or crapping. (maybe a smidge) but not so much in books. They want to be adults. Do adult things. Explore adult things, without letting go of they're youth totally. They're more into Drinking, Driving, Parties, Exploring bodies, figuring out things, and Life, from living on the danger to being so stressed about your future.
Adult- We've got way different sets of problems from youth. So the novels are going to be different. The language right down to the whole plot line. Why? Because we're not teens. We've got different things going on like house payments, rent, car payments, possibly kids of our owns.

Each genre is unique, and the same voice will not work with all genres. So when switching genres, remember research, and keep it as real as possible.