Writing Tip Tuesday

Since I have my first school visit today, I've put my "writing teacher" hat back on (after a dark, lonely summer in the closet). In honor of that, I thought I'd start a new Tuesday post devoted to writing tips I've learned along the way...

Starting with basic structure and how it affects pacing.

Children's novels are a lot like scripts:

1. They are relatively short.
2. They need to reveal the story very early on.
3. They need to be tight and active.
4. They must be well-paced.

So I find studying scriptwriting, particularly with regard to structure, to be very useful.

When looking at a manuscript as a whole, you must be able to identify four key elements:

1. Setup
2. Development
3. Climax
4. Resolution

I think the most critical element in a middle grade novel is the setup.

The longer you take to start the story, the more you risk losing the reader.

The setup should reveal:

1. Whose story it is
2. Where the story takes place
3. A sense of the style or tone of the story
4. What the story is about

Number 4 (what the story is about) is, in my opinion, the most important part of the setup. In a 150-page middle grade novel, the reader shouldn't have to read 20 or 30 pages into the story to know what the heck the story is about.

According to scriptwriting formulas, there are two important parts of the setup:

1. The catalyst
2. The central question

Next Writing Tip Tuesday: Catalyst