Writing Young Adult Fiction For Dummies

by Deborah Halverson

  • Arrange to have the class read all or portions of your manuscript prior to your visit. You can ask the teacher to make this a class project, letting the kids write up their responses as a for-credit writing assignment. They can even fill out questionnaires for you to take home. Kids are often freer with their criticism when they have the distance of paper and pen.

  Working with young readers

  Here are some tips for working effectively with young critiquers, regardless of your route to reader input:

  Provide questions ahead of time so readers can mull as they read. Off-the-cuff question-and-answer isn’t a teen strong suit.

  Be specific with your questions. Otherwise, you’ll get lots of “I like it” responses. Ask open-ended questions to avoid yes-or-no replies.

  Tailor your questions to your audience. Teen readers don’t typically have the experience to address technical items such as pacing and tension, but ask teens about the believability and likability of the characters, and you’ll get an earful. Young reviewers may have extensive commentary on the concept and themes, your opening action, and your plot resolution, too.

  Use simple, clear language. Don’t get all jargony.

  Encourage readers to clarify or expand their answers.

  Point out how much you value reader input. Explain how feedback makes better books for other kids their age.

  Tell the kids that you want to hear the bad stuff, that they needn’t spare your feelings. Then embody this idea by not defending yourself if you’re holding a face-to-face session.

  At the end of the session, thank each responder and the group as a whole for giving you things to ponder.

  Revising with Confidence

  Revision means modifying your story to make it better. Revision may entail rewriting parts of your story, adding things to it, subtracting things from it, or rearranging parts of it, all with the end goal of transforming your flawed first draft into a seamless, flowing final draft. This section tells you how to tackle the items on your revision list and experiment with fixes in a constructive, confident, and safe way.

  Starting big and finishing small

  Revision isn’t a single act. Rather, it’s a series of passes through your manuscript, each focused on a specific task, until you have a fully revised next draft that’s ready for a new round of critiquing. Breaking down a revision into chunks keeps it manageable, helps you maintain your focus, and provides satisfaction as you cross off tasks from your revision list. Start with big-picture items and finish with small stuff, such as punctuation tweaks. The passes may look something like this:

  A pass for characters, putting them in more extreme situations or changing the setting of a scene so you can make a character act differently, even if to the same end

  A pass for plot to ensure that all the events work together or build upon each other to move the overall plot forward; also use this pass to add foreshadowing elements such as early mentions of key props or character traits that will be vital to the story’s resolution

  A pass to fix those scenes where you noticed the tension and/or pace sagging

  A pass for dialogue, working on the balance of spoken words to narrative actions that reveal things about the character and/or plot; weeding out dialogue tags in case of abundance or adding them in case of a dearth; or making the dialogue more youthful by mussing up the grammar and syntax

  A pass for filling out the setting, creating a stronger sense of place

  A pass for smoothing the transitions into and out of scenes

  A pass for narrative voice and word choice, ditching all those adverbs and dull phrasings that do the basic job but lack real flavor

  When you’ve crossed off all your tasks and finished all your passes, do another round of editing (self or professional) and critiquing to determine whether you need more changes. Make sure all the changes work. Several rounds of revision may be necessary to work out the kinks.

  Keep your goals in sight. Digging into a revision means once again immersing yourself in story minutiae. To stay motivated, frequently remind yourself of what you’re doing and why. Keep your revision list posted where you can see it and cross things off with a big black pen after you’ve tackled them. Also, refer frequently to the hook statement you posted before you started the first draft (see Chapter 4).

  Taking chances with your changes

  The best revisions come when you’re willing to experiment. Tepid, fearful revisions leave you with barely improved manuscripts — and they’re just not fun. Go for it! If you’re not sure whether something will work, give it a whirl anyway. So what if it doesn’t work? You can always reinstate what you cut. Sure, you may lose some time when you experiment, but you just may find the fix you need to break the whole revision wide open.

  Here are three tips to help you let your hair down during revision:

  Set aside the text you cut. When you decide to omit a scene or passage, don’t delete the material. Instead, cut and paste it into a master “Deleted Material” document on your computer. You can always retrieve it later. You likely won’t need to retrieve it, but knowing you can easily reinstate the material makes you bolder about killing your darlings.

  “Killing your darlings” is a writing phrase that refers to the act of deleting parts of your story — maybe scenes, maybe passages or words, maybe even characters — that you slaved over and love but that ultimately don’t move your story forward. Parting with things can be extremely hard, especially when you like them, but sometimes what you like isn’t what’s best for the story.

  Save new drafts as new files and label everything. Good labeling lets you revise without fear. Save a final copy of your first draft and never touch that copy again. In fact, lock it to prevent saving over it by accident. Then open up that document, rename it “Draft 2” or “D2,” press save, and start your revision work within that new document.

  Rename and resave whenever you make substantial changes: “TITLE_d2_present tense” and “TITLE_d2_past tense.” When you’re not making substantial changes, you may want to date your revision files in this manner: “TITLE_d3_12022011. (Tip: Don’t use month names like “Dec” because your computer will arrange your files in alphabetical order, making a mess of your electronic labeling system.) If you need to, set up subfolders to keep track of the drafts. Good draft management allows you revise confidently because you know you can easily go back to previous drafts.

  Use special editing features in your word-processing program. Turning on your word-processing program’s track-changes or reviewing feature can help you revise with confidence because it lets you keep track of your changes with different-colored fonts and margin notes. You can make notes in the side margins, highlight portions of text you’re thinking of changing or deleting, and strike-through and replace sections instead of erasing them from existence. You can “reject” any of these changes later, which reinstates the cut material or undoes your changes. If this feature intrigues you, play around with your program’s version of the feature. Or you can simply use your program’s text-highlighting function in normal writing mode to highlight sections you want to rewrite later.

  Knowing the final draft when you see it

  At some point, you must declare that you’re done revising and that it’s time to submit your final manuscript to publishers. How do you know when you’re holding that final draft? Alas, it’s a best-guess scenario, but here’s the likely state of affairs on that day: You self-edited and solicited criticism on your first draft, you addressed all those critique items to the best of your abilities, and then you ran the manuscript by the critics once again. You repeated this process until the criticisms were minimal (someone can always find something), and you don’t feel you need to act on them. You’ve run through the checklists in this chapter multiple times and feel confident that you’ve addressed all th
e items to the best of your ability. You can’t think of anything specific to add to your now completely crossed-out revision list.

  There. That’s when you know you have a final draft. You can then submit that draft to publishers in phases (which I talk about in Chapter 13). Submitting to only a few publishers at a time allows you to test-run the manuscript, so to speak. If the agents and/or editors in that first phase reject the manuscript, then read their letters for clues about their reasons for rejection and do another round of revision before launching into the second submission phase. Do this until you score a hit.

  Don’t skimp or rush when revising. I know you’re eager to land that book contract, which means you’re eager to submit. But it’s a mistake to submit a manuscript that you know needs work — the publishing editor’s job isn’t to help you with developmental stuff.

  Ultimately, revision is about doing the best you can to satisfy yourself as much as possible. Too many people submit knowing that there’s work to be done. Don’t blow an opportunity by rushing it. If the material’s not ready, stay your submitting hand and give your revising hand another go at the manuscript.

  Chapter 12

  The Finishing Touches: Formatting and Finalizing

  In This Chapter

  Checking punctuation and proofreading

  Formatting your manuscript

  Understanding copyright and securing permissions

  You’ve drafted, edited, revised, and finally decided you have a final manuscript. At this point, you’re probably dying to send that manuscript to publishers. Don’t. Stay your hand just a tad longer. It’s time to do a final cleanup and polishing pass. You’re sending this puppy out to word-loving professionals, after all — typos and poor punctuation will not earn their confidence. You’re a writer, so you should know the proper positioning of a period in dialogue.

  Use this chapter as your checklist while you review your punctuation, proofread the whole story one last time, and format the manuscript so it looks how it’s supposed to look when it crosses an editor’s desk — which makes you look wholly professional. I also help you judge whether you need to secure legal permission for the use of someone else’s work in your story, and I tell you how and when you should secure those permissions.

  Paying Attention to Nitty-Gritty Details

  When you’re writing tens of thousands of words and using countless punctuation marks, it’s easy to mess up a few of them. But it’s also easy to catch and correct those slips before your manuscript leaves your possession for good. This section is dedicated to helping you do just that.

  Patrolling punctuation

  Double-checking your punctuation is part of crafting a professional submission package. Here are ten questions you should ask yourself to avoid the most common punctuation mistakes:

  Have you put your punctuation inside your double quotes? Surround written dialogue with double quotation marks, and then tuck all the punctuation related to that bit of dialogue inside those double quotes:

  “Are you going to the fair?” he asked.

  “If I don’t have to ride with Ben,” she replied. “Ben’s weird.”

  “Gimme a break!” He strode away. “I swear . . .”

  Are your single quotes inside your double quotes, too? When your speaking character quotes another person, surround that quotation with single quotation marks and then close up everything within the dialogue’s double quotes:

  Kelly snorted. “He’s nuts. ‘The only way out is in,’ he says. The guy makes no sense.”

  “‘The only way out is in.’” Kelly snorted. “He’s nuts.”

  If the material being quoted within the dialogue needs punctuation, keep its punctuation within the single quotes. Then put the dialogue’s end punctuation after the single quotes:

  “How am I supposed to ‘Dress for success!’?”

  Are you missing your serial commas? Check all lists of three or more items to make sure you have a comma after every one, including the item that precedes the conjunction (and, but, and so on):

  I packed my bag, pet my dog, and then left.

  They were red, green, and blue.

  Leaving out that final serial comma, the one preceding the conjunction, is common for writers because serial commas are omitted in journalism. In fiction, the serial comma stays unless you stick a conjunction between every pair of items on the list:

  They were red and green and blue.

  Have your semicolons earned their place in your manuscript? Semicolons aren’t common in YA fiction because they’re generally used for complicated sentence structures. When you use a semicolon, the sentences on either side of it are mechanically complete on their own, so why not just rewrite the passage so that they are two separate sentences? That’s easier on kids — and easier on most grown-ups, too. And the truth is that semicolons can come across as signs that you’re trying to show off that you know how to use them.

  Semicolons do have a practical role in lists, replacing serial commas when the elements of the list are long and complex or involve internal punctuation. But here, too, you can often recast the sentence or paragraph to avoid this complex punctuation mark. Remember, you have a young audience, and simpler is better. Make sure any semicolons that survive this polishing pass are necessary.

  Do you have your possessive apostrophes right? Here’s how to apply apostrophes properly when you want to indicate ownership:

  • Add ’s when you have a singular noun or name:

  The cat’s milk spilled.

  It was James’s last chance.

  • Add only an apostrophe when you have a standard plural noun:

  Both cars’ trunks were open.

  The classes’ rivalry was vicious.

  • Add ’s when you have a plural noun that doesn’t end with an s:

  The people’s court is in session.

  Are your dashes the right lengths? Em dashes are those long dashes that indicate a break in a line of thought. Use them to add dramatic emphasis or to explain the main clause they’re attached to — as I’m doing now. Em dashes have more kick than commas, which is why I adore them. Their close buddies are en dashes, which are half the measure of the em and which signal a range, such as 1–4. Don’t confuse those little guys with the even shorter hyphen, which forms the link in compound words such as all-out. In fiction writing, close up the spaces on either side of the dashes, butting them right up against the letters.

  You can insert both em and en dashes from your word-processing program’s symbols section. You can also use (or assign) a keystroke shortcut to insert the right symbol, or you can change the program’s automatic correction options to insert the right kind of dash as you type.

  Are you shouting at readers with too many exclamation points?! You may overuse exclamation points in your efforts to express excitement or other strong emotions. This makes young readers feel like you’re shouting at them. See how many exclamation points you can edit out of your manuscript. Rewrite the surrounding material, letting the emphasis and emotion come from the content and word choice rather than from the punctuation. Fewer exclamation points makes for more authentic, less forced storytelling.

  Do you really need that stuff between the parentheses? Parentheses are handy tools for inserting extra information or narrative asides for the reader (like this). Parenthetical info may be wonderful in a stylized novel where your narrator really is trying to throw out tidbits to the audience in a winking fashion, but that’s not usually the case. Most commonly, a writer is simply trying to include some extra information:

  She went out to the buggy. (Her father had purchased it the previous summer.) It would be a long ride into town.

  If you’re stuffing something between parentheses because it’s extra information, then you likely don’t need that information at
all. If the information is in fact vital, then yank it out of the parentheses and write it into the narrative where it belongs.

  Are your ellipses accurate? To indicate an omission within a sentence, to join sentence fragments, or to indicate an intentional trailing off of a complete sentence, use three dots, tapping your space bar before and after each one:

  “It’s too bad this snooze-inducer isn’t a hilarious comedy” becomes “It’s . . . a hilarious comedy.”

  “The dog skidded around the corner, spun wildly in circles, and crashed into a pile of clothes” becomes “The dog skidded . . . spun wildly . . . and crashed into a pile of clothes.”

  “If I had my way . . . ,” he mumbled.

  When a complete sentence precedes your ellipsis, use four dots, with the first dot smashed up against the letter preceding it:

  My choice was agonizing. . . . Yes. I’d do it. I’d do it!

  Don’t let your computer automatically replace your spacious ellipses with tight ones. The dots are supposed to be separated by spaces, allowing your designer to set her own spacing between the dots when she’s prepping your book for publication.

  Are your titles capitalized correctly? The biggest violation of title capitalization is actually a simple two-letter word: is. Is may be a small verb, but it’s a verb nonetheless, and all verbs get capitalized in book and chapter titles. The same goes for all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs. Here are some other title capitalization rules to know:

  • Conjunctions, such as and, or, if, because, as, and that, are capitalized.

  • Articles, including a, an, and the, are lowercased.

  • Prepositions, such as on, over, in, and at, are lowercased in titles. Technically, the words about, through, and under are prepositions and thus should be lowercased, but because long lowercased words can look odd in titles, some publishers’ in-house style calls for capitalizing prepositions that are five or more letters.