Writing Young Adult Fiction For Dummies Read online

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  Library of Congress Control Number: 2011930126

  ISBN: 978-0-470-94954-2 (cloth); ISBN: 978-1-118-09289-7 (ebk); ISBN: 978-1-118-09290-3 (ebk); ISBN: 978-1-118-09291-0 (ebk)

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  About the Author

  Deborah Halverson edited books with Harcourt Children’s Books for ten years — until she climbed over the desk and tried out the chair on the other side. Now she is the award-winning author of teen novels including Honk If You Hate Me and Big Mouth. Armed with a master’s in American Literature and a fascination with pop culture, Deborah sculpts stories from extreme places and events — tattoo parlors, fast-food joints, and, most extreme of all, high schools.

  Deborah is also the founder of the popular writers’ advice website DearEditor.com, a frequent speaker at writers’ conferences nationwide, and a writing teacher for groups and institutions including the Extension Program of the University of California, San Diego. She freelance edits fiction and nonfiction for both published authors and writers seeking their first book deals. By conducting word-by-word line editing or more general substantive editing, Deborah helps authors hone their storytelling voices, synchronize age-appropriate language and subjects, and develop stories that appeal simultaneously to young readers and to adults such as parents, teachers, and librarians.

  Deborah lives in San Diego, California, with her husband and triplet sons. For more about Deborah, visit her author website at www.deborahhalverson.com and her writers’ advice website at www.deareditor.com.

  Dedication

  For Robin Cruise, who gave me not one but three big breaks . . . and more importantly, her friendship

  Author’s Acknowledgments

  On my first day as an editorial assistant with Harcourt Children’s Books, the managing editor walked me down the hall to view an art show of newly arrived paintings for a picture book then in production. I stood among a bustling crowd of editors, designers, production people, marketing gurus, and inventory, financial, legal, and support staff — all of whom had dedicated their careers and personal passions to creating entertaining and enlightening books for children — and it hit me: I’d found my people. I discovered that day what I’ve come to love about the writers and producers of children’s books: They are a true community that cheers, collaborates, and works its knuckles to the bones in support of literature for young readers. The enthusiastic participation of the writers, agents, and editors who have contributed their expertise to the information you hold in your hand reflects that.

  I extend immense thanks to the inspiring writers and teachers who’ve lent their voices to this book: M. T. Anderson, Kathi Appelt, Karen Cushman, Jennifer Donnelly, Jean Ferris, Cynthia Leitich Smith, Darcy Pattison, Mary E. Pearson, Gary Soto, Deborah Wiles, and Jane Yolen. Add to their voices those of my trusted children’s book agent Erin Murphy and my friend Senior Editor Kate Harrison.

  Then there are those whose words are not directly quoted in this book but whose insight and expertise fill its pages: former publisher and all-around publishing visionary Rubin Pfeffer, editorial veteran Diane D’Andrade, vice president and editorial director Jeannette Larson, author Bruce Hale, author and copyright/free speech attorney Randal Morrison, publishing attorney Lisa Lucas of Lucas LLP, and publicists Barbara Fisch and Sarah Shealy of Blue Slip Media and Antoinette Kuritz of Strategies Literary Public Relations.

  And just as no story would be complete without its grand finale, I extend my deepest appreciation to my agents for this book, Matt Wagner and Anna Johnson, whose idea it was to turn me into a dummy; to my editorial team: acquisitions editor Tracy Boggier, technical editor Barbara Shoup, copy editor Danielle Voirol, and especially project editor Vicki Adang, whose humor pervades this book as much as my own; to my husband, Michael, who champions me with absolute abandon, and my three sons, who inspire me to embrace every day as a new adventure; and last but far from least, to my mentor and friend Robin Cruise, the managing editor who ushered me into that art show on my very first day in publishing.

  Publisher’s Acknowledgments

  We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form located at http://dummies.custhelp.com. For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002.

  Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

  Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development

  Project Editor: Victoria M. Adang

  Acquisitions Editor: Tracy Boggier

  Senior Copy Editor: Danielle Voirol

  Assistant Editor: David Lutton

  Editorial Program Coordinator: Joe Niesen

  Technical Editor: Barbara Shoup

  Editorial Manager: Michelle Hacker

  Editorial Assistants: Rachelle S. Amick

  Cover Photos: © iStockphoto.com/DNY59

  Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com)

  Composition Services

  Project Coordinator: Katherine Crocker

  Layout and Graphics: Corrie Socolovitch

  Proofreader: Nancy L. Reinhardt

  Indexer: Valerie Haynes Perry

  Special Help: Jennette ElNaggar, Todd Lothery

  Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies

  Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher, Consumer Dummies

  Kristin Ferguson-Wagstaffe, Product Development Director, Consumer Dummies

  Ensley Eikenburg, Associate Publisher, Travel

  Kelly Regan, Editorial Director, Travel

  Publishing for Technology Dummies

  Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher, Dummies Technology/General User

  Composition Services

  Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

  Foreword

  Do you remember the first time you, as a child, really fell into a book? When you turned the first page, you were sitting there on the sofa or lying on the floor or trapped in the back of a car with screaming siblings . . . and then a few more pages flipped, and you were no longer aware of pages or words or hair-pulling. You found yourself someplace else: standing on a mountaintop, sneaking through an underground lair, or curled up inside a hollow tree. You were completely lost in another world. It’s an amazing sensation.

  Our early experiences reading books can be intense. Every day, children are spirited away from bedrooms and kitchens and classrooms and the seats of buses. Toddlers demand the same book night after night, until they can recite each page and shout out each rhyme before their dozy parents can. Very few people are as passionate about books as children are. Kids devour books — in some cases, literally.

  If you write to stir the emotions of readers, to move people deeply, to change people’s lives, then you should consider writing for young adults. Who else will read your book 12 times? Who else will try to steal a copy from the library? Who else will sleep on top of your book? Who else will make a diorama of your book with the main character played by a Styrofoam cup? Who else, in short, will invest themselves imaginatively in your world like a young person will?

  Young readers are still constructing their understanding of life. They do not yet know the ways of their species nor the ways of the world. As they read stories, they learn about justice and injustice, happin
ess and sadness, glory and delight and sorrow.

  They also learn the rules of story. They learn how some novels reflect their lives and some novels take place on other worlds. They learn a grammar of stories — how sometimes things move quickly and sometimes things move slowly, how characters are different from and similar to real people, how plot twists happen and what makes a joke funny. Books for young people, after all, train us all to appreciate literature for adults — as well as to make some sense of our own teeming, crazy world.

  So as you think about writing stories for young adults, remember that your audience will greet you ecstatically — but they’ll also have high expectations. They will be fervent in their reactions, positive and negative. (Few adults, on finding a book boring, will throw it under the bed, start kicking the floor, and turn purple.) It’s an amazing journey to take with a young person. I hope you enjoy it — and that you someday find young readers lost in your book, sunk in your world, whisked away from their bedrooms, their kitchens, their buses, exploring a place you made. That, after all, is one of the greatest gifts you can give them — and yourself.

  —M. T. Anderson

  National Book Award Winner, National Book Award Finalist, L.A. Times Book Prize Winner, and two-time Michael L. Printz Honor Book Author

  Introduction

  With young adult book sales rising and bestselling authors exploding onto the scene with multibook contracts and movie deals, aspiring writers of young adult (YA) fiction are more numerous than ever. But the appeal of writing YA fiction is more than creating high-profile bestsellers. It’s writing for kids. It’s expanding their vocabulary and their imaginations. It’s forming reading habits for life. And it’s adding to the impressive body of young adult literature, with its rich narrative voices, satisfying story arcs, intriguing concepts, natural and revealing dialogue, and robust characterizations. Young adult fiction isn’t just for kids anymore; it has heft for grown-ups as well.

  Your path to writing YA fiction likely began with your own passion as a young reader, so you know firsthand the joy kids find in books. Now you’re going to create that for others. You’ve chosen a fulfilling mission. The realm you’re entering — the children’s book world — is an amazing community of writers, editors, agents, librarians, teachers, supporters, and champions of young readers. And then there are the readers themselves. You’d be hard-pressed to find a more sensitive, loyal, and responsive audience.

  Young adult literature is a moving target as it transforms with each new generation of readers, but some things don’t change: Young readers always want a great read. They want books in which they can see themselves and learn about the world and their place in it, all in ways that enlighten and entertain them. Your job is to meet those expectations. That’s not as simple as it sounds, because you face challenges that writers for adult fiction don’t: You need to talk to teens, to talk like teens, and, sometimes, to talk as if you were a teen yourself. That takes special craft skills and an understanding of your unique audience — the way they think, their interests, their fears, and their dreams.

  This book helps you understand that audience so you can work your craft accordingly. I also explain how to operate in the very particular young adult fiction marketplace, because when all is said and done, you’re entering a business with risks, rewards, and rejection. I explain how to think like a kid but strategize your novel and your career like an adult. Welcome behind the scenes of young adult fiction!

  About This Book

  My goal in writing this book is to provide you with the tools you need to become a published author of young adult fiction. To that end, I serve up a full plate of writing techniques, along with insights and tips to apply in all phases of crafting your young adult novel. I want to help you get and stay inspired, understand the ins and out of the YA publishing world, avoid common mistakes in trying to reach young readers, submit your manuscript to editors and agents with confidence, and move boldly into the realm of self-promotion. Above all, I hope to guide you in developing a voice and style that appeals to young readers and that is wholly, comfortably yours.

  Writing is an abstract endeavor, and the way to make it tangible is to offer examples. So I’ve filled this book with examples. Tons of them. Exercises, too, so you can apply the skills at hand directly to your project. Working through the exercises chapter by chapter can take your fiction from idea to final manuscript. Along the way, I cover the fine points of writing craft in a comprehensive and how-to manner to help you meet readers’ needs . . . and your own. Where step-by-steps are appropriate, I’ve stepped. Where checklists provide focus, I’ve checked. Where do’s-and-don’ts drive things home, I’ve done. But know that there’s no such thing as a recipe for the Great American YA Novel. Too much depends on how each writer blends the ingredients together. But there are ingredients, and I give those to you here. The bewitching brew you concoct with them is up to you.

  Don’t feel you have to read this book from cover to cover. You can skip around if that suits you, picking out topics as your needs dictate at any given time. This book is modular, meaning that even if you start in Chapter 12, the information still makes sense. However, if you prefer to work your way from idea to final bound book, I’ve organized the information so you can start at Chapter 1 and read straight through to the end.

  Conventions Used in This Book

  I use the following conventions in this book:

  Technical writing and publishing terms appear in italics and are followed by easy-to-understand definitions.

  Web addresses appear in monotype.

  I vary pronoun gender throughout the book, although you may find more she’s than he’s. The ranks of children’s book publishing are abundant with women, as is the readership, so if I do lean, I’m sure it’s toward the feminine.

  I use the term young adult fiction as the world at large does — as a comprehensive label for two distinct publishing categories: middle grade fiction (or simply MG) for ages 9 through 14 and young adult fiction (YA, also called teen fiction) for ages 12 through 17. Within the children’s book industry, people frequently distinguish between MGs and YAs. When making the distinction in this book is necessary, I do so. But know that all the craft, submission, and marketing information work for both MG and YA fiction because the storytelling techniques are essentially the same and the same publishing players handle both categories.

  I use sidebars throughout the book to share my teaching podium with award-winning and bestselling young adult novelists. The material in these gray boxes, written by the guest authors, provides insight into how successful authors wield the skills you build in this book. At the end of each sidebar, I list some of the author’s books. The best way to find out how to write for young adults is to read exemplary YA novels — start with these.

  What You’re Not to Read

  You can skip parts of this book altogether if you want to. Information that accompanies a Technical Stuff icon offers extra insight into the process and business of YA fiction, but it’s not crucial reading. The same goes for the gray-shaded sidebar boxes that pepper the chapters. That extra material is meant to fill out your knowledge of the industry and offer you examples of how pros do what I’m explaining how to do, but you won’t sabotage your career by skipping the sidebars.

  Foolish Assumptions

  Just as you make assumptions about your young readers, I’m making some assumptions about you:

  You want to be published. This is your first stab at writing fiction, and you need to know where to start. Or you’re a published writer in another category, and you want to try your hand at YA. Or perhaps you’ve been submitting your YA manuscripts but haven’t yet landed a deal, and you want to change that. Regardless of your experience level, your goal is to see your name on the cover of a printed-and-bound YA novel.

  You’ve got a story to tell. Ever notice how many pe
ople say they have a book in them? You’re one of them — only you’re ready to act, and you have an idea already in the chamber. All you need now is the know-how to develop it.

  You want to be a better writer. Whether you’re a newbie needing the basics or a veteran writer aiming to brush up, you want techniques and tips that you can put to work immediately with tangible results — and you want those techniques broken down in a way that lets you apply them with your own personal flair.

  You want to enlighten and entertain young people between the ages of 9 and 17. Young adults are still figuring out who they are and how this world works, and their novels play a part in their explorations. You want to contribute to their journey into adulthood — or at least make them smile as they forge onward.

  If you see yourself anywhere in this list, then you’ll find the information in this book edifying and productive.

  How This Book Is Organized

  I’ve arranged this book in a logical sequence, leading off with an overview of young adult fiction’s unique marketplace and readership before jumping into the happy task of ushering you from your initial story idea through the development, submission, and promotion of your published novel. I provide exercises at every step so you can build your novel as you move through the book.

  Part I: Getting Ready to Write Young Adult Fiction

  Writers don’t just sit down at a computer and spit out the Great American YA Novel. They must plan, brainstorm, and analyze first. During your prewriting phase, you pinpoint your exact audience in the wide young adult age range, find an angle that makes your story stand out from the masses, prep your writing space so you can work efficiently and distraction-free, and discover what makes young adult literature so different from every other literary category out there — and why it’s so darn great.