Contributed by Karen Cioffi, Children's Ghostwriter, Editor, and Coach
In a webinar I attended, Literary agent Andrea Somberg discussed the basics of writing middle grade (MG).
The agent first made it clear that while MG was popular over the last decade, it’s now slowing down. Publishers are much more picky about these manuscripts now. It seems that graphic MG is picking up. In fact, it’s becoming one of the fastest-growing genres in the industry.
The reason is probably the same as when kids would read comic books years ago. With fewer words because of the heavy illustrations, it’s an easy read for the reluctant reader.
MG Age Range
Interestingly, I recently had a conversation with a client about the range for the middle grade genre.
He wanted an MG with the protagonist starting at thirteen. And he wanted the protagonist to grow into manhood.
I had to explain that the age range for MG is 9 to12. It could go as high as thirteen for upper MG, but definitely not high school ages.
We ended up turning the time frame from 13 to18, making it a young adult.
Okay, back to the MG.
While the age range is 9 to12, there is also a younger MG for the 8-10 reader. And there’s the upper MG for the 12- to 13-year-old reader.
The Protagonist’s Age
It’s important to keep in mind that young readers read up. So, having an 8-year-old protagonist won’t work because an 8-year-old reader will want to read about a 10-year-old protagonist, or at least a 9-year-old.
Along with this, the 14-year-old reader is too old. A 14-year-old will want to read about a 15 or 16-year-old, and that’s beyond the scope of the middle grade.
A key point for the protagonist is that they must have strong feelings about their surroundings.
It’s a good idea for them to be opinionated at the beginning of the book, then grow and change their views based on their experience in the book.
While they should be opinionated, they shouldn’t be introspective. That’s more of a young adult thing.
Structure and Prose
• As with all fiction writing, it’s about keeping the story moving forward using character actions and interactions. You should also include the world around them.
• Descriptive paragraphs and long sentences should be avoided, as well as adjectives and adverbs.
• Write active sentences rather than passive ones, and avoid big words. Don’t make the reader scan over a passage because he doesn’t know what a word is.
• It’s also a good idea to have the chapters end in some type of cliffhanger; it doesn’t have to be a life-or-death scenario. You want the reader to be motivated enough to turn to the next chapter to find out what happens.
• And don’t have ambiguous endings.
I have another client writing a series who wants to end each book with a full-out cliffhanger. Before I attended this webinar, I knew this wasn’t a good idea. Kids like things neatly tied up. They want a satisfying ending. Each book in an MG series should ends the story satisfyingly and tie up all loose ends.
I explained to the client that the story’s merit and the reader’s involvement with the characters will make him want to read another story about those characters.
The Story’s Voice
Unless you’re privy to ‘real’ conversations of the age group of the protagonist, it will be challenging to pull the voice off.
A way to overcome this is to read a lot of traditionally published MG. You can also watch YouTube videos for the age group. If you can interact with the desired reader age group, do so. It will give your book authenticity. Being aware of the modulation and inflection is also a good idea.
Along with how MG kids talk, you’ll need to capture their unique pressures of today. I’m sure a 12-year-old today can’t imagine life without a cell phone or tablet. I know this is true because my older grandsons are 12 and 14. It’s a different world than it was even 10 years ago. Your characters’ pressures, daily life, and lifestyles should reflect this.
Another tip: avoid trending words. You want your story to be timeless. Editors want contemporary books unless you’re writing historical fiction, fantasy, or sci-fi.
The Storyline
Publishers are looking for bestsellers.
Your book should be unique, even if it’s a story that’s been told before. It needs to be intriguing. And it needs a clear sense of the stakes.
For this age group, it doesn’t have to be life or death, but it could be a move, the loss of a friend, or circumstances that would evoke strong feelings in a child/tween.
That’s it for the story writing part. The next post will deal with querying agents (and publishers).
You can check out Andrea Somberg’s website here: https://andreasomberg.com/aslitagent/
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Karen Cioffi is a children’s author, ghostwriter, editor, and self-publishing consultant. If you’d like to learn more about writing for children or need help with your story, visit Writing for Children with Karen Cioffi.
You can check out Karen’s books HERE.
And you can connect with Karen on SOCIAL MEDIA.
7 comments:
Whew! Really complete! And as one of the Uninitiated, I must say lots to learn for a very narrow audience. Other than school fairs, how would an author who doesn’t already have a following with this age group market their book. Are there specific ideas they might try. I can see that one of the advantages is accumulating a young fan club who would follow a character and friends through to coming of age but is that accurate. What I am missing?
Carolyn, there are some marketing strategies a middle grade author can use:
-Offer in-person and virtual school visits.
-The younger end of the MG audience usually don't buy their own books so target parents, teachers, and librarians.
-Attend regional library conferences and donate copies of the book, possibly hand out bookmarks.
The thing is that middle-grade readers quickly outgrow the age bracket. The author has maybe three years before the reader is onto YA, sometimes only 2 years. But on the flip side, new 8-year-olds enter the market every year.
Your number three answer seems to be the least used. Yep, get them started. Rope in those readers as young as possible. Do you recommend carrying a series over from Middle to Young Adult. (Pardon if you mentioned that precisely and I didn’t mark it mentally.
Good question, Carolyn. You actually can. You would need to age up the characters, make the story line more complex, increase the stakes, and up the word count and vocabulary. Also, you can take on a more adult themes. I personally would stay away from graphic content, as the younger age of the YA group would be around 13, possibly even 12.
Seems good information for parents to have when determining what books to buy for their kids.
What an excellent article! And it offers terrific tips. Thank you for writing this! I look forward to sharing the link to this article in my newsletter.
Dawn, thank for stopping by! And so glad to hear you found these suggestions helpful!
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