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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Bildung
- Sprache: Englisch
Your hands-on, friendly guide to writing young adult fiction With young adult book sales rising, and bestselling authors like J.K. Rowling and Stephenie Meyer exploding onto the scene, aspiring YA writers are more numerous than ever. Are you interested in writing a young adult novel, but aren't sure how to fit the style that appeals to young readers? Writing Young Adult Fiction For Dummies gives you tricks of the trade and proven tips on all the steps to write a YA book, from developing an idea to publication. * Unique writing exercises to help you find your own authentic teen voice * Tips to avoid when submitting manuscripts * How to break into the flourishing young adult market With the help of this step-by-step guide, you'll have all the skills to write an inspiring and marketable young adult novel.
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Seitenzahl: 721
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011
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Writing Young Adult Fiction For Dummies®
Visit www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/writingyoungadultfiction to view this book's cheat sheet.
Table of Contents
Writing Young Adult Fiction For Dummies®
by Deborah Halverson
Award-winning author and editor
Foreword by M. T. Anderson
National Book Award Winner
Writing Young Adult Fiction For Dummies®
Published byWiley Publishing, Inc.111 River St.Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2011 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400, fax 978-646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
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Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The contents of this work are intended to further general scientific research, understanding, and discussion only and are not intended and should not be relied upon as recommending or promoting a specific method, diagnosis, or treatment by physicians for any particular patient. The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation any implied warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. In view of ongoing research, equipment modifications, changes in governmental regulations, and the constant flow of information relating to the use of medicines, equipment, and devices, the reader is urged to review and evaluate the information provided in the package insert or instructions for each medicine, equipment, or device for, among other things, any changes in the instructions or indication of usage and for added warnings and precautions. Readers should consult with a specialist where appropriate. The fact that an organization or Website is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Website may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read. No warranty may be created or extended by any promotional statements for this work. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for any damages arising herefrom.
For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002.
For technical support, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport.
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2011930126
ISBN: 978-0-470-94954-2 (cloth); ISBN: 978-1-118-09289-7 (ebk); ISBN: 978-1-118-09290-3 (ebk); ISBN: 978-1-118-09291-0 (ebk)
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
About the Author
Deborah Halverson edited books with Harcourt Children’s Books for ten years — until she climbed over the desk and tried out the chair on the other side. Now she is the award-winning author of teen novels including Honk If You Hate Me and Big Mouth. Armed with a master’s in American Literature and a fascination with pop culture, Deborah sculpts stories from extreme places and events — tattoo parlors, fast-food joints, and, most extreme of all, high schools.
Deborah is also the founder of the popular writers’ advice website DearEditor.com, a frequent speaker at writers’ conferences nationwide, and a writing teacher for groups and institutions including the Extension Program of the University of California, San Diego. She freelance edits fiction and nonfiction for both published authors and writers seeking their first book deals. By conducting word-by-word line editing or more general substantive editing, Deborah helps authors hone their storytelling voices, synchronize age-appropriate language and subjects, and develop stories that appeal simultaneously to young readers and to adults such as parents, teachers, and librarians.
Deborah lives in San Diego, California, with her husband and triplet sons. For more about Deborah, visit her author website at www.deborahhalverson.com and her writers’ advice website at www.deareditor.com.
Dedication
For Robin Cruise, who gave me not one but three big breaks . . . and more importantly, her friendship
Author’s Acknowledgments
On my first day as an editorial assistant with Harcourt Children’s Books, the managing editor walked me down the hall to view an art show of newly arrived paintings for a picture book then in production. I stood among a bustling crowd of editors, designers, production people, marketing gurus, and inventory, financial, legal, and support staff — all of whom had dedicated their careers and personal passions to creating entertaining and enlightening books for children — and it hit me: I’d found my people. I discovered that day what I’ve come to love about the writers and producers of children’s books: They are a true community that cheers, collaborates, and works its knuckles to the bones in support of literature for young readers. The enthusiastic participation of the writers, agents, and editors who have contributed their expertise to the information you hold in your hand reflects that.
I extend immense thanks to the inspiring writers and teachers who’ve lent their voices to this book: M. T. Anderson, Kathi Appelt, Karen Cushman, Jennifer Donnelly, Jean Ferris, Cynthia Leitich Smith, Darcy Pattison, Mary E. Pearson, Gary Soto, Deborah Wiles, and Jane Yolen. Add to their voices those of my trusted children’s book agent Erin Murphy and my friend Senior Editor Kate Harrison.
Then there are those whose words are not directly quoted in this book but whose insight and expertise fill its pages: former publisher and all-around publishing visionary Rubin Pfeffer, editorial veteran Diane D’Andrade, vice president and editorial director Jeannette Larson, author Bruce Hale, author and copyright/free speech attorney Randal Morrison, publishing attorney Lisa Lucas of Lucas LLP, and publicists Barbara Fisch and Sarah Shealy of Blue Slip Media and Antoinette Kuritz of Strategies Literary Public Relations.
And just as no story would be complete without its grand finale, I extend my deepest appreciation to my agents for this book, Matt Wagner and Anna Johnson, whose idea it was to turn me into a dummy; to my editorial team: acquisitions editor Tracy Boggier, technical editor Barbara Shoup, copy editor Danielle Voirol, and especially project editor Vicki Adang, whose humor pervades this book as much as my own; to my husband, Michael, who champions me with absolute abandon, and my three sons, who inspire me to embrace every day as a new adventure; and last but far from least, to my mentor and friend Robin Cruise, the managing editor who ushered me into that art show on my very first day in publishing.
Publisher’s Acknowledgments
We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form located at http://dummies.custhelp.com. For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002.
Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:
Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development
Project Editor: Victoria M. Adang
Acquisitions Editor: Tracy Boggier
Senior Copy Editor: Danielle Voirol
Assistant Editor: David Lutton
Editorial Program Coordinator: Joe Niesen
Technical Editor: Barbara Shoup
Editorial Manager: Michelle Hacker
Editorial Assistants: Rachelle S. Amick
Cover Photos: © iStockphoto.com/DNY59
Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com)
Composition Services
Project Coordinator: Katherine Crocker
Layout and Graphics: Corrie Socolovitch
Proofreader: Nancy L. Reinhardt
Indexer: Valerie Haynes Perry
Special Help: Jennette ElNaggar, Todd Lothery
Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies
Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher, Consumer Dummies
Kristin Ferguson-Wagstaffe, Product Development Director, Consumer Dummies
Ensley Eikenburg, Associate Publisher, Travel
Kelly Regan, Editorial Director, Travel
Publishing for Technology Dummies
Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher, Dummies Technology/General User
Composition Services
Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services
Foreword
Do you remember the first time you, as a child, really fell into a book? When you turned the first page, you were sitting there on the sofa or lying on the floor or trapped in the back of a car with screaming siblings . . . and then a few more pages flipped, and you were no longer aware of pages or words or hair-pulling. You found yourself someplace else: standing on a mountaintop, sneaking through an underground lair, or curled up inside a hollow tree. You were completely lost in another world. It’s an amazing sensation.
Our early experiences reading books can be intense. Every day, children are spirited away from bedrooms and kitchens and classrooms and the seats of buses. Toddlers demand the same book night after night, until they can recite each page and shout out each rhyme before their dozy parents can. Very few people are as passionate about books as children are. Kids devour books — in some cases, literally.
If you write to stir the emotions of readers, to move people deeply, to change people’s lives, then you should consider writing for young adults. Who else will read your book 12 times? Who else will try to steal a copy from the library? Who else will sleep on top of your book? Who else will make a diorama of your book with the main character played by a Styrofoam cup? Who else, in short, will invest themselves imaginatively in your world like a young person will?
Young readers are still constructing their understanding of life. They do not yet know the ways of their species nor the ways of the world. As they read stories, they learn about justice and injustice, happiness and sadness, glory and delight and sorrow.
They also learn the rules of story. They learn how some novels reflect their lives and some novels take place on other worlds. They learn a grammar of stories — how sometimes things move quickly and sometimes things move slowly, how characters are different from and similar to real people, how plot twists happen and what makes a joke funny. Books for young people, after all, train us all to appreciate literature for adults — as well as to make some sense of our own teeming, crazy world.
So as you think about writing stories for young adults, remember that your audience will greet you ecstatically — but they’ll also have high expectations. They will be fervent in their reactions, positive and negative. (Few adults, on finding a book boring, will throw it under the bed, start kicking the floor, and turn purple.) It’s an amazing journey to take with a young person. I hope you enjoy it — and that you someday find young readers lost in your book, sunk in your world, whisked away from their bedrooms, their kitchens, their buses, exploring a place you made. That, after all, is one of the greatest gifts you can give them — and yourself.
—M. T. Anderson
National Book Award Winner, National Book Award Finalist, L.A. Times Book Prize Winner, and two-time Michael L. Printz Honor Book Author
Introduction
With young adult book sales rising and bestselling authors exploding onto the scene with multibook contracts and movie deals, aspiring writers of young adult (YA) fiction are more numerous than ever. But the appeal of writing YA fiction is more than creating high-profile bestsellers. It’s writing for kids. It’s expanding their vocabulary and their imaginations. It’s forming reading habits for life. And it’s adding to the impressive body of young adult literature, with its rich narrative voices, satisfying story arcs, intriguing concepts, natural and revealing dialogue, and robust characterizations. Young adult fiction isn’t just for kids anymore; it has heft for grown-ups as well.
Your path to writing YA fiction likely began with your own passion as a young reader, so you know firsthand the joy kids find in books. Now you’re going to create that for others. You’ve chosen a fulfilling mission. The realm you’re entering — the children’s book world — is an amazing community of writers, editors, agents, librarians, teachers, supporters, and champions of young readers. And then there are the readers themselves. You’d be hard-pressed to find a more sensitive, loyal, and responsive audience.
Young adult literature is a moving target as it transforms with each new generation of readers, but some things don’t change: Young readers always want a great read. They want books in which they can see themselves and learn about the world and their place in it, all in ways that enlighten and entertain them. Your job is to meet those expectations. That’s not as simple as it sounds, because you face challenges that writers for adult fiction don’t: You need to talk to teens, to talk like teens, and, sometimes, to talk as if you were a teen yourself. That takes special craft skills and an understanding of your unique audience — the way they think, their interests, their fears, and their dreams.
This book helps you understand that audience so you can work your craft accordingly. I also explain how to operate in the very particular young adult fiction marketplace, because when all is said and done, you’re entering a business with risks, rewards, and rejection. I explain how to think like a kid but strategize your novel and your career like an adult. Welcome behind the scenes of young adult fiction!
About This Book
My goal in writing this book is to provide you with the tools you need to become a published author of young adult fiction. To that end, I serve up a full plate of writing techniques, along with insights and tips to apply in all phases of crafting your young adult novel. I want to help you get and stay inspired, understand the ins and out of the YA publishing world, avoid common mistakes in trying to reach young readers, submit your manuscript to editors and agents with confidence, and move boldly into the realm of self-promotion. Above all, I hope to guide you in developing a voice and style that appeals to young readers and that is wholly, comfortably yours.
Writing is an abstract endeavor, and the way to make it tangible is to offer examples. So I’ve filled this book with examples. Tons of them. Exercises, too, so you can apply the skills at hand directly to your project. Working through the exercises chapter by chapter can take your fiction from idea to final manuscript. Along the way, I cover the fine points of writing craft in a comprehensive and how-to manner to help you meet readers’ needs . . . and your own. Where step-by-steps are appropriate, I’ve stepped. Where checklists provide focus, I’ve checked. Where do’s-and-don’ts drive things home, I’ve done. But know that there’s no such thing as a recipe for the Great American YA Novel. Too much depends on how each writer blends the ingredients together. But there are ingredients, and I give those to you here. The bewitching brew you concoct with them is up to you.
Don’t feel you have to read this book from cover to cover. You can skip around if that suits you, picking out topics as your needs dictate at any given time. This book is modular, meaning that even if you start in Chapter 12, the information still makes sense. However, if you prefer to work your way from idea to final bound book, I’ve organized the information so you can start at Chapter 1 and read straight through to the end.
Conventions Used in This Book
I use the following conventions in this book:
Technical writing and publishing terms appear in italics and are followed by easy-to-understand definitions.
Web addresses appear in monotype.
I vary pronoun gender throughout the book, although you may find more she’s than he’s. The ranks of children’s book publishing are abundant with women, as is the readership, so if I do lean, I’m sure it’s toward the feminine.
I use the term young adult fiction as the world at large does — as a comprehensive label for two distinct publishing categories: middle grade fiction (or simply MG) for ages 9 through 14 and young adult fiction (YA, also called teen fiction) for ages 12 through 17. Within the children’s book industry, people frequently distinguish between MGs and YAs. When making the distinction in this book is necessary, I do so. But know that all the craft, submission, and marketing information work for both MG and YA fiction because the storytelling techniques are essentially the same and the same publishing players handle both categories.
I use sidebars throughout the book to share my teaching podium with award-winning and bestselling young adult novelists. The material in these gray boxes, written by the guest authors, provides insight into how successful authors wield the skills you build in this book. At the end of each sidebar, I list some of the author’s books. The best way to find out how to write for young adults is to read exemplary YA novels — start with these.
What You’re Not to Read
You can skip parts of this book altogether if you want to. Information that accompanies a Technical Stuff icon offers extra insight into the process and business of YA fiction, but it’s not crucial reading. The same goes for the gray-shaded sidebar boxes that pepper the chapters. That extra material is meant to fill out your knowledge of the industry and offer you examples of how pros do what I’m explaining how to do, but you won’t sabotage your career by skipping the sidebars.
Foolish Assumptions
Just as you make assumptions about your young readers, I’m making some assumptions about you:
You want to be published. This is your first stab at writing fiction, and you need to know where to start. Or you’re a published writer in another category, and you want to try your hand at YA. Or perhaps you’ve been submitting your YA manuscripts but haven’t yet landed a deal, and you want to change that. Regardless of your experience level, your goal is to see your name on the cover of a printed-and-bound YA novel.
You’ve got a story to tell. Ever notice how many people say they have a book in them? You’re one of them — only you’re ready to act, and you have an idea already in the chamber. All you need now is the know-how to develop it.
You want to be a better writer. Whether you’re a newbie needing the basics or a veteran writer aiming to brush up, you wanttechniques and tips that you can put to work immediately with tangible results — and you want those techniques broken down in a way that lets you apply them with your own personal flair.
You want to enlighten and entertain young people between the ages of 9 and 17. Young adults are still figuring out who they are and how this world works, and their novels play a part in their explorations. You want to contribute to their journey into adulthood — or at least make them smile as they forge onward.
If you see yourself anywhere in this list, then you’ll find the information in this book edifying and productive.
How This Book Is Organized
I’ve arranged this book in a logical sequence, leading off with an overview of young adult fiction’s unique marketplace and readership before jumping into the happy task of ushering you from your initial story idea through the development, submission, and promotion of your published novel. I provide exercises at every step so you can build your novel as you move through the book.
Part I: Getting Ready to Write Young Adult Fiction
Writers don’t just sit down at a computer and spit out the Great American YA Novel. They must plan, brainstorm, and analyze first. During your prewriting phase, you pinpoint your exact audience in the wide young adult age range, find an angle that makes your story stand out from the masses, prep your writing space so you can work efficiently and distraction-free, and discover what makes young adult literature so different from every other literary category out there — and why it’s so darn great.
Part II: Writing Riveting Young Adult Fiction
This part of the book helps you turn your ideas into a solid first draft by taking you step-by-step through the novel-development process. You shape your plot, sculpt believable characters, develop a convincingly youthful narrative voice and natural dialogue, and manipulate the setting to enhance all those elements. Along the way, you find techniques for connecting with an audience whose sophistication and maturity is in flux.
Part III: Editing, Revising, and Formatting Your Manuscript
Revising is writer’s jargon for the act of rewriting parts of your story — adding things to it, rearranging parts of it, and removing things altogether — all with the intent of transforming your solid-but-not-yet-perfected first draft into a seamless, flowing final draft. This part tells you how to effectively tackle the items on your revision list and experiment with fixes in a constructive, confident, and safe way. Find out how to assess what you’ve done, identify what needs fixing, make a plan for fixing it, and then successfully execute that plan. I break the process down into methods and the most common boo-boos in grammar, execution, and overall storytelling. After that, you get to polish the manuscript and make it pretty.
Part IV: Getting Published
This part is all about sharing your final manuscript with the world. I tell you how to find the right agent and/or editor for you, how to craft a professional and enticing submission package, and how to promote your novel after it’s published. I also demystify self-publishing so you can decide whether it suits your needs and situation better than traditional publishing.
Part V: The Part of Tens
Everyone loves lists, and the For Dummies people are no exception. In keeping with their tradition, I include a Part of Tens with lists that warn you about the most common pitfalls in writing young adult fiction, answer the most common publishing contract questions, and prep you for writers’ conferences so you can get as much out of the experience as possible.
Icons Used in This Book
These five icons are sprinkled throughout this book to highlight information that deserves special attention.
This icon flags great strategies for employing the technique at hand or enhancing a particular aspect of your writing or story. Tips may save you time or help you come at something from an angle you hadn’t considered. Try them out.
This icon means you’re getting a heads-up about something you should keep in mind as you read onward.
Red alert! Every activity has its trouble spots, and writing and publishing for young adults is no different. Spare yourself confusion, dead ends, and wasted effort by heeding these words of warning.
This is extra in-depth stuff that you don’t have to read in order to write and publish successfully . . . but it’s cool to know if you feel inclined to linger.
Look for this icon when the writing bug bites or when writer’s block descends. The text next to this icon gives you some direction for putting my tips and tricks into practice.
Where to Go from Here
I’ve done my best to organize this book so you can give it a thorough read if you’re new to YA fiction and to writing in general. Or you can dip in and skim if you’re just trying to brush up. The choice is up to you now.
If you’re new to YA fiction, spend some time with the prewriting chapters in Part I to get to know your special audience and the categories and genres that define YA lit. If you’ve been in the YA realm awhile, you can dip into the craft chapters as needed to buck up skills that need bucking and to remind yourself of what you already knew but lost sight of — a common happening for writers, who must balance so much.
I’ll send you into the book proper by telling you the same thing I tell all the writers I edit — bestsellers and newbies alike — and all the writing students I’ve ever taught: Be open and be willing to experiment. Writing is not about applying formulas, no matter how many checklists and step-by-steps I give you. The magic happens when you let your hair down and go beyond the formulas. Try new things. Do what you never thought you’d do. Let the “rules” and formulas anchor you, yes, but then get funky from there. This is YA fiction, after all, and Rule No. 1 for teens is that rules are made to be broken.
Part I
Getting Ready to Write Young Adult Fiction
In this part . . .
Young adult fiction is as different from adult fiction as teenagers are from adults. It has its own rules, its own quirks, and its own very opinionated audience: teens.
Ultimately, the elements of storytelling are the same for both categories, but YA fiction writers must come at those elements with a different mindset. This part initiates you into that way of thinking. You find out what YA fiction is and how it constantly evolves, you discover the category’s core traits that defy change, you target specific age ranges and genres, you choose themes and conflicts that appeal to young readers, and you get yourself organized to write. Above all, you master the first steps in creating stories that resonate deeply with teens, a wonder-fully fickle, self-centered, sometimes reluctant, and ultimately fleeting readership who reads to define teens and their roles in the world — and who just plain loves a good story.
Chapter 1
The Lowdown on YA Fiction
In This Chapter
Understanding what YA fiction is and isn’t
Exploiting YA’s unique opportunities
Facing YA’s unique challenges
Reaping the rewards of writing for young adults
The Me Generation. Generation X. Generation Next. Each new crop of teens has its own culture and view of the world and their place in it. Their fiction — collectively called young adult fiction — shifts with the ebb and flow. This constant state of flux creates new opportunities for aspiring and veteran writers alike. Understanding YA fiction’s changing nature gives you insight into how you can fit into its future. This chapter offers a glimpse into its transitive nature while listing core traits that distinguish YA fiction despite its flux, along with the unique challenges and opportunities you face as a YA writer.
Introducing YA and Its Readers
Young adult fiction is distinguished by its youthful focus and appeal. The main characters are usually young adults (exceptions include the animal stars of Kathi Appelt’s The Underneath), and their stories, or narratives, reflect a youthful way of viewing the world that puts them at the center of everything. Characters act, judge, and react from that point of view until they mature through the events in the story.
One of the unique aspects of YA novels is that they have nearly universal appeal; YA fiction offers something for every interest and everyone who can read at a middle school level or higher. The audience includes young teens who fancy tales of first love and other relationships, older teens who can’t get enough of other teens’ troubles, and even grown-ups who like stories that help them remember what life was like when they thought they knew it all.
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
