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Posts Tagged ‘Middle Grade’

First Person Point of View

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on July 18, 2012| 2 Comments »

In those moments when I need to take a short break from my YA alternate history, THE BARD’S GIFT, I’ve started reading through another one of my projects, MAGE STORM.

MAGE STORM is a middle grade fantasy. It’s also a boy adventure story, something that I see several agents/editors saying that they want. I queried it last year to some interest but no offers. Now, I’ve given it a couple of months to cool off and I’m taking a fresh look at it. I’ve already identified one place where I think I could do a bit better and I’m halfway through a new scene to do that.

But, one of the things I’m considering is whether or not to rewrite the whole thing in first-person. It’s currently close limited third person. Everything in the story is filtered through the main characters perceptions already.

Still, changing it to first person would be a rewrite. Done right, in my opinion, it can’t just be changing the pronouns and the conjugations of the verbs. It’s a lot more involved than that–or it should be. First person point of view invites the reader to live inside that character’s skin. It’s a lot more intimate than even close limited third person.

I’ve written first person before, but only in a couple of novelettes. (Shameles plug: “Heart of Oak”, which is currently free on Smashwords and all the places Smashwords distributed it to, is one of those.) In both cases, it was because I “heard” the story in my own head that way. I’ve never written first person just because it’s the popular thing right now.

Just a quick survey of recent novels in both young adult and middle grade makes it impossible to deny that first person is strongly in favor right now. Is that reason to rewrite this in first person? I haven’t decided yet. After all, I really do want to see this published.

So far, I still “hear” this story in third person, although I could easily see it done in first person. Nearly all of the character’s emotions are already there, and quite a few of his thoughts. While there are a number of action/fight scenes in which, eventually, he comes out as the hero, he’s nearly always frightened enough during the action that he wouldn’t come off as bragging. That can be one of the downfalls of first person.

Another consideration, though, is that this story can be the first in a series. I already know, in a general way, what the next two books in this series would be about. I think I need to consider whether first person would also serve those stories as well as third person.

So, for this pass, I’m just going to concentrate on the sorts of things I’m working on now. When I get through this read-through/revision, I’ll make a decision on whether to make the change or not.

Now, I’m going to get back to work on that improved scene.

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Bad Habits in Story Telling

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , on July 11, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Fair warning: today’s post is going to be something of a rant.

I believe firmly that every story should be told with as much skill and passion as the story teller possesses, no matter who the intended audience is. The author disrepects and does a disservice to the readers if this isn’t true. That’s my position and I’m sticking to it.

The reason this comes up is the last two middle grade/young adult books that I’ve read. No, I won’t give the titles here. That’s against my policy on this blog. As my grandmother taught me, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” My only exception to that rule is that I think that sometimes there’s something to be learned by talking and thinking about what doesn’t work–or at least what doesn’t work for me.

So, the two bad habits of today’s topic are deus ex machina endings and withholding.

Deus ex machina: Literally “god from the machine”, this is a reference to ancient Greek plays in which the fallible mortals would royally mess things up for two hours and at the end an actor portraying a god was lowered to the stage by a machine. The “god” then performed a bit of handwavium and set everything right–except, of course, for the characters who had died. 

In more modern stories, this might be accomplished by some new ability, device, or character that was never foreshadowed in the story up to this point. It’s contrived and it’s cheating. It often violates the internal logic of the story and tests the reader’s willing suspension of disbelief.

Worse, it’s unsatisfactory.  In general, stories are much more satisfying when the ending is earned by the main character through a series of struggles and try/fail cycles. We root for characters that surmount their past failures to win through at the end. We feel cheated when some agency other than the main character steps in and solves the problem. Think about it, would Lord of the Rings have worked if Gandalf magically transported Frodo to the Cracks of Doom? (If you think so, check this out on youtube.) When the solution isn’t the result of the protagonist’s struggle, then what was the whole point of the struggle–or the story for that matter.

Withholding: When a story is told in close limited third person or, even worse, in first person, and the point-of-view character knows something that he or she does not share with the reader, that’s withholding. The character can–and often should–withhold information from other characters. But if the reader is privy to the character’s thoughts and emotions–as they should be in either close limited third person or first person–then it’s a cheat not to let the reader know what the character reasonably should be thinking about.  Just like deus ex machina, withholding is sometimes used to suddenly reveal the solution that’s been there all along. But, it tends to make the reader feel cheated, and justly so. 

Withholding is one of the main reasons that the Sherlock Holmes stories are told from Dr. Watson’s point of view. Holmes often knows the solution to the mystery early on. He’s just trying to prove it. Watson doesn’t know and so it’s not withholding for him not to tell the reader. Also, think about Harry Potter. The reader didn’t know until almost the end of the seventh book which side Snape was really on. But neither did Harry, so we didn’t feel cheated.

Now, I’m not saying that withholding, at least, can’t be used successfully by a master. But that’s the point. It takes a deft hand, almost like a stage magician, to keep the readers’ eyes diverted so they don’t notice the trick. If the author can’t pull that off, they shouldn’t attempt withholding.

Sometines, I wonder if authors who try to use these tricks think it’s okay because they got the reader to read all the way–or nearly all the way–to the end. That misses the point. They’re not–or they shouldn’t be–trying just to sell this book. They should be trying to make the reader want to read the next one and the next. And, for me at least, they fail completely. If I lose faith in your ability as a story teller, I’m not likely to pick up the next book.

That’s the lesson I’m taking away from two less-than-stellar reading experiences.

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Progress Is What You Make of It

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on June 27, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Seriously, sometimes in this business you just feel like you’re beating your head against a brick wall. It’s so hard to break in. But I’m nothing if not stubborn. I’ll keep banging on that wall just as long as I have to.

I’ve been querying FIRE AND EARTH–a story I love maybe more than any other I’ve written so far–since April. I’ve had three requests for partial, two of which are still out. But that represents only about a 10% request rate. Not bad, but hardly great. I’ve recently overhauled the query. Too soon to tell how well that’s going to turn out. On the other hand, if I choose to look at the glass as half-full, I had three requests on MAGE STORM in a little over a year and more than twice as many queries sent out. So, my current request rate is actually progress. (And nothing says that I can’t requery some of those agents with the revised query in four or five months. What’s the worst they could do? Reject me again? Been there, done that, survived.)

Recently, my mind has been going back to MAGE STORM. I still really, really like this one. I keep hearing that agents and editors are crying for middle grade boy adventures. Well, that’s what MAGE STORM is, darn it. I just may have to take another pass through this one, revamp the query, and send out some more queries. I’m half inclined to use this one for the Christmas in July contest. Hmm. I wonder if it’s allowed to submit more than one book to that contest. I might have to ask.

I did get “The Music Box” e-published, but it’s going to languish just the same as “Heart of Oak” and BLOOD WILL TELL unless I start figuring out this marketing thing. It’s out of my comfort zone, but that’s part of the whole point. I need to learn how. Skin in the game was supposed to force me to do that. That hasn’t been too successful so far. I may just have to force myself to schedule in some time for that exclusively in order to make this work.

I don’t really write enough short stories to make much progress on that front. I’ve only written one and an abandoned partial so far this year. I should try to write more, but novels are just so much more satisfying. On the short story front, I’ve got two out on submission. One has been out for 147 days and a response on the other should come back any day now, assuming the publication keeps to their stated response time.

I’m making good progress (not roller-coaster, nanowrimo type progress, but good steady headway) on THE BARD’S GIFT again. That actually feels great. I’ve got my two characters close enough to begin depending on each other. Now it’s time to drop the axe and separate them for awhile. Have to make your characters suffer. And I think the opening of this one is the very best first page I’ve ever written.

So, even though sometimes it feels like standing still, I really am making progress. Sometimes, you just have to stop and remind yourself of that. It makes banging on the wall a little easier.

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Project Status

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on April 18, 2012| 6 Comments »

Almost a month ago, I posted this set of priorities:

  1. Finish the revision to “The Music Box” and decide what to do with it.
  2. Get ready to query FIRE AND EARTH.
  3. Start THE BARD’S GIFT.
  4. Revisions to MAGIC’S FOOL.
  5. Prepare BLOOD WILL TELL for e-publishing.

I’m doing pretty well on these goals.

  1. I’ve finished the revisions to “The Music Box” and have it out to one reader. I’ll probably seek more readers at the beginning of the month, and then decide what, if anything, I need to change before e-publishing it. There simply isn’t any other market for a romantic fantasy novella. I’m also waiting to hear about a novelette, “Becoming Lioness”. It’s currently out on submission and I expected to hear back almost a month ago. Maybe that’s good news. If not, I’ll be e-publishing that one, too.
  2. I’ve now sent out nine queries on FIRE AND EARTH and gotten one request for a partial.
  3. I’ve started THE BARD’S GIFT, but only barely.
  4. I’ve just about completed the revisions to MAGIC’S FOOL. I’ll be looking for new readers soon.
  5. I haven’t yet done anything about preparing BLOOD WILL TELL for e-publication.

So, here are my current priorities:

  1. Keep querying FIRE AND EARTH.
  2. Complete the revisions to MAGIC’S FOOL and find a couple of new readers to see if I’ve solved the problem of the slow beginning. The revision should be complete by the weekend.
  3. Mark up the revision notes for the last segment of BLOOD IS THICKER. That’ll only take a couple of days at most. I’m not ready to actually start on the revisions, yet, though.
  4. Then I’m going to concentrate on getting BLOOD WILL TELL e-published. That’ll also involve getting way more serious about some marketing.
  5. And once all of that is out of the way, I can go full bore on the first draft of THE BARD’S GIFT.
  6. I’ll probably tinker with the first draft of MAGIC’S APPRENTICE during any slow spots on THE BARD’S GIFT.

That’ll do for at least the next month, don’t you think?

 

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Using Critiques

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on April 8, 2012| 7 Comments »

I can’t over emphasize the value of critiques–both getting and giving them. They’re not only how we make a story better, they’re also how we grow as writers.

I’m starting to work through the critiques of MAGIC’S FOOL so the topic of how to make the best use of these critiques is very apropos.

Some critiques are like ringing a bell. They start an avalanche of ideas that makes the writer jump up and down shouting “Of course. Of course, why didn’t I see that.” Those critiques are precious. Sometimes you have to work a little harder for that same insight, but it’s just as valuable when you do see it.

Often a critique or a group of critiques will point out a problem that the writer isn’t aware of. After all, as the writer, you know all sorts of things about the story that didn’t make it onto the page and no matter how long you let it rest you can’t ever completely come to the story the way a reader would. If three or more people say the same thing, you probably ought to pay attention because there likely is a problem there. But, and here’s where things get interesting, it isn’t always the problem that the critiquer points out. It might be something deeper. Occasionally, it’s something much simpler that leaves me saying to myself something like, “Yes, but if I hadn’t been an idiot and cut this paragraph, that would have made much better sense and you wouldn’t have been confused.”

In this case, I’ve got an interesting mix of critiques. One reader says that I need an external antagonist. Another keeps asking me to show not tell and says the first half was slow, but the second half was great. Still another says that the story has potential, but lacks excitement. As a writer what am I to make of this? 

The first thing is to wonder if they’re all reacting to the same thing and just saying it in different ways. I think they are. I think what they’re trying to say is that they’re not feeling the protagonist’s problem, at least during some parts of the story. I haven’t done a good enough job of ratcheting up the conflict.

 And now I have at least some ideas of how to make my protagonist’s conflict much stronger. I’ll need more, but that’s what revision is all about. So, thanks to my great beta readers. It’s going to be a much stronger story when I’m through with this revision.

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Themes

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , on March 25, 2012| 2 Comments »

A theme is the central concept of a story. I don’t generally write a story with a theme in mind. However, it often happens that when I finish a story, I realize that there is a theme in there. When that happens, I can use that knowledge to inform choices that I make in the revisions to strengthen that theme, if I want to. Often, I don’t even ask myself what the theme is. I’m focused on telling a good story. Though, when I do, I can usually identify it pretty quickly. Sometimes, it surprises me.

For example, MAGIC’S FOOL, and in fact the entire series that starts with MAGIC’S FOOL, is about acceptance in various forms. (I really am going to have to think of a title for the series as a whole soon. Something to do with the two kinds of magic, I think.) In this case, though, it’s a little different for me because MAGIC’S FOOL and it’s sequels are rewrites of earlier stories with the unfortunate titles THE SHAMAN’S CURSE and THE IGNORED PROPHECY (TSC and TIP for short). Now that I’ve decided it should be a middle-grade story, the events of TSC with a little of TIP thrown in will be broken down into three separate stories. The fourth book in the series will cover the central plot that was planned for the end of the original trilogy, but never written. It’ll actually flow much better this way.

What’s different this time is that I recognized the theme in those earlier versions, so I could construct the story around it in the first draft of the rewrites.

In MAGIC’S FOOL, the theme actually comes close to also being the central conflict as the protagonist has to learn to accept the things that make him different from who he expected to be. That works, I think, as a good middle-grade internal conflict. My beta readers who have it now will let me know if they feel bludgeoned by it, I hope. But I don’t think it came off as that strong. The two critiques I have back so far haven’t mentioned it, at least.

Still, that conflation of the theme and the central conflict is not something I necessarily want to continue throughout the series. In this case, I’ll have to be aware, not of what theme is developing in my story, but of keeping the theme and the central conflict at arm’s length.

That’s a little different than my usual course, where I don’t even recognize the theme until I finish the first draft. In the long run, of course, that’s all to the good: a learning opportunity.

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Making Plans

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on March 21, 2012| 4 Comments »

When I look ahead, I’m feeling a little scattered, so it’s time to lay out a plan again.

E-Publishing:

  1. “Heart of Oak” is out. I’ve made four sales so far–two on Amazon and two on Smashwords. Not exactly setting the world on fire, but then I haven’t done very much to try to promote it, either. Actually, “Heart of Oak” is likely to be part of the promotion when I eventually get BLOOD WILL TELL out.
  2. “Becoming Lioness” is another novelette, currently out on submission. I should be hearing in the next week or so. If it comes back, it’ll be my next e-publishing venture.
  3. “The Music Box” is a novella I had shelved because it’s really much more romance than fantasy. The speculative element is very slight and, in fact, you could remove it altogether and the story wouldn’t be noticeably changed. But I’ve always liked it anyway, so I keep coming back to it. So, I’m halfway through a revision right now. I’ll probably try to get a critique or two. Then I’ll either submit it to the same market that has “Becoming Lioness” now or just e-pub it.
  4. All this leads up to e-publishing BLOOD WILL TELL probably at the end of April or the beginning of May. It’s ready to go except for the specific e-publishing formatting, but that’ll be more complicated than for the shorter works. One or more of the shorter works published in advance of this will probably then be used as giveaways to help pomote the novel.
  5. I’ll need to make the revisions to BLOOD IS THICKER, the sequel to BLOOD WILL TELL, so I can e-publish this sometime later this year.
  6. Then I’ll have to write the third book in the series BLOOD STAINS, so that I can e-publish it no later than this time next year.

Traditional Publishing:

I haven’t given up on this.

  1. I’m still querying MAGE STORM, at least until I get FIRE AND EARTH (formerly SEVEN STARS) ready to query.
  2. I need to finish up the last little details to get FIRE AND EARTH ready to start querying, probably next month. I think the query’s good–for this pass anyway. Experience tells me I’ll probably do a revision or two during the querying process. I do need to polish up the synopsis. I’ve got some feedback coming in on the first chapter. I’ll need to give that a shine and also make one more pass through the whole thing before starting to query.
  3. MAGIC’S FOOL is out for critiques now. I’ll need to make revisions to that, too, when all the critiques come back.
  4. I’ve started work on MAGIC’S APPRENTICE, sequel to MAGIC’S FOOL, but I’ll probably be setting this aside, soon. It really doesn’t make much sense to devote a lot of time to the sequel before I even start querying the first book.
  5. I’m just about ready to start work on the first draft of THE BARD’S GIFT, my young adult alternate history (with dragons).

All right. No wonder I’m feeling a little scattered, is it? Now all I have to do is prioritize. For the moment:

  1. Finish the revision to “The Music Box” and decide what to do with it.
  2. Get ready to query FIRE AND EARTH.
  3. Start THE BARD’S GIFT.
  4. Revisions to MAGIC’S FOOL.
  5. Prepare BLOOD WILL TELL for e-publishing.

That ought to keep me busy for the next couple of months.

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Middle Books in a Series

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , on March 18, 2012| 6 Comments »

This subject comes up for several reasons. The main one, of course, is that it’s something I’m struggling with myself. In another month or so, I’ll start the second draft of BLOOD IS THICKER, which is the sequel to BLOOD WILL TELL. While I complete the research and preparations for THE BARD’S GIFT, I’ve also been sporadically working on MAGIC’S APPRENTICE, which is the sequel to MAGIC’S FOOL. In both cases, there will be at least one more book in the series.

As I see it, both from reading and writing series, there are three problems inherent in sequels, in particular in the middle books.

The first is one I hope I don’t have in any of my stories because it annoys me as a reader: when the middle book in a series is just a bridge between the beginning and the end. These books often lack an identifiable story arc of their own. They’re just there to get you from the beginning to the end. It’s a problem most often encountered in trilogies.

The second is one of just maintaining reader interest, even if the book does have its own story (although this becomes much, much harder for middle books that don’t actually tell a full story). I have a theory about this that I’ve blogged about before. Particularly in fantasy, in the first book the reader has the wonder of discovering this new world, its magic and its rules, and the characters. The last book has the whiz-bang fireworks of the climax of the series. The middle book is, well, stuck in the middle.

This is where I think there’s a certain genius in series like HARRY POTTER. J. K. Rowling doesn’t show us all of Harry’s world in that first book. We’re still discovering new things well into the series. Yes, THE SORCERER’S STONE gives you the wizarding world, Diagon Alley, Gringot’s Bank, Hogwarts, and quidditch. But THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS gives you the flying car, the whomping willow, huge spiders, and the basilisk. THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN (on the television right now as I write this) gives you hippogriffs, dementors, and the Marauder’s Map. I don’t think I even have to go into THE GOBLET OF FIRE. The point is, the wonder of discovering this world is stretched out throughout the whole series.

There’s a lesson in that, I think. Now, if I can just figure out how to apply it to my own stories.

The third problem is one that relates especially to independent stories within a series. To a certain extent in this kind of series, it shouldn’t matter if the reader takes the books in order. And there’s the problem. When I start to write the second (or, in this case, third) book in the series, I want to set it up so that the reader can plunge in even if they’ve never read the first book. But, and here’s the problem, I’ve got all these places and characters that I’ve already established. Some of the things that have already happened in the first book are going to influence the relationships between these characters and how they approach the problems presented in the second (or third) book.

So, the problem is to present enough of that background–and only as it becomes relevant to the story–without slowing the main story down to a crawl or overwhelming it with extraneous details. It’s a very fine line. And frankly, one that I’ve never managed to walk on a first draft.

It’s a very real challenge. To me, this is a place where it’s vital to have beta readers. In particular, two groups of beta readers: some who’ve read the first book and can complain if you slow the story down with too many details about what happened before, and some who haven’t read the first book and can tell you when they get confused because something that was explained in the first book was just assumed in the second.

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Other Fantastic Creatures

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , on March 4, 2012| Leave a Comment »

The last post was about dragons. This one is about everything else.

I write fantasy, so fantastic creatures creep into my stories all the time. Sometimes I plan for them to be there. Other times, they just show up.

BLOOD WILL TELL/BLOOD IS THICKER have unicorns as well as dragons. Other fantastic creatures (or, as they are called in this world, magical races) are mentioned, but don’t actually have much of a role. At least not yet. There’s still the third book (tentatively, BLOOD STAINS) to be written. And since that one will involve a battle to defend their home, who knows which ones will turn up to take a part in that?

MAGE STORM also has griffins as well as three kinds of dragons.

SEVEN STARS remains the only novel-length story I’ve written with no fantasy creatures in it at all. Hmm.

MAGIC’S FOOL has some creatures of my own devising, sort of. There’s something very similar to a saber-tooth cat (although I’ve made my own revisions and additions) and a kind of zebra-like wild horse with leopard spots instead of stripes. In addition to wyverns and maybe a hippocampus, later stories in the series will have more odd creatures from my own imagination. In an earlier version of these stories, there was an unusually large and intelligent spotted flying squirrel, a sort of cross between a wild pig and a rhino, and possibly some really mean miniature unicorns. Making up my own creatures can be fun. I should do it more often.

At least right now, the plans for THE BARD’S GIFT don’t include anything other than dragons. But, I haven’t even started writing it yet, so who knows what may show up.

I’m also wondering what imaginary creatures I might want to include in my retelling of the fairy tale “Little Furball”.

 

 

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Dragons

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , on February 29, 2012| 6 Comments »

This post is dedicated to dragons. No, I’m not going to tell you about dragons. You already know.

I love this quote from G. K. Chesterton:

Fairy tales do not tell children that dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children that dragons can be killed.

Except for one thing: Why do you want to kill the dragons?

Most of my stories seems to have dragons in them, for some reason.

BLOOD WILL TELL/BLOOD IS THICKER/(and eventually BLOOD STAINS) have dragons as major characters or even the main character. These dragons can take human form and have some interesting difficulties as well as advantages in dealing with our world. The family is into banking, since guarding treasure comes naturally to them.

MAGE STORM has three different kinds of dragons. Mountain dragons are merely incidental (although one would become much more important in the next two books, WILD MAGE and DRAGON MAGE, if they ever get written. That most likely depends on whether any agent and editor ever like MAGE STORM enough.) Water dragons are a little more important to the story. And then there are the Keepers, tiny dragons who maintain the magical library. I have to admit, I love the Keepers. These are all neutral or actually helpful creatures.

SEVEN STARS may be the only novel I’ve written that makes no reference to dragons at all. Hmm.

MAGIC’S FOOL does not have a live dragon in it, but it does have a story about a dragon and a group of suggestively placed sea rocks called the Dragon Bone Chain. The importance of the largest, Dragon Skull Islet, will only be revealed in later books.

Even one of my trunk novels, DREAMER’S ROSE, had a dragon in it. The dragon wasn’t important to the story, but it was there. Someday, I may figure out what I need to change in that story and rewrite it.

And at least one of my planned novels, THE BARD’S GIFT, will have dragons in it. Yes, it’s alternate history. I’m altering history to include dragons, as well as in other ways.

So, what is this thing I have about putting dragons in my stories.

 

 

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