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I often say the only difference between adult fiction and young adult fiction is the main character's age. You can pretty much deal with anything you do in adult fiction--from drugs and sex, to death and war, and anything else you might find in the Great American Novel... except it's fueled by the teen mind. And seeing a story through teen eyes is the key to why I write YA.

From the writing standpoint, what's great about having a teen protagonist is that often they have no framework of experience to deal with the messes I put them into. It's all about first times: the first time you feel threatened, the first time you fall in love, the first time you steal something. There is something incredibly alive about being a teen.  There's a freedom to living your life by gut instinct since you don't have experience to draw from--it allows you to take risks adults might not. And because of the youth factor, you can often recover from a blow more quickly.

So as a writer, I can put my teen characters through the ringer and know they have the resiliency to survive. It's like they are running through the forest blindfolded: they move on impulse, not logic, and pray they don't run into a tree (but usually do).  The fascinating part is seeing how they adjust and what they do to survive. To a writer, innocence fueled by testosterone is a much more exciting prospect than dealing with an adult character who has seen it all. I love getting my young heroes in trouble because nobody ever learns from success, they only learn from failure. It's called growing up.

On the flipside, adults are often too burdened by their experiences. Burned one too many times and you become cautious or too afraid to take risks because of how it might affect your work or your family. And if you do have an adult character who does something irrational or unwise, you have to justify it. Oh, he had a bad childhood. Oh, his mother disappeared when he was 12, and ever since...Not so with a teenager. As my mother might say, of course you make the wrong choices, you're a teenager! What do you know?

The other thing I notice is that adult fiction writers are by and large (and I know this is a generalization, but one I hear over and over) unhappy, bitter, and struggling to survive the fight to write the Great American Novel. On the other hand, 99.9% of YA writers I've met are open, supportive and genuinely excited for you. You are not the competition but part of the great brotherhood of teen writers. They welcome you, talk to you, have you over for dinner. Even the famous ones.  I came out of the back stabbing world of Hollywood, and to me, the world of children's Lit is a breath of fresh air. So why are YA authors happier than adult fiction writers?

Well, it's the company you keep. If you are writing about adults who are trapped in their meaningless lives suffering an existential crisis, of course you're unhappy. That's all you hear about, the cynicism, the hopelessness, the futility of it all. But if you spend all your time in the mental state of a teenager and have to think young all the time, you'll be alive, more youthful.

The other plus about YA lit is because it isn't often not considered serious fiction (mostly from folks doing adult fiction), the pressure is off, so you can actually write the Great American Novel without being bore about it. I mean, Octavian Nothing? Chains? Looking for Alaska? The Ousiders? Monster? Lizzie Bright? All Great American Novels without the Paparazzi.

I don't pretend to be a great writer but I can tell a story. My language is stripped down to the basics, without the flowery prose and all those high fallutin' words. In other words, the way I naturally write turns out to be perfect for teens.

So to me, YA means having the freedom to express myself the way a teen might: impulsive, compelling, alive. And if adults don't get it, that's fine too. They're just having an existential crisis (I kid the adults). But more often than not, they do get it and teachers and librarians have been some of my biggest supporters. For that I am grateful.

Where does Surf Mules fit in all this? Well, Surf Mules started off as an adult story, first as a short story, then as a movie script. But it didn't come alive until I added the teen element. Turns out the decision to step into the world of drug smuggling is a great metaphor for the transition between adolescence and adulthood.  It's about the future as seen through the innocent eyes of a teen who has lived the golden life and as we all know (since we've been there), it is an simple  vision, full of hope but damned to disappoint. Still, I can't help but share in their dream, even as they slowly suspect life will not be accommodating.

Some people ask me if I will ever write adult fiction?  Hmm, never say never.  But right now, I am perfectly happy to stay a teen until I turn old and gray.

G. Neri, Surf Mules, Putnam Juvenile, Penguin Books