Frame stories

[Jo Zebedee]

Maybe it would help to focus on who you are writing the book for, rather than what you are trying to create. Who is your target reader?

Notwithstanding YA novels tend to be written with a young protagonist, it is the target readership and the way they are written that defines them I think. So are you writing YA that happens to have an adult as one of its protagonists or an adult book that happens to have a teenager as one of its protagonists?

A change in perspective might help bring clarity to your framing issues or marketing if that's the case.

Sadly it’s something of a perenial problem in my writing and one I have never yet solved. I don’t class my books as YA despite writing a lot of YA characters. But others class some of my books as YA - and I certainly do a lot of talks and workshops to teens as a YA writer.

This one I would class as adult. I suspect agents and publishers will find it a problem. In which case, it’s self publishing it is for me

 

[hopewrites]

When I read the OP the first thing that came to mind was Second Hand Lions.

I dont think I have anything to add that would be helpful at this point, but thought I'd throw that in just so there was one more title on the list of suggests...

 

[unbusy thing]

but this is a story of a mother and daughter and that relationship is as central as the detecting element, and it's that relationship which makes this a frame story, I think

How about NK Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy? She mixes 2nd and 3rd person to show Essun and her daughter, Nassun, go through some seriously gnarly stuff, set on a world with a big back story. There's some snazzy POV tricks that I won't spoil if you haven't read it. I originally thought that the 2nd person POV depicted a very traumatised and dissociated Essun, but it doesn't. It's actually a frame story which only becomes clear in the last book (although I sort of guessed). I thought it veered into fantasy rather than SF when characters started talking about magic - maybe it qualifies as science fantasy? Do people even use that term any more?

Also, although the YA part doesn't frame the adult - and is very, very dark- Alistair Reynold's Chasm City comes to mind. The frame story here is part detective, part hired merc. Again, there's some POV switching, this time between 1st and 3rd, to reveal a sort of matryoshka of narratives and characters. Grim, violent, dark SF - just up your street, I suspect

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Thank you so much @unbusy thing .

So I’ve been working with this. The trouble with this book has always been the hinterland of adult content with YA concerns. I know it will struggle to find agent or publisher interest. To that end, Im going to write it from the YA POV, as a YA sf adventure, and I think that will work better as a frame. And sell better.

I’m a whore for marketability this time it seems. But a gal has to eat