| janfields |
exit
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| janfields |
December 12, OPEN FORUM
CHAT with web editor Jan Fields begins in five minutes in the
Auditorium. This is open topic, so drop in and feel free to ask any
writing related question -- what's on your mind
today?
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| janfields |
December 12, OPEN FORUM
CHAT begins in 2 minutes. Join us in the Auditorium to ask questions
of web editor Jan Fields. With over twenty years of experience
writing and selling, Jan is ready to tackle most of your writing
questions.
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| janfields |
Good afternoon and
welcome to Open Forum! Let's see what we can answer
today!
|
| janfields |
I've got a handful of
questions that were sent to Dianne
|
| janfields |
But are really not
exactly questions for an oral storyteller
|
| janfields |
So I'm going to start
off running through those...
|
| janfields |
Richard asks: I'm
writing a spy/adventure novel for ages 8 - 12, I want the story to
have multiple points of view.
|
| janfields |
Richard
continues...What is the maximum amount of views I can have before
the story gets too hard for my reader to follow?
|
| janfields |
Answer -- It's not
really a matter of a magic number of points of
view.
|
| janfields |
With strongly plot
driven fiction like spy/adventure stories, I've seen many point of
view switches
|
| janfields |
Because the primary
interest point is plot, with characterization
second.
|
| janfields |
So books like Artemis
Fowl (and sequels) had MANY point of view switches.
|
| janfields |
It's really a matter of
clarity -- do you signal the switch VERY clearly.
|
| janfields |
Does the reader always
get plenty of warning of a POV switch?
|
| janfields |
Do you switch at break
points like chapters or scenes...switching within a scene is pretty
hard for middle grade
|
| janfields |
You can really carry as
many POVs as you need
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| janfields |
but be sure you NEED
them all
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| janfields |
And be certain you
switch between them very clearly.
|
| janfields |
One weakness with
multiple POV is for it to become too easy...authors switching all
over and getting into the heads of character we really don't need to
switch to.
|
| janfields |
So always always...ask
yourself -- why am I doing this? and does it need to be
done?
|
| coloradokate |
I know MCs are supposed
to be as old or a little older than the upper reader-age-limit. But
for my MG, I really want to have a 10-year-old MC, for several
plot-related reasons. Will that still work?
|
| janfields |
Yes, that will work
just fine.
|
| janfields |
I've seen very young
middle grade characters...though I have also seen 10-year-old
characters with 12-year-old age assignments.
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| janfields |
Where the character
clearly acts and thinks very 10
|
| janfields |
But the writer tells us
the person is 12
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| janfields |
Inkheart is such a
book.
|
| janfields |
The girl character's
behavior is very young...but she's "assigned" the age of
12.
|
| janfields |
That might have been a
publisher choice.
|
| janfields |
Or just an author who
isn't quite as familiar with specific aged kids.
|
| janfields |
Or even a function of
different cultures.
|
| janfields |
But if you need a ten
year old MC...hey, go for it. Many of Beverly Cleary's books have
younger MC and are clearly middle grade and sell like
crazy.
|
| janfields |
I don't think an editor
will even mention it unless you go really young like
8.
|
| janfields |
Now...again from
Richard...
|
| janfields |
My novel has many
scenes that follow the same theme. When linking the two scenes
together I use a transition. The problem is that my transitions turn
into a whole new scene and it takes me forever to get the story back
on track...
|
| janfields |
How can I tighten my
transitions?
|
| janfields |
When you're writing the
novel...you need to just go with it.
|
| janfields |
Overly tinkering with
things like transitions during the "spilling out" phase can cause
you to hit a writing wall.
|
| janfields |
You might even try
focusing on writing the scenes in the first
draft...
|
| janfields |
and skipping the
transitions.
|
| janfields |
Then during your first
rewrite -- put in the transitions.
|
| janfields |
Usually you'll find
they don't get out of hand that way.
|
| janfields |
If writing transitions
is throwing off the subsequent scenes...I would definitely write the
scene first.
|
| janfields |
Then glue scenes
together with the bare transitions needed.
|
| janfields |
Most of the time, you
can transition with a paragraph or two.
|
| janfields |
At
most.
|
| janfields |
Sometimes you really
only need as little as a half a sentence.
|
| janfields |
But for this
problem...I would say -- jump the transitions, fix it in
revision.
|
| janfields |
And the last question
for Richard...
|
| janfields |
In my boys' 8 - 12
novel, I would like to kill off one of my main characters and send
the others into shame. Is that too much of a dramatic ending for the
story's intended age group?
|
| janfields |
Without reading
it...probably.
|
| janfields |
But it's not something
you so much need to worry about.
|
| janfields |
Yeah, it'll mean they
market your book as Young Adult even though your characters are
younger.
|
| janfields |
But heck, they do that
with lots of writers.
|
| janfields |
Still, if your book
ends on a very grim, hopeless note...it's young
adult.
|
| janfields |
Especially if you're
killing and shaming your main viewpoint characters.
|
| janfields |
Middle grade is much
edgier than it once was...
|
| janfields |
but most librarians and
parents are not.
|
| janfields |
So, even if you can
talk a publisher into seeing it as middle grade...
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| janfields |
You're going to get
shelved with Young Adult in libraries and
bookstores.
|
| eggamy |
What's best way to make a
middle-grade story interesting for
|
| eggamy |
for both an
8
|
| eggamy |
and also interesting to a
12 year old?
|
| janfields |
That's a bit of a wide
reading level, but the interests are not so
different...depending...
|
| janfields |
both 8 and 12 are big
readers of fantasy and adventure...so if the story encompasses
either of those
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| janfields |
genre...you're in
automatically.
|
| janfields |
Beyond that...12 year
olds tend to think of themselves as practically
teens...
|
| janfields |
while 8 year olds are
still pretty comfortable being kids.
|
| janfields |
The thing that will
interest both is lots of action...
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| janfields |
plenty of
dialogue...
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| janfields |
and a plot that moves
at a fast pace but isn't too simple.
|
| janfields |
For example, if it's a
mystery -- don't make the answer obvious or you'll lose the 12 year
old.
|
| janfields |
And a lot of the 8 year
olds too.
|
| janfields |
The novel I just
finished is going to be marketed to 8 - 13...
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| janfields |
a huge age
range.
|
| janfields |
And I made sure to have
plenty of action...
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| janfields |
some strong tension and
suspense...but nothing to terrifying.
|
| janfields |
And it's a fantasy so
it can bridge easier than a lot of genre.
|
| janfields |
If it's a girl
audience...friendships girl-to-girl are interesting for the full age
group.
|
| janfields |
If it's a boy
audience...just keep it moving, lots of action, and a thrill or
two.
|
| janfields |
Keeping in mind that
you cannot threaten the character's lives if
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| janfields |
you're writing
something to interest an 8 year old as well.
|
| janfields |
Did that help at
all?
|
| coloradokate |
Are episodic chapter
books still selling? (Each chapter its own little adventure, tied
together loosely by an overall arc?)
|
| janfields |
I don't see these so
much beyond the very very very beginning chapter
books.
|
| janfields |
The ones that run about
2000 words over all.
|
| janfields |
For a while, I saw them
a lot.
|
| janfields |
I know Cynthia
Leitich-Smith did one...Indian Shoes.
|
| janfields |
You might check to see
who her publisher was
|
| janfields |
If you have one..and
give them a try.
|
| janfields |
She might have gotten a
pass for doing a longer chapter book in that style because it's
multicultural.
|
| janfields |
But I know she sold
one.
|
| eggamy |
That helped a lot..
Thanks I'm writing anything just now,but
|
| eggamy |
that's the age range most
middle- grade editors give us
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| janfields |
It is the age
range...overall of all books called middle grade.
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| janfields |
But within that
range...you see younger middle grade
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| janfields |
like Magic
Treehouse
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| janfields |
The A-to-Z
Mysteries
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| janfields |
Marvin
Redpost
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| janfields |
The Zac
Files
|
| janfields |
Maybe...hmmm...
|
| janfields |
I'm trying to think of
the books my daughter is reading.
|
| janfields |
She reads younger
middle grade...the specific target being 8 -9...maybe slow reading
10s...fast reading 7s
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| janfields |
Then you have older
middle grade, which a lot of us think of
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| janfields |
The Judy Blume Fudge
books
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| janfields |
Animal
Ark
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| janfields |
Beverly
Cleary
|
| janfields |
So, you're not really
really expected to make one book serve the whole
span.
|
| coloradokate |
See, I would've called
Magic Treehouse books (the early, easier ones, anyhow) chapter
books... No?
|
| janfields |
Magic Treehouse started
out as "chapter books"
|
| janfields |
Which some publishers
call young middle grade novels.
|
| janfields |
But Other publishers
consider "chapter books" to be like
|
| janfields |
The Dragon books
by...um...dang...one of the guys whose name starts with a
P
|
| janfields |
Argh.
|
| janfields |
Anyway...the 2000 word
boosk.
|
| janfields |
books
|
| janfields |
So it depends on the
publisher.
|
| janfields |
If a publisher is
calling middle grade from 8 - 12
|
| janfields |
They are then calling
long chapter books like Magic Treehouse, middle grade
novels.
|
| janfields |
Right..right...Frog and
Toad...that would be a "chapter book" to many of the
publishers.
|
| janfields |
But books like A-to-Z
Mysteries and Cam Jansen and Jigsaw Jones would be young middle
grade to those same publishers.
|
| janfields |
Definitions within the
field are far from fixed.
|
| rainchain |
I know Highlights doesn't
like name calling so sibling jokin
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| rainchain |
is completely out like
saying bird brain in jest?
|
| janfields |
Hmmm...probably.
|
| janfields |
Unless it works very
specifically in the story about birds...more like
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| janfields |
say
|
| janfields |
You have two
characters...a fox and a bear
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| janfields |
And the bear loves
birds and studies them and spends all his time with
them.
|
| janfields |
And the fox says, wow,
you've gotten to be a real bird brain!
|
| janfields |
Then they would
probably go with it.
|
| janfields |
But if it's just a mild
name call...they wouldn't let it pass.
|
| eggamy |
Would Nancy
Drew
|
| janfields |
Nancy Drew is firmly
middle grade.
|
| janfields |
If Nancy were written
brand new today, she would be YA
|
| janfields |
because she's a car
driving teen
|
| janfields |
But she wouldn't have
the kind of adventures she had in the past either.
|
| janfields |
Yeah, having two kids
looking for animals to relate to and one says the other is a bird
brain...even in very mild jest that is clearly not mean spritied is
probably going to be an issue for Highlights.
|
| janfields |
Sorry.
|
| coloradokate |
So, my episodic "chapter
book"--maybe it will be lower MG? Would that have a market
then?
|
| janfields |
Yeah, see the problem?
Most of the longer chapter books are now being seen as "young middle
grade"
|
| janfields |
and the episodic books
are more like Long Early Readers.
|
| janfields |
Publishers think kids
looking for Young Middle Grade want a straight on
story.
|
| janfields |
But it could depend on
the publisher.
|
| janfields |
I would see if I could
find some...check out who published them...try
them.
|
| janfields |
I just don't know of
any I've read in a few years now.
|
| janfields |
You could always sell
it to Cricket as a really really long serial.
|
| eggamy |
What do know about Gotham
Writers' workshops?
|
| janfields |
Not a thing in the
world...I'm sorry.
|
| janfields |
You stumped
me.
|
| eggamy |
I got their winter 2007
catalog of writing courses. I think
|
| janfields |
Well, I'm always in
favor of writing courses.
|
| janfields |
Though I took some
online with different companies...it was part of an
"experiment"
|
| janfields |
and I was a bit
unwhelmed...but like a lot of things, it depends on the
instructor.
|
| eggamy |
subscribe to writing
mags. They have N.Y. classes, but also
|
| janfields |
Well, if they don't
cost too much...it might be worth a try...
|
| janfields |
if they are pricey...be
sure to find someone who's familiar with them.
|
| janfields |
You might ask on
verla's discussion board at http://www.verlakay.com
|
| janfields |
There's someone there
who knows everything.
|
| eggamy |
Online. Just wondared if
it was a scam?
|
| janfields |
I dunno...really there
are so many places offering courses
|
| janfields |
and the quality is all
over the place.
|
| janfields |
Again...I would ask
around
|
| janfields |
I took a ya course
online that got rave reviews
|
| janfields |
but did zippola for
me...so you never know.
|
| janfields |
I would love to see ICL
do some online classes with much more specific
focus...
|
| janfields |
you know...ya only...or
middle grade novels...or picture books.
|
| janfields |
Maybe
someday.
|
| janfields |
Before my time runs
out...our next chat is NEXT week on FRIDAY
night.
|
