Make your characters work as much as possible for their achievements, and you’ll have the reader cheering for their victories or weeping at their defeats.
Nathan Bransford
Author: Susan Uhlig
Half Moon Summer
Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
Half Moon Summer (Peachtree Publishing, 2023) by Elaine Vickers is such a great book! And I love that not only is it in two points of view, but that one is in verse–really makes it easy to keep the characters apart in my head.
Could a half-marathon help two 12-year-old kids with both of their problems?
On September 23 in Half Moon Bay, California, two babies were born. Baby Drew only quit crying when placed in baby Mia’s bassinet.
Now it’s the summer before both turn thirteen and for the first time the two are reunited and start running together to train for a half-marathon. Drew is running because of his father’s diagnosis. Mia hopes running will solve her family’s housing problem.
The author made me sympathetic toward both characters.
Elaine Vickers is an award-winning author of picture books, middle grade, and young adult novels. Read more about her here and see her other books here.
Practice makes progress (NOT PERFECT). In my own work, once I moved away from striving to make a project perfect, I became much happier with what I was creating.
Mike Boldt
Practice makes progress
Preplanning and Beginning to Write Your Novel
Preplanning your novel. Some people outline, other writers just write. I’m the latter—a pantser with a plan. So, before we go any further, an explanation of the methods:
“To Pants or To Plot: Which One Is Best for Your Story?” by Nisha Tuli. This article has lots of references to other reading as well.
If you’re an outliner, I thought this article was helpful: “Outline Tools to Structure Your Children’s Book Plot.”
As a pantser, I still need to know some things before I can start actually writing. Whether I start with a character or plot, I need to know a little bit about who and what. I also like to have thoughts on where I think the story is going.
These posts from my archives might be of use before you write your novel.
Character related:
Making Friends: Character Development
Naming Characters – from Mary’s Notebook
The Right Number of Characters
Show Your Character’s Character
Viewpoint in Children’s Fiction – point of view – which can definitely change as you revise
Plot related:
Know what you’re writing:
Writing a Novel? Where Does It Fit?
Especially for pantsers:
If you’re at the beginning stages of writing a novel, and don’t have an outline, how do you keep track of people, scenes, days of the week, etc.?
Here are some posts sharing thoughts on those topics:
Do You Have Style? aka Master Character Chart
The Story Ladder or Novel Timeline
I’d love to hear from others on how they plan and begin a novel. Feel free to share in comments.
An old racetrack joke reminds you that your program contains all the winners’ names. I stare at my typewriter keys with the same thought.
Mignon McLaughlin