Starting
your Middle Grade or Young Adult Novel
by M. Rachel Plummer
Whether you’re writing for young adults (age 13-16) or middle
grade students (age 9-12), one of the hardest parts of writing
a novel for the tween or teen crowd is deciding what to write
about. Where do ideas come from, and what do you do with them
when they strike?
The brain, like other parts of the body, functions more efficiently
the more it is used. Once you start writing on a regular basis,
you’ll discover that ideas will begin pouring in. Write them
down, or if you read something in a magazine or newspaper or online
that interests you, clip it or print it and save it in a file.
At first these blobs of ideas and printed material may seem random
and useless, but store them anyway. You’ll be amazed at how
your subconscious will work on these seemingly disparate groups
of 
thoughts
to create a cohesive whole.
For example, in my latest manuscript—a middle grade sci-fi
adventure—I created an alien bug. Normally, I would have
housed this bug on a planet far away in the cosmos—he is,
after all, an alien. But a year or so before I started writing
the book, I had read something that intrigued me in the New
York Times science section. According
to the article, a ball of iron rotates independently in the very
center of the earth; hence, it is considered a separate planet.
Because I’d clipped the article and filed it in my idea folder,
I now had a perfect and unusual place for my alien bug to reside.
And it’s entirely possible that reading about the internal
planet had subconsciously spurred the creation of the bug in the
first place!
Once planted, ideas have strong roots that are best left to grow
on their own with only minor attention from their caretaker. Never
try to impose logic on your ideas, but rather let the logic come
of its own accord. If you try to force a plot upon an idea, you
more often than not end up with a stiff, non-organic storyline,
not to mention the writing won’t be nearly as much fun as
when you allow your subconscious to take over and lead you through
the adventure.
What to write about? Anything that intrigues you is a good place
to start. Decide who your main character is and what that character
wants. Once you have that in mind, you’re ready to begin.
Any idea can be turned into a novel, whether it’s fantasy,
reality, or somewhere in between. The trick is learning to structure
a book, so that you can write consistently and well every time.
This requires practice, just as learning to play an instrument
requires practice. So take classes and read lots of books about
writing. And remember, it’s imperative that, especially in
the learning stages, you write every day.
Here are a few guidelines to help you to stay on track:
Because a novel—even a short one—is a large undertaking,
it’s a good idea to start with an outline. It doesn’t
have to be huge. Whatever you feel comfortable with will do. But
you should at least know who your main character is, what she
wants, and how she’s going to go about getting it.
Write a set amount of words each day. This is a trick that
all professional writers know, and one that’s well worth
learning early. If you set an amount of words to write instead
of an amount of time to write, you’ll discover that your
work flows much more easily. If you tell yourself you’re
going to write for an hour, you may stare at a blank screen the
whole time, or rewrite the same sentence sixteen different ways.
But if you set a quantity of words, paragraphs, or pages for yourself,
you’ll find that your brain kicks in pretty quickly, knowing
that—as soon as the two pages or two paragraphs or two sentences
are completed—your work is done for the day.
If you don’t have huge hunks of time to devote to you’re
writing, write in spurts. I worked for ten years as a writer-for-hire
for various Sweet Valley Twins series while holding a full time
job and working on my own books. The Sweet Valley Twins novels
have a strict deadline of six weeks for two drafts. And no, I
didn’t stay up until the wee hours of the morning or get
by on only a couple hours’ sleep to get the work done. I
worked on my lunch hour, and in the morning for fifteen or twenty
minutes before work. When I had fifteen minutes, or five minutes,
or two minutes of downtime, I worked on the novel.
If
you can’t find fifteen or thirty minutes a day to devote
to your writing, then perhaps you need to re-prioritize your life.
You can’t write a book without some dedication to the
process. That means that writing has to be one of your main priorities,
even if it requires missing your favorite TV show or cutting your
workout down to 30 minutes instead of an hour.
When it’s time for you to stop writing, leave a notation
at the point you left off about where the next section/sentence/chapter
is going, so you can jump right in the next day. I find it’s
best to stop at a point where you know exactly what’s going
to happen next, so you don’t have to spend a lot of time
warming up later.
Finally, enjoy the process. Be playful. If you don’t enjoy
writing the book, chances are no one’s going to enjoy reading
it. And that’s the whole point, isn’t it?
M. Rachel Plummer, a Sweet Valley Series writer since 1992, is
the author of the award-winning YA novel, The Painting in the
Attic, available at all online bookstores. Personally autographed
copies—a perfect gift for both teen readers and collectors—are
available at http://www.mrpbooks.com/order.htm.
Also, check out Rachel’s e-book, which walks you through
the structuring, writing, editing and publishing of a novel at
www.how2writeabook.com.
