16-year-old Irish author Eilís Barrett, who has just published her debut novel Oasis, has spoken about the importance of Young Adult fiction, saying YA books "save kids' lives".
The Galway-born writer, who has signed a two-book deal with Gill Books for her debut and its follow-up, told TEN about being part of the Young Adult community, which she described as "amazing".
"There's something kind of heroic about it at times, and I'm not saying that about myself, I'm saying about people I know. YA books save kids lives," she said.
"It's just an incredible thing to say, this is part of my community, I'm part of this. It tends to come to kids at a really important time, at a really vulnerable time in their lives. I know it did for me. And I think it will always be home to me."
Barret's debut novel Oasis will be released on April 8 priced at €14.99, with the as-yet untitled sequel following in 2017.
She also said of Young Adult writers: "It's like these people are giving you parts of their heart so willingly in a way, I don't know if that comes in a lot of other demographics, a lot of genres, that they're so generous with their time and their life and their soul that they're able to pour everything into this in the hopes that it will mean something to someone. It will always be part of me."
Barrett started writing when she was five, and at 12 decided she wanted to pursue a career as an author. Through reading YA books and researching the process behind writing YA fiction she became clued-in to the genre, and her rigorous self-discipline meant she quickly developed her skill for writing.
"At that point I started getting really strict with myself, putting deadlines on myself and making sure everything was running on schedule, with a certain amount of words I would have to write every day," she said.
"Since I was about 12 I've always had daily word counts and things like that. The thing about writing is, and a thing that a lot of young writers struggle with is that they think it's unrealistic. And my thing is, well I want it so I'll make it realistic, and making it realistic meant making it work and making it have a system. And I just knew if there was a system to it I could do it. There's ingredients to making this work and I was going to do that, because I wanted it so badly I would have done anything."
I wrote a book called OASIS, and it has knives and tea and pretty boys. It's on Goodreads! https://t.co/vPRjoC9j1x pic.twitter.com/7saBLp2Z9r
— Eilis Barrett (@EilisBarrett) 22 February 2016
At the age of 15, Eilís signed a two-book deal with Gill Books, but the publisher's word count deadlines didn't faze her as she'd been doing it for years. "It wasn't that much of an adjustment" said the young writer.
The advice she would give to fellow young writers is to "take yourself seriously" and "appreciate yourself as a writer . . . you're doing something really hard".
"I think with a lot of writers, you have to put so much time and effort into it that a part of you has to always believe that it's going to pay off," Barrett added. "So I think the ability to say 'I am a writer, this is part of my identity, this is part of who I am, the stuff that I am doing is worthwhile', it can be the kind of thing that can get you through the really tough days.
"No one sat down and said that to me, but my editor Conor said 'You need to learn how to tell people you're a writer without laughing afterwards'."
Barrett is currently writing the follow-up to Oasis, which she describes as "challenging in different ways and easier in different ways."
"It's very new territory for me, I've written other books but I've never written a sequel, and I know a lot of people say sequels are difficult, so it's an adventure I guess!"
Oasis seems like a prime candidate to be turned into a film, is this something she thought about?
"I didn't think about it writing it, but it's hard not to think about it, especially because people are saying it feels really cinematic and things like that," Barrett said.
"I love that YA is getting so much attention in mainstream media because of movies coming out and I think the more mainstream attention it gets, the wider the space becomes, the wider the market becomes and the more books that get space to make a difference in people's lives. The books will always be the most important part for me, but I'll never not get excited when a YA book becomes a movie. I'm like 'Yes! Home team!"
