Now let's turn to that all important first chapter and believability.
The first chapter
The most crucial part of a new book for a middle grader is the first chapter. If you don't grab their attention in the first couple paragraphs, you haven't done your job right.
Now, you might say that every first chapter of every book is critical. I agree.
But when you're writing a mystery for a person aged 8-12, you need to knock their socks off on the first page. And it should be as short as possible to convey what you want them to know right off the bat. With fiction aimed at older kids or adults, you can afford to ramble about a bit more and have a longer chapter.
When I write mysteries for kids I have to take them by the shirt and shake them a little bit. This is how the first two paragraphs of Bitter Tastes starts:
I can tell you exactly when I became afraid. I'm not talking about the story-by-the-campfire-willies. I mean hair-standing-up-on-the-neck scared. My stomach churned when Martha Cunningham dragged me into this nasty doublewide trailer. And then I saw it.
The murder weapon.
One of the things I wanted to make sure happened was that kids knew instantly where my characters were and what they were looking at. I wanted my audience to be looking through the eyes of my hero, Kathy Harmon.
I'm also a huge fan of one sentence paragraphs. See that second line? It's a paragraph all by itself. It's a great technique to use when you want to bring the tension up a little bit by breaking up the flow.
They've got to believe
I visit a lot of schools and talk to a lot of kids and I usually ask why they think the Harry Potter series works well. Most of them talk about the story and some of them talk about the characters.
But it doesn't have anything to do with that.
The reason the Harry Potter series works is because it sets in a place kids are familiar with and believe in: school. It doesn't matter if you're taking a class in potions and spells or current events. A school is a school.
It's all about believability.
If you're writing a story that is science fiction or fantasy, you can make up any kind of world you want as long as some of the elements are things kids can relate to. School is one, dealing with parents is another, even having to work out troubles with friends.
Point of view
As adults we can make the distinction between characters who are speaking dialogue and when we get into a character's head. Jumping into someone's head is called point of view.
When you write for kids, it's important to stick to one point of view at a time.
The best way to deal with this is to be in the hero's head only. I usually try to have the hero appear in nearly every chapter but sometimes is isn't possible. SO how do you deal with this "one POV pony?"
When you catch yourself writing that a character thought something or wondered something ? and that character isn't your hero ? you need to convey those thoughts differently, like in dialogue.
Here's a quick example: my hero, Kathy, has a best friend named Martha. If I wanted to write a line in Martha's head, I'd write ?
I knew she shouldn't do that, Martha thought.
The way to correct this to stay only in Kathy's POV could be done like this ?
"You shouldn't do that, Kathy," Martha said.
Conclusion
Writing for middle graders is challenging but once you master some simple techniques, you'll find it to be some of the most rewarding writing you'll ever do. Keep a notebook of ideas, read lots of kids' fiction and start small with a short story.
If that story seems to have more life to it, consider turning it into a novel!
Do I use an outline? Where do I get my ideas? And how do I get started?
Let's look at each of those in this article.
Use an outline?
Many writers insist that the best tool they have for planning their novels is an outline. Others will tell you just the opposite. I sit somewhere in the middle.
I usually know how I'm going to start and I almost always know where I'm going to end ? even if I don't know the exact way the story will finish up. Those things are critical for me. It's the middle I play fast and loose with.
Some writers and very visual creatures. I know those who utilize a technique from the film and TV industry called storyboarding.
True storyboarding is when pictures or graphics are used to lay out the ideas for scenes in a film or TV show. Storyboarding as a novelist can take the form of outlining each and every scene ? sometimes these are chapters, other times they're just a situation ? using words.
I love taking a large piece of newsprint and dividing it up into the chapters I want to see in my book. Remember in elementary school ? now this is really dating me as a child from the '60s! ? when you'd take a small piece of newsprint and fold it into 16 squares to do math problems? Well, I use that method to storyboard my chapters and even break down those chapters into scenes.
There are tons of great computer visual aids for mapping out plot strategies. Mindjet has a great program and you can try it out for free.
Where to start ? getting ideas
Ideas for stories can come from all phases of life. One of my favorite hobbies is to people watch. I'll go to a park, a mall, or an airport just to watch what people do. I look at how they're dressed, listen to how they speak, watch for habits.
It's all fuel for your creative juices.
Here's a great example: Matt and I were on vacation in Western Virginia a number of years ago and had to use a local laundromat (another GREAT place to people watch!). There was a very interesting character there ? he placed a button down oxford shirt on backward, buttoned it up as well as he could, and proceeded to fold his laundry.
Now, I have no earthly idea why he did that but I can promise you I'll create a character who'll do that in one of my short stories or novels. It's too good not to use.
When working on Mudder, my current juvenile novel and the second installment in the Kathy and Martha Mystery Series, I came up with the idea from two separate events. At the time I'd begun to think about a sequel to Bitter Tastes, we'd just adopted an eight-week-old golden retriever puppy and I was enjoying playing with her.
The next piece of this puzzle came from watching an episode of Emergency Vets on Animal Planet about deaf puppies. Particularly, this episode was about how adoptable deaf dogs are and the best ways to live with them.
I put those two things together and came up with a deaf golden retriever in my story. There you go. That's the beginning.
What's the end? I'll tell you what I tell kids everywhere: you'll have to read the story to find out...
Next time we'll look at your first chapter and how important believability is.
Victoria Rosendahl has sinced written about articles on various topics from Writing, Gardening and Cover Letter. Victoria Rosendahl has published one adult mystery and has begun the Kathy & Martha Mystery Series with the first installment, Bitter Tastes. Check out for. Victoria Rosendahl's top article generates over 5400 views. to your Favourites.