How Well Do You Know Your Character?

It took me several weeks and countless drafts to figure out who my main character is for a new story. When really, I could have made this a lot easier on myself. I realized I’m the type of girl who doesn’t plan, but writes as the ideas pop into my head and see where it takes me. Sometimes this works. It did for my book, Gossip. But not so much this time around.

The voice is harder to nail and even when my crit friend asked me a question about this character, I couldn’t answer. Because I didn’t know. And that’s when I realized what my problem was. I didn’t know my character. How can I expect her to face and solve problems if I didn’t even know how she was or supposed to react?

Then I remember the advice from my critique group. It is so important to have a crit group, people! Interview your character. Write out questions for your character and and interview her. Find out everything you need to know about her. And more. Get inside her head. Find out her insecurites, her fears, her dreams. Learn the simple things about her, such as her laugh, what she wants to be when she grows up, what qualities she looks for in a best friend. What does she look like? Make your MC real to you. And then, when you write about her, she’ll be just as real to your readers.

And your story will flow. You can anticipate how she will handle each situation. She’ll write the story for you. And at the end, it will be like saying goodbye to an old friend. Isn’t that so much better than struggling the whole through and trying to figure out your character page by page? For me, I’m glad I’m figuring this out now. For some of you, you probably already have or you do exercises to get this down. Or maybe some of you play it by ear and it just comes to you like it did with me and my first book.

But if you struggle at all with voice and wonder why, then maybe this could help. When you nail the voice of your character, you know it, because something just “clicks.” And to have the voice, you have to have a strong character.
How do you develop your MC?

Writers Help Write Now and Win a Query or Partial Critique from US!!

Win one of five critiques from one of our
middle-grade authors on Team Mayhem!

Hello Everyone! 

HELP WRITE NOW is a Writing Community Auction to benefit southern storm relief. Project Mayhem has donated 5 query or partial critiques up for bid now! The top 5 bidders will win! You'll be helping storm victims and getting something for yourself as well! Bidding ends tomorrow, so please bid NOW and help the cause by sharing this post!!! 

http://helpwritenow.blogspot.com/2011/05/day-9-item-13-five-middle-grade-query.html

THANK YOU -- TEAM MAYHEM

This caller has a question

"Mom? Is this your phone or mine?"

I am currently reading an upper MG/lower YA adventure about a boy who's got to make his way across country on his lonesome due to a series of misadventures. He has a cell phone, and the (improbable) means by which the author manages to prevent his grandfather and parents from taking his calls is little short of hilarious. Then his phone's battery dies, and he doesn't have a charger.

Cell phones have complicated the way modern writers tell a story. Horror writers have it even worse. Who cares if Leatherface is chasing you through the woods when you can dial 911 in a jiff? Oh, darn. No service bars! Let terror commence.

As this handy means of communication becomes more affordable and available, I am seeing it more and more in the hands of the youngest generation.

MG writers, I'm wondering how young is TOO YOUNG to have a phone of your own? My 12-year-old cousin has one (and is fairly responsible with it). Is she the exception or the norm? Phone in, parents and adult busybodies!

—posted by Timothy Power

Hey, Potty Mouth, Think of the Wee Children!

So, I have no problem with people being themselves and swearing like sailors on their blogs. In fact, on a lot of occasions I think it's funny and even warranted. Recently I came across the blog of an aspiring middle-grade writer and his posts were let's just say full of four-letter words and racy comments.

My concern, if you're a regular blogger who writes for kids, is the swearing and/or suggestive post/remarks okay? I think if you're a YA writer (depending on what type of YA audience you're going for) it might be completely expectable. For example, if you're writing really edgy YA, it may be okay, even good, to have an edgy blog. But if you're strictly writing for middle-graders should you keep it free of the F-bomb, etc?

I've always kept my blog clean. Sure, I get mad. I've even been known to shout out a foul word here and there. My husband doesn't say I have the mouth of a truck driver for nothing, but on my blog I keep it clean. Kids and parents may visit it. In fact I know they visit it. As a parent, if I were considering a book for my middle-grader and I popped on the writers blog, there's a very good chance I'd not get the book if I saw something like...well...!#$%^&*(#$@!! all over the blog.

Oh, and don't forget, kids' agents and editors check out blogs all the time. Would this turn them off too?

What's your take? 

Happy Friday! Hilary

An Agent in Six Months! (or Eleven Years, but Who’s Counting?)

I’ve been writing for almost thirteen years but never consistently looked for an agent until 2009. Because an agent isn’t a necessity in the children's market, I figured submitting to an agent was an extra, unnecessary step. Instead, I sent queries and manuscripts directly to editors willing to take unsolicited submissions, always hoping the next editor would be The One.

In spring 2009, I won a contest at a local writing conference. At the last minute, I’d decided to send in my middle-grade historical novel-in-verse. It was my best work, but I wasn’t sure how it would be received alongside pieces meant for the adult market. My prize included a one-on-one with an editor who specialized in fantasy, sci-fi, and women’s fiction, a world apart from what I’d created. She took one look at my manuscript and asked, “Why don’t you have an agent yet?”

That’s when I started subbing in earnest, sending three to five queries at a time. I combed through blogs like Cynsations, Literary Rambles, and the Guide to Literary Agents, looking for any mention of agents taking on new clients. By May, I'd gotten my first full request. In June I got two more. In July another two. In September, yet another two.

By October, I’d had ten agents request fulls and two ask for partials. One agent liked my story, but felt some significant changes were necessary. I thought through her suggestions but took things in another direction, coming up with an entirely new, stronger ending. In the days I spent revising, two more agents requested fulls, bringing my total to twelve. I contacted the first agent, telling her I’d made changes to the story, though not long the lines she’d suggested. If she was still interested, I told her, I’d be happy to send it along, but I also wanted her to know two more agents were reading the newer version. She graciously told me she’d love to see the story if the other two agents passed. One did. One didn’t.

I found Michelle Humphrey on the Guide to Literary Agents blog and fell in love with her upbeat attitude about the publishing process (“Make rejection pie!” she said). She responded to my query the next day. A week and a half later, she emailed me, saying she’d read my manuscript in one sitting and wanted to talk to me about it as soon as possible. Less than two weeks after reading GLA’s post on Michelle, I had an agent. 

Not long after, I spent a morning reading through the submission records I’d kept over the years. Some information I’d had to fish out of other folders, but for the most part, I'd kept a pretty accurate (though low-tech and messy) list of manuscripts, submissions, editors, agents, and rejections.

Here's what the records showed:

11 years of writing (10 years of subbing)

11 manuscripts

211 rejections from editors (2 fulls and 1 partial requested)

12 contests/grants entered (1 win)

75 rejections from agents (12 fulls and 2 partials requested)

1 yes! (Thank you, Michelle)