The HOW TO of a MIDDLE-GRADE MASTERPIECE!

Writing a Middle-grade Masterpiece
Ain't Easy!
Originally posted in The Purple Crayon – on "Musings"
by Margot Finke

Libraries, bookstores, and online shops offer middle-grade novels of all types: inspiring, good, bad, and that iffy area in-between. I am sure every writer starts out with the intention of writing a story that inspires as well as entertains young readers. However, it soon dawns on them that hard work, imagination, and dedication are just small parts of what it takes to write a middle-grade book that inspires and entertains.

Like any other job or career, a potential writer must spend time learning the craft of writing for children — an apprenticeship, if you will. The rules are available for those who take the time to learn them. And once you learn the rules, you can take an occasional deep breath. . . and break them with impunity.

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Secret Ingredients for a Middle-grade Masterpiece:

Trying to write for the older half of the middle-grade range? To appeal to kids on the cusp of adolescence: with raging hormones and today’s fast pace your main competition? From 10 to 13 years of age is the range I mean. However, kids find their own reading comfort level, so some 10/11 year olds might read YA books, while older teens might still be into middle-grades. It all depends on their maturity and individual reading level.

Here’s a preview of the ingredients you’ll need to dig out of your imagination, and your well-honed craft box, if you plan to whip up a great middle-grade book for those fickle 10-13 year-olds:

• Tight writing.
• Active and powerful verbs.
• A plot that’s cool and fast paced.
• Characters who are alive with authenticity.
• Dialogue that is true to the characters.
• A background rich with possibilities or mystery.
• Your own unique writing voice.
• Hints and clues that are woven into the fabric of the plot, and tell of past history and things yet to come.
• End of chapter HOOKS that keep readers turning the page.

When completed, your middle-grade masterpiece needs to be somewhere between 20,000 and 60,000 words. Yes, I know Jo Rowlings upped the ante with her succession of Harry Potter books, and if your plot and characters have the same appeal as Harry, you too might get away with a larger word count. However, first-time authors might be wise to err on the side of fewer words.

Ingredients — How and Where to Find Them:

• If it’s been a long time since you sat in Mrs. Learnit’s English class, take a basic English/Writing course. You can do this online, through a nearby night class, or your local college. Writers must have confidence in their basic grammar and punctuation skills.
• Haunt your local bookstores and library. Read every middle-grade book you can get your hands on. Dissect the plots in these books, and the way authors create their characters. Look at the sentence structure, the way they describe events and places. Make notes. If a book grabs your interest, find out what it is the author does that has that effect on you. Is it their richly crafted characters, their sharp and fast moving plot, or their attention to all those small yet vital details?
• Write as often as you can. Becoming a published author is not for wimps or hobbyists. Sacrifices are mandatory. If it means getting up before dawn, because that is the only time you have to write — so be it. If it means being bleary-eyed at 2 am so you can finish a chapter — suck it up! If it means living with dust bunnies that make your mother-in-law cluck, and teaching your kids to do their own laundry and room clean up — go for it! Most important is a partner who is sympathetic toward your (weird to his mind) need to write, and his willingness to help out around the house when you are suffering from one of your many writing frenzies. Perfect wife, mother and housekeeper, OR great writer? Both demand masses of time — your choice, mate.
• If you have no middle-grade children in your family, volunteer at your local middle school. Observe these half-baked creatures in their natural habitat. Body language, peer groups, misfits and lunch room behavior: all this is grist for your writing mill. Moreover, you’ll probably have fun doing it. Make a note of what these kids read for pleasure.
• Network with others who write for the same age. This means joining online lists where writing and publishing information flows back and forth, and you can have your many beginner questions answered. Join a critique group that has some advanced or published members. Their support and encouragement will often save your sanity. Critiquing the work of others is surprisingly informative, and you will benefit from the feedback you receive on your own writing. Below are three of many great online lists for children’s writers, and links to join.
• Children’s Writers (Children's Writers & Illustrators)
  childrens-writers-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
• Children’s Writers Today -
  childrenswriterstoday-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
• Non Fiction for Kids
  NFforKids-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Whenever possible, go to SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) writing conferences. SCBWI is well worth joining. They offer many advantages to newcomers, and their branches pop up in every state. This is where you meet editors and agents, and hear them speak about today’s world of writing and publishing. Meeting them often leads to you being able to send your manuscript to a specific editor: and with so many publishers today closed to submissions, this is a real plus. Other writers will also be there, keen to network with you, and share their writing experiences.  

The MAGIC of learning MORE will see you through! 

If you don’t have a college degree, or even a high school diploma, don’t worry. Talent, perseverance, and a slice of luck can make up for these so-called deficits. A dedicated and talented writer, determined to learn the craft of writing, and stick with it until they become published, will succeed. Boost your writing confidence with an advanced writing class. This will take you beyond grammar and punctuation, and into the meaty realm of plots, character enrichment, voice and pace. Perfect these skills, and acceptances rates multiply like rabbits. Below are three links — two links for great writing classes, and the other to terrific books on how to write for children.

• Recommended Writing Class
• Anastasia Suen — A wonderful writer. If you want to write for children, visit her Intensive
   

Other Websites That Will Boost Your Writing Knowledge:

• Harold Underdown’s Purple Crayon

  A must browse for beginners and experts alike. A veritable treasure
trove of writing information.

• Margot Finke’s World of Writing for Children — See Site Directory for:
  Self-editing Tips - Children’s Writing Guide - Link to "Musings" & more.

• Verla Kay's WebSite
  A multi published author and a valuable resource site.

• CBC  (Children's Book Council)

Information about writing, authors, books and publishing.

• Writer's Market Research publishers. They update information regularly. They have a program where you can track submissions, but it cost to join. Writer's Market also has a free update site. You don't have to subscribe to the magazine to get the updates.
• Jan Field's Website
   Chock full of writing help, and kidmagwriters.com is a terrific resource for
  those who want to write for magazines. 
• CWIM (Children’s Writer’s & Illustrator’s Market). This hard copy book is the information Bible for publishers, editors, agents, and what they want from
  YOU in the current year
• LINKEDIN is a place for serious writers.  Lots of writing lists for every genre`. 

Final Note to Prospective Authors:

Keep writing. Keep learning. Keep researching to find the right publisher. Keep sending out those finished manuscripts. Editors do not make house calls!

HAPPY WRITING MATES!

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How to - GRAB READERS BY THE THROAT!

THE IDEA

You long to write a terrific book. . .

You have an idea. . .

You have some time. . .

What's so hard about thinking up a plot,
plus some great characters, and mixing
them all together into one wonderful story?

You just KNOW you can
Grab Readers by the Throat!

Sigh. . .   Before you put finger to keyboard, please think about how you felt when you were  ripped off by that El-cheapo plumber, mechanic and repair dude.  So please, don't do the same thing to people who love to read.  Let me guide you in the ways go good writing that is tight, terrific, with not a "waffle" in sight - all safely in the kitchen, where they belong, looking for the maple syrup.

Network among other writers and pick their brains.  Join a good critique group.  Their writing feedback  and support will be a godsend in times of rejection - and there will be many.  Read a bunch of books in the same genre you intend writing.  This will give you a feel for the genre, and an idea of what publishers want.

If it has been a while since Ms. Writeit rapped you over the knuckles for that rash of commas, and those 4 line compound sentence, take a refresher writing class.  Basic skills are vital.  With that under your belt, you are ready to tiptoe into the morass of plot and characters.  

What the heck is tight writing?Editors say you must have it. There are tight shoes, tight schedules, and tight budgets. Everyone knows what those mean. However, mention tight writing, and many of you scratch your heads. I'm hoping that by the time you reach the end of this, tight writing will no longer be a mystery.

Focus Is The Key:

Keep your focus on what moves the story along. Avoid side paths that hijack your plot and take the story nowhere. Rough out an outline of your idea - beginning, middle, and ending.  Keep an eye on the small details.  Good pace and tension building are harbingers of tight writing and a great story.  Powerful verbs, evocative adjectives, and terrific dialogue promise your story will be a winner.  Never use 10 limp and overused words, when 5 powerful and active ones do a better job.  Use your Word Thesaurus to conjure up words that "speak" to your readers, and paint vivid mental pictures they will remember.

The Characters:
Understand your characters. Get under their skin. Make them so real they jump off the page. When you feel connected to your characters, there is less chance of them wandering off into gratuitous situations. Tight writers hold the reins.  Feed your reader snippets of back story in each chapter, so your characters grow richer and more compelling as the chapters flow past.  Give each character their own unique "voice."  Do this with words, mannerisms, and actions that come to be associated with each individual character. Never let your villain outshine your main POV (point of view) character.

The other VOICE: 
Yes, there IS another voice that is just as important - your  own writing "voice."  This is the way you string sentences, paragraphs and chapters together. Time, practice and experience come together at some point, and they create your writing voice or signature. It is the style you bring to each paragraph.  The way you write a tense scene.  Or a specific choice of words and actions.  If readers like the "voice" you bring to your writing,  you HAVE them by the throat!

*Writing Plots that GRAB Your Reader:
Keep a tight focus on where your plot takes the characters. Before you start to write, have a good idea of the beginning, the middle, and the end of the story. When your plot is up-in-the-air, your characters tend to wander off into unnecessary back-roads. You must invent pointless situations to push them back into the main plot. The result is wordiness (waffling on), rather than tight writing.  A good rule of thumb: If it does not move the story forward - CUT IT!
*The Sub-plot:
Focus on crafting a sub-plot that enriches your overall story.  Don't allow it to overshadow the main plot.  Secondary characters become more appealing when linked to an intriguing sub-plot. If you allow the sub-plot to wander too far a-field the story becomes bogged down. Tight writing is never long-winded.

Fiction Is Born When…
# 1 - You have a story in your head that you are eager to write.
# 2 - You have a bunch of characters in your head that tell you what to write.

Either way can give you a tight and terrific story. But only IF you keep your focus on what moves things along.

If You Write Like #1:
It would be a good idea to make a list of your characters, as well as a rough outline of the plot, and where it takes them: from chapter to chapter. Think about your main characters with great care. Do a family profile for each one. Even if you don't use all the details in the profile, you will have fun concocting it, and more importantly, feel much closer to them. They will really begin to "live" in your head. It will be easier to focus on them and their personalities -- fit them neatly into your plot. All this attention to detail focuses you, the writer, on what is important. Tight writing is always well focused.

If You Write Like #2:
Here the task of focusing on tight writing is harder. Think of your story as a herd of cattle stampeding through your mind. You have a prime story, but the ideas need to be herded, branded, and the sickly ones culled. You need to ride high in the saddle and crack the whip. Focus on disciplining the raw elements rushing around inside your head into a tight and cohesive story. A stampede of words is never called tight writing.

Highlighting The Small Stuff:
I wrote about the "biggies" first. Yet there are still many pitfalls that can reduce tight writing to a sea of rubble.

*Qualifiers and Adverbs:
These are often one-and-the-same. Go through your writing with Word Find (Control +F) and prune these pests. Hordes of words like, just, very and some, etc., throw tight writing out the window. Look askance at all adverbs. If your verb is good and strong, an adverb is usually unnecessary.  Occasional use is fine.  Adverbs have become a habit in our speech, and this tendency is often repeated in our writing.  Do you find yourself repeating a certain word more than once on every page? BE aware.  Use Find/Replace to hunt it down. Replace with an alternative. 

*Beautiful Descriptive Passages You Feel You Must Keep:
We writers fall in love with what we write. We hate to snip a word. If you must have that lovely descriptive passage, or lengthy detail, be ruthless - cut it back by one third. Remember, needless details sink tight writing.

Reiteration Is Not Always A Good Thing
At the top of the page you write about Jamie falling off a ladder and hurting her knee. You gave adequate details. Near the bottom of the page, you repeat this, using slightly different words. Check your pages for this type of unnecessary repeat. Often, writers are unaware that they double-dip information. Reiteration is useful when you want the reader to remember something that happened several chapters back. Keep it short-and-sweet. Jog the reader's memory, and then move on.
Avoidable reiteration is the opposite of tight writing.

Finale:
So there you have it. Tight writing from A to Z  - or at least a good beginning.
Tight will get you published. Tight will have you read. Tight will earn you royalties and accolades.

Tight writing will GRAB your reader by the throat!

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