Defining Edgy

If you've been to a writer's conference in the last ten years, odds are you've heard the word "edgy" used to describe the type of manuscripts editors are seeking. I've also heard "fresh voice" and "characters that leap off the page" but those qualities I can understand. It's that edgy word that leaves me feeling just a bit, for lack of a better word, edgy.

Pressed further, some editors can't really define the quality. They just know it when they read it. And I guess I can understand that too, but as a writer it's frustrating to want to emulate that indefinable something that will make your manuscript stand out. So, in my quest to understand edginess better, I looked the darn word up.

There are three definitions of edgy at Merriam-Webster.com, for my purpose, #3 hits the mark.

Edgy: Having a bold, provocative or unconventional quality.

That's a definition I can wrap my mind around. yet it brings more questions. What exactly makes a book edgy? Voice? Plot? In your face realism? I Googled "Edgy YA Fiction" and was lead to the website of the CBCC. (Cooperative Children's Book Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison) I picked two books from their edgy YA list that I was familiar with to do an "edgy" breakdown and comparison.

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. I suppose this would be considered "old school" edgy. I read this book in freshman lit and was instantly pulled in because it spoke to me. Not with flowery language, or obscure symbolism, but to ME, a teenager. The boys in The Outsiders were not well behaved. They drank, they smoked and they got into lots of fights. And while there were no "Greasers" or "Socs" in my school years, I could easily identify with the introspective Ponyboy and his plight of wanting to be accepted in society.

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. I was a bit out of my teen years when I read this book, but from page one felt transported back to high school and all its dramas. Again, the story spoke to ME or my inner teen, with the need of wanting to fit in. Melinda Sordino did not sugarcoat the reality she was living through. It was harsh but often humorous and ultimately real. Speak was also a book that was most often cited at conferences I've attended as an example of "edgy".

What both books have in common is a first person, no holds barred, "here's my naked reality" quality to them. Both also contain bleak subject matter and dark crisis points. And both don't have "big red bow" endings but do leave the reader with the hope and understanding that the protagonist does indeed triumph. They each easily fit the definition as having a "bold, provocative or unconventional" quality. But does this help me in my quest to understand edginess? Maybe a little.

I don't think there can be an ultimate "edgy" checklist, nor do I think edginess is a quality a writer can strive to attain. Not all edgy books will be told in first person (Unwind by Neal Shusterman...so edgy I cut my fingers while turning the pages). On the other hand, many, if not all, edgy books I've read have at their heart some very grim subject matter. But does a book need to contain dark subject matter to be edgy? I guess, what is comes down to, is that you know "edginess" when you read it.

So how would you define edgy?