Wordcraft -- Authenticity for readers young or not

So you’ve written the great American young adult novel or great middle-grade novel. But what does the agent want to see? At the recent Writers League of Texas conference in Austin, agents Amy Burkhardt of Kimberley Cameron & Associates and Victoria Marini of Gelfman Schneider Literary, author Jenny Moss, and moderator Amy Rose Capetta discussed what to look for in fiction for younger readers.

One important factor was emotional authenticity, said Moss, author of novels such as “Taking Off, a re-imagining of the Challenger space shuttle disaster. After all, she noted, “We have a commonality of human experience.”

Burkhardt agreed, adding, “Voice is important. A voice that connects. You need something that a kid can relate to -- that any reader can relate to. As an agent, voice is usually what grabs me. I work developmentally with a lot of clients, but what I can’t create is voice. You need to know the character inside and out.”

One exercise to help achieve that knowledge is to write a hundred sentences about the character. And read your work out loud, which makes it easier to pick up things that sound “off.”

Marini added another exercise -- writing “you’re not the kind of person who --” and filling in the blank. There’s also, she said “something to be said for ruminating and just thinking about it.”

What about writing for younger readers is different from writing for adults? Is there such a thing as “kidspeak”?

“For me,” Marini said, “the sincerity at the heart of the way kids speak is important. The core of the expression is what I’m looking for. People will use words that they think are the lingo and that turns me off.”

“There’s definitely a frankness to the way kids speak to each other. They don’t necessarily have conversations with back and forth. With teens, there’s more posturing.” But too much “kidspeak” and “teenspeak,” she warned, can date a manuscript.

"I don’t aim to write ‘believable’ dialogue,” Moss said. “I try to write dialogue that entertains while doing something else.”

Marini agreed. “I can sometimes read something that makes me think ‘that’s ridiculous’ -- and I love it.” Which doesn’t mean talking down to younger readers -- anathema to both agents. If anything, “write your characters a little bit smarter,” Burkhardt suggested.

And what about that vaunted rule about using a first person point of view for young readers?

It’s not necessarily inviolable. No matter what point of view you pick, Marini said, “stick with it. Middle grade is (about) figuring things out. YA is a very ‘me’ time.” The downside of that YA first person voice, Burkhardt cautioned, is “people can get trapped in the voiciness. Keep things moving. With YA, I feel like the plotting and pacing tend to be quicker. Teenagers tend to be more emotional. They are tuned up higher.”

So here were a bunch of adults talking to other adults about what children and teenagers want to read. What about the responses of younger readers themselves?

“Sometimes I’m very impressed -- not surprised but impressed,” Marini said. “I’m always shocked by how perceptive they are.”

For more information about the panelists, see www.kimberleycameron.com, www.gelfmanscheider.com and www.jenny-moss.com

(Next Wednesday: Agents tell what they want -- or don’t want -- to see in a query letter.)

Wordcraft -- YA or not? What age is your audience?

Want to know what publishing genres are hotter than a platter of fajitas at a Tex-Mex restaurant? Thanks to the likes of the Harry Potter and Twilight series -- it’s YA and MG. That’s young adult and middle grade readers, for those of us who grew up when the only distinctions were children’s reading matter and books for adults. YA readers are basically teens, and MG are younger independent readers. Not sure which is which, or where your writing falls? And whether one group will read works aimed at another? Agent Kathleen Ortiz of Nancy Coffey Literary and authors Shana Burg (author of “A Thousand Never Evers”) and Jennifer Ziegler (author of “How NOT to be Popular”), joined forces with moderator Bethany Hegedus (editor of “Hunger Mountain,” The Vermont College Journal of Arts & Letters) at the recent Writers League of Texas Conference in Austin to discuss the subject.

Bethany: Can you comment on themes with crossover potential?

Shana: I was shocked at the cult of adults who read kids’ books. It’s the adults who are interested (in crossover). The kids just want a good story.

Jennifer: I’m a huge Jane Austin fan. My favorite is “Sense and Sensibility,” because of the sister aspect. I just take the themes that appeal to me.

Bethany: A buoyant quality, like a Bridget Jones effect. This is part of what can lure adult readers.

Kathleen: I have a project that has YA and adult crossover because of the snarky humor that adults can relate to. But never tell an agent your work has crossover potential. It tells us you haven’t researched your audience. We want you to focus on one audience. When you say it’s for all children aged two to twenty, that’s a turnoff. But for foreign markets, it’s all about crossover.

So what, the audience wondered, makes a book MG versus YA versus adult?

Shana: It’s not just the age of the protagonist. You want to look at the level of fiction in the text. You don’t want to see any adult POV (point of view) at all.

Kathleen (wryly): If you remember that adults are the enemy, you’re on track for YA.

Jennifer: You want to be in a child’s head as they learn. It’s not them as adults looking back. In YA, the processing is the story.

Does that mean no flashbacks?

Shana: Flashing back is generally not done in MG.

Jennifer: You want to be in a child’s head as they learn. It’s not them looking back. In YA, the processing is the story. That’s not to say simplistic. You’re really going to be focusing on the child’s heart.

Can’t an MG or YA book be narrated by the child as a grownup? What about “To Kill a Mockingbird?”

Jennifer: The layering and complexity -- and the bookending (in which the beginning foretold the end) -- keep this from being YA.

Bethany: Opposite of that is “Catcher in the Rye,” because of the moment by moment telling.

Kathleen: “The Golden Compass” originated as MG but now is in the adult section because of the length and depth, although the main character is eleven.

And as Bethany noted: It was Phillip Pullman. With an established author, you can break more rules.

(For more on Jennifer and Shana’s writing, see their websites -- www.jenniferziegler.net/ and www.shanaburg.com/ )



(Next Wednesday: What an agent or an audience looks for in a MG or YA manuscript)