 |
| Searching for the Right Word? |
Maybe it’s time to talk about my writing,
since most of my days are spent either writing or swimming (or doing admin, but
let’s give that a rest for now).
I’ve got to the stage now where Time
Tells has been sent to my critique group in its entirety. I’ve written it
over a long time, although there have been periods of several years where I
haven’t touched it all. So, it’s difficult to say how long this has taken me.
A major problem I’ve had is on deciding the
age of my protagonists. Over the years, I’ve had them anywhere between seven
years old to sixteen years old. I’ve finally settled on the age of thirteen. It’s
middle grade on the brink of young adult.
So, my challenge now is to try and nail “the
middle grade voice”. I’ve been reading quite a lot of middle grade books to get
a feel for it (which is the general advice). If you’re interested, books I’ve
read have included Serafina and the Black Cloak, Things are Not What They
Seem, The Darkest Part of the Forest, Coraline, Flour Babies, Through a Shimmer
of Time, the Secret Lake (and more).
I really wanted to dodge having to write in
the middle grade voice (it was so tempting to push Time Tells into the young
adult category). It’s not just getting the characters to speak and act in an
age-appropriate way – for middle grade it’s also the narrative.
I’ve scoured the internet for help.
Apparently, agents won’t accept a manuscript without the appropriate voice as
they think it’s not something they can get the author to correct (oh dear). They
advise simple things like short sentences, clarity of expression, no sex or bad
language, don’t be patronizing, don’t be scared to use an enlarged vocabulary (explain
or contextualise something that might be difficult). But it's more than that.
Looking at published middle grade books, to
me it seems there is more telling than in books for adults. If you haven’t come
across this before, the first lesson in fiction writing is to show and not
tell. John Doe isn’t nervous as he enters a room (telling), John Doe wipes the
sweat off his forehead and hesitates before entering (showing). That’s probably
not the greatest example, but hopefully you get the gist. But my personal
impression is that there’s quite a bit of telling, or maybe showing and telling
(John Doe wiped his forehead and hesitated; he was nervous about entering the
room) in middle grade literature.
It's hard to go back to telling, when it’s
drummed into you that fiction writing is all about showing.
I scoured pages and pages on the internet,
wondering if telling really was a characteristic of middle grade voice. Perhaps
you have to learn to pick up body language and perhaps by middle grade, you’re
not quite there yet. And so, the author needs to do a bit of telling and a bit
of showing. It seemed a reasonable assumption, but I couldn’t find anyone
saying this. Instead, I did find agents complaining that too many authors
submitting middle grade manuscripts were telling rather than showing and that
showing was of utmost importance in middle grade. I got more confused.
I did come across someone saying that if
you literally write the way middle grade readers speak, they’ll find what you
write far too childish. That made me smile as it struck me as true (despite
advice being to listen to children to learn what to write).
I have noticed characters with strong
opinions in middle grade literature and a tendency toward exaggerations or
extremes; indeed in my critique group someone noted in my draft that kids don’t
say “probably” (that’s the philosopher in me coming out, never wanting to be
too certain about anything!).
Anyway, that’s where I’m at. Battling with
myself to maybe break some rules to gain voice and also wondering just how
strong that middle grade voice has to be. My manuscript is now definitely now
closer to that elusive voice, but my instinct is telling me it’s not yet there.
No comments:
Post a Comment