Innehållsförteckning för January 2019 från The Writer

I look forward to our annual Writing for Young Readers issue all year, and our 2019 edition is a real doozy. This month, we take inspiration from the great Maurice Sendak, practice putting our inner child on the page, learn how to incorporate technology into stories written for the most tech-savvy generation in history, and glean wisdom from two of my very favorite YA authors, Nic Stone and Jandy Nelson. (If you haven’t yet read anything by these two ladies, please consider doing so. I can’t push their books into the hands of friends and relatives fast enough.) But something Nelson said in her interview stuck with me for months after I first read it: I think it’d be nice for YA writers to be taken more seriously. I can’t…

“Childhood is another country.”—Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince Even if you haven’t been a child for decades, if you want to write for middle grade and YA readers, you need to find a way to see the world through your child characters’ eyes, minds, and hearts. You need to remember what it’s like to be a kid, to find a passport to that other country. Children like to read about people who are their age or slightly older. If you are writing a story for 9- to 12-year-olds, your main character will probably be 12 or 13. If you are writing for teenagers, your main character will usually be 15 or older. How does an adult writer create realistic child and teenage characters? Here are six ways of thinking…

“You don’t want to talk down to kids, and you don’t want to minimize the vocabulary. The writing has to be [of] the same caliber; the only difference is the subject matter.” When Hong Kong writer Yuetting Cindy Lam decided to launch a literary magazine, she thought of her 5-year-old son and his adoration of reading. “Almost all preschoolers I’ve met love storybooks, and their parents read to them regularly,” she says. “But it’s disheartening to see a lot of kids drop off their love for fiction in their middle-school years.” Lam believes nurturing a culture of reading among family members, with parents who read for pleasure, is critical to raising lifelong readers. “I wanted to do something to ignite and sustain grownups’ and kids’ passion for fiction and help…

With her debut novel, Dear Martin, author Nic Stone brought readers the powerful story of the challenges faced by Justyce McAllister, a black Ivy League-bound teenager who’s falsely accused of stealing a car by the local police force. In an effort to process his struggles, Justyce writes a series of letters to the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dear Martin is written largely in the third person, but the letters are done using a first-person POV, a blend that works perfectly for the narrative. Her work deftly addresses important societal issues, including racism, police brutality, violence, and injustice. In Stone’s latest novel, Odd One Out, she again masterfully writes about complex issues, including gender, race, sexuality, love, and friendship. In addition to her young adult novels, Stone also writes…

“You cannot write for children. They’re much too complicated. You can only write books that are of interest to them.”—Maurice Sendak New year, new tools Refine your grammar and tighten your vocabulary with these two new guidebooks. The Joy of Syntax By June Casagrande You’ve heard of The Joy of Cooking. Now meet The Joy of Syntax, a handy little grammar guide that will give you all the ingredients you need to cook up a proper sentence. But fear not, writers, this isn’t a boring high school primer. Rather, it’s a straightforward, concise guide to everything a wannabe grammarian needs to know. Conjunctions, prepositions, the Oxford comma, flat adverbs, and “the confusing roles of the letter S” all get their due in grammar columnist June Casagrande’s new book. She also…

While interviewing Lauren Groff about her novel Fates and Furies, I was most fascinated by her drafting process. She told me that she wrote all of her drafts by hand, on large pieces of butcher paper taped to her walls, over and over again. It was an elaborate and seemingly exhausting process, one that was completely opposite to my own. When all writers sit down to write their first draft, they’re faced with the eternal question as they stare at that blank screen – do I write long and cut later, or write short and fill it all in? In a “skeleton” draft, the author can lay out the basic plot beats and begin to get a feel for how the characters move through the world before filling in trees…

“Writing is probably one-fifth coming up with the stuff, and four-fifths self-editing again and again and again.”—David Mitchell I emailed my friend Allison a story I wanted to publish. The story was about my experience volunteering in a foreign country and how I discovered something I don’t like about myself – I’m entitled. It was embarrassing to admit, but I know that to write a story worth anyone’s time, you have to tell the truth, even and especially if the truth is ugly, which means you have to be willing to get vulnerable. I thought I had done that. I thought the story was pretty good. Allison emailed the story back. The subject line said, “Call me to discuss before you read edits.” Oh no, she doesn’t want to hurt…

1. Observe young people as much as possible. How does their emotional “weather” get expressed in their posture, facial expressions, words, and actions? Unless you’re an artist as well as a writer, you’ll need to express emotions in words. The least effective way to do this is by naming the emotion. Instead, describe body language and attitude. Capture dialogue in your writing journal. Pay attention! 2. Use your history and interests to tell your stories. Don’t be afraid to show your quirky side if that will provide the emotional connection kids crave. Sendak’s fascinations came out on the pages of his picture books – his love for traditional fairy tales, his musicality, his interest in history, his love of dogs. Why shouldn’t your interests do the same? 3. Experiment with…

Many of my earliest writing credits were book reviews – not little snippets like what you find on Goodreads or Amazon, but in-depth, full-length reviews that appeared in print, blogs, magazines, newspapers, etc. Why did I spend so many hours reading, thinking through, and writing about the work of others? Four simple reasons: Reason #1: Literary karma My grandma once told me, “You gotta give to get,” and while that advice holds true in many areas of life (like farming, which she knew), it’s especially valid for writers. If you ever expect people to read and review YOUR books, then you better return the favor in advance. The universe – and the reading audience – will likely pay you back in full. Reason #2: Books are teaching tools I learned…

What’s in a fellowship? Sad but true: Money often stands in the way of a writer finishing the next best-seller. And it shouldn’t. There are many opportunities, including awards and grants, to get extra cash in order to quit your third job and devote more time to writing. Another option, a fellowship, is a bit more unique and intense. Here are some fellowship fast facts: What is it? A fellowship is a short-term opportunity to develop a work-in-progress while being provided a financial stipend and, typically, a workspace. How long? Depending on the program, fellowships can last for a few weeks, a semester, or an entire year. How much? Relative to the duration of the fellowship, a stipend can be delivered monthly or in full. While living the high life…

Within sixty seconds of our dinner guests’ arrival, I know all is lost. The moment we open the door, Jupe squeals—something I’ve never heard her do before. Then she throws her arms around the girl on the other side of it. The girl’s dad looks about as startled as I feel. After the longest rocking hug I’ve ever witnessed, they let each other go. “You got your hair trimmed!” Jupe says, reaching out to touch it. “Mmhmm. You like?” “I love it. Though it makes you even prettier. Which is annoying.” The girl snorts. “Peeked in a mirror lately?” Jupe blushes. Like full-on rosy cheeks. What the hell is even happening right now? “Hi, I’m Jupiter,” Jupe says, extending her hand to the girl’s father. “Kenneth Chin,” he says with…