Common Issues with Chapter Book Beginnings by Alayne Kay Christian #ChaBooCha

COMMON ISSUES WITH CHAPTER BOOK BEGINNINGS

I had initially planned to write a post sharing the top issues that I find when critiquing chapter books. But when I started reviewing my chapter book critiques, I realized that I would have to write an entire book. So, I decided to start with beginnings. What I offer is just a sampling of things to watch for.

Beginnings are a major stumbling block in most of the chapter books I critique. I share some of the areas that writers seem to struggle with below.

Who is the hero of the story? It is often difficult to determine who the protagonist is. This usually happens when there is a bunch of characters, problems, and descriptions introduced at the same time. If there isn’t a clear protagonist goal or problem established in the beginning, the reader doesn’t know who to follow through the story. They also won’t know why they should care about the story or any of the characters. If there are three characters introduced in the first chapter, and they each have a set of problems, the reader won’t know where to focus.

Is there an evident story promise? Many manuscripts I read are missing the story promise. In my opinion, the first chapter should tell the reader what the story is about. So, if your book is about a girl who finds an alien in her backpack, don’t wait until the story is half over to have her find it. If you are writing a mystery, don’t wait 100 pages before the mystery’s inciting incident is revealed. There should be at the very least a hint right up front of what’s to come. And that hint should tie in with the story’s hook and an idea of what your story is about. In the beginning, you want your story to say, by showing not telling, this story is about (fill in the blank).

What’s important to the protagoinist and why? Related to the above, the beginning should introduce the hero/protagonist and what they want externally and internally (consciously and unconsciously). Often characters think they want something for one reason, but there is an inner struggle or unconscious need that is driving them. The reader should learn something about the protagonist and his story conflict right away. This should be something that will cause the reader to get behind the protagonist and champion his cause. If there is no understanding of what’s important to the protagonist and why, it will be hard for readers to get behind him.

What is this story about? What can the reader expect? Also related to the story promise, there should be information in the beginning that creates questions and expectations in the reader’s mind. You want your reader to start imagining what might happen next, how things will unfold, how things might end. Whether what they imagine is right or wrong, creating expectations and curiosity is what will drive reader’s to keep reading. I’m not suggesting that the story be predictable. I’m suggesting that you work to keep the reader guessing, wondering, and feeling for the protagonist and other characters. Offer information that will lead them to guess about how it will all resolve.

Inciting incident. What kicks off the story? Sometimes, in the manuscripts I read, there is no true inciting incident. What moves your protagonist out of his normal world and into the world of the story that you have built? This should come early in the story, and preferably in the first chapter. At an SCBWI conference, Judy Blume stated that novels should begin on the first day that something different happens in your character’s life. Readers don’t want to see characters in their humdrum normal life for pages on end. They want something interesting and exciting to happen.

Introducing or dumping to much on the reader at one time. Character dumping can interfere with a strong beginning. Sometimes there are so many character and setting introductions that the story and the protagonist get lost in the mix. Naturally, there will be secondary characters and antagonists that readers need to meet in the beginning because they are super important to the plot, but make sure there aren’t so many characters or so much description that it gets confusing. Also related for beginnings and anywhere in the book, avoid info dumps and lengthy description.

Action is king (or queen ;-) ) in chapter books for young readers! I can’t stress this enough. While it is important to establish the “who, what, where, when, and why” of the story in the beginning, it is just as important to balance all of that with action. If this balance doesn’t exist, your reader will likely become under-engaged, overwhelmed with the information being dumped, and unmotivated to read on.

Avoid or limit backstory. Backstory can drag a chapter book beginning to its knees. I often see paragraphs of heavy backstory. This can be an indication that you should ask yourself, “Does my story start in the right place?” It would also be good to ask yourself, “What purpose does this backstory serve?” This is a really important question because it can’t possibly serve to move the story forward. Because backstory takes the reader backward, it is considered static narrative. Some other questions might be, “How important is this backstory, really?” “Is this backstory really warmup writing to get me (as a writer) to the true beginning?” “Is there a way to dribble this information in little bits here and there as the story moves along instead of dumping it all at once?”

I will repeat, action is key in chapter books. Backstory usually halts any possible action. And remember, you want the story to begin with action or an engaging event that relates to the protagonist’s problem or goal.

Don’t avoid backstory to the degree that you start the story too quickly and the reader has no idea why events are happening or what is driving your protagonist to act.

Lacking a great opening line that hooks. This one pretty much speaks for itself. I recommend pouring through chapter books for the age you are writing for and reading the first sentence and then the first paragraphs. Pinpoint the ones that capture you and pull you into the story. Notice the ones that don’t have that power. Which kind of first sentences and paragraphs would you prefer for you chapter book?

Watch for your reactions to the openings. If you can put yourself in a child’s place, all the better. Does the opening make you smile or chuckle? Does it make you sad or worried for the character? Does it make you curious? Does it make you ask questions? Does it make you develop expectations? Does it stir any emotion or sense of fun? Does it invite you in in some way that makes you want more? Does it offer information that you can relate to? Sometimes relating can come in a way that is not fully relatable but presents something familiar to you that is also different from your world. This type of relating can really ignite the imagination and curiosity. Think about how you can write a beginning that accomplishes the above.

As with all writing, there are no steadfast rules. There are only guidelines. You will see chapter books with backstory and/or info dumping. You will see chapter books that lack action. You will see chapter books with weak opening lines. Only you can decide what will make your chapter book the best that it can be. I personally believe the tips I offer is an excellent place to start. Following is a couple good blog posts about beginnings in novels. I highly recommend you read them.

http://yamuses.blogspot.com/2012/01/begin-again.html

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2016/02/5-common-problems-with-beginnings.html

Following are some other blog posts I’ve written about chapter book writing.

http://chapterbookchallenge.blogspot.com/2017/03/how-writing-chapter-book-is-like.html

https://alaynekaychristian.wordpress.com/2017/02/17/should-my-picture-book-be-a-chapter-book/

About the Author

Alayne Kay Christian is an award-winning children’s book author. She is the author of the Sienna, the Cowgirl Fairy chapter book series and the award-winning picture book Butterfly Kisses for Grandma and Grandpa. Alayne is the creator and teacher of a picture book writing course, Art of Arc. She is a professional picture book and chapter book critique writer. And she is in her third year working as a critique ninja for Julie Hedlund’s 12 X 12. Alayne is a graduate of the Institute for Children’s Literature and she has spent the last ten years studying under some of the top names in children’s literature.

 

Website: http://www.alaynekaychristianauthor.com

Blog: https://alaynekaychristian.wordpress.com/

Link to Sienna, the Cowgirl Fairy: Trying to Make it Rain: https://www.amazon.com/Sienna-Cowgirl-Fairy-Trying-Make/dp/1946101052 

Give-away

Today's give-away is Rory's Story Cubes. If you are a signed-up member of ChaBooCha, all you need to do to be entered into the drawing for this book is comment on this blog post. Winners will be selected from a random number generator on March 31st at noon (GMT).

One day left to finish your book! #ChaBooCha

Everyone, you have one day left to finish your ChaBooCha novel! How far along have you gotten in this challenge? Any progress is better than no progress, but, if you are in it to win it, you have just one more day.

We have heard from some amazing guest authors during this challenge and, I hope, you have learned some new ways of approaching different elements of your story and, also, the editing process. But what's important is that you have devoted some time towards writing your novel, whether or not you're going to "win" the challenge.

Use today to get some more words written of your story. Your the only one who can write your story, so we need you to write it.

Good luck!

Writing is Magic #ChaBooCha

Sorry for the delay in posts. I usually have a post ready for you every couple of days during the challenge, but this time, most of the guests who will be posting have asked for dates in the middle of the month or end of the month. I hope you are all doing well with the challenge do far, we are already more than one-third of the way through the month. To keep you inspired, I'm re-posting this article that was first posted on the Blog Your Book in 30 Days blog here.

***** 

Writing is Magic

The one vice that most writers are susceptible to is procrastination. It is so easy to find many, many things that need to be done and to tell yourself, "I'll sit down to write after I've done..." But this is the path that leads to never finishing your book.

For those of you who are able to set aside specific writing time, then by all means, get your bum in a chair and start writing. Make sure you designate that time for writing though. If you need to check your e-mail or you want to spend some time on Facebook, give yourself set times for doing so. Your best plan is to set aside a set amount of time for writing and when the time is up, then you can go and check your e-mail, browse the internet and chat with friends on Facebook and Twitter. Or set yourself a specific word count to reach for the day, before you start spending some more relaxing Internet time,

Some writers have very little free time, so sitting in a proper chair at a desk and writing is not an option for them. If this is the case for you, you need to use any chance you have to sit down, wherever you are, and write. If you are in your car waiting for your son or daughter to get out of school, grab a notebook or laptop and start writing. You can even dictate your story into your phone if necessary. If you are sitting at the doctor's office waiting to be called in for you appointment, whip out your notebook and start writing. If you are walking the dog, bring your phone with you and dictate your story as you walk. Be creative about how you fit in your daily writing. Maybe dictating while walking your dog is not actually SITTING, but sitting down and getting your bum in a chair is not the only way to write your book. ("Bum" is a British word for "butt," and I think it sounds nicer.)

Some of you may be wondering why getting yourself to sit down and write, or getting yourself to write during those tiny snippets of time when you are out and about, is so difficult to do. You love to write stories, so why do you fight it? Why do you find excuses not to do it? Why do you spend your time doing a variety of different things, all of which can wait, when you should be writing? Isn't writing your calling? Isn't it the one thing that keeps you going? So why do you struggle?

It's because, no matter how much you love to write, no matter how much you feel pulled and prodded by your own subconscious to write your stories, writing is hard. Putting pen to paper or setting your fingers on the keyboard while staring at a blank screen and typing in those words, is difficult. the words must come from deep inside of you in order for them to work. The words might form more easily in your mind than they do on the paper or screen. But the stories you tell are unique, and because of this uniqueness, the good words, the ones that breathe life into a character and transport your readers into another place or another world, those words don't come easily. They have to be played with and prodded, teased and shaped, in order to work.

Writing is art. Despite this, it doesn't matter if you are writing non-fiction, fiction, poetry or anything else, writing is still work. It's work that comes from your heart, from your very soul. Stringing out tiny bits of your soul onto the page for people to read is scary. And because you are sharing bits of your soul with others every time you write, you want to make sure that every word that comes from you is magical.

Of course writing is hard. It's also something more; it's magic.

*****

Give-away

Today's give-away is a $5 USD Amazon gift certificate. If you are a signed-up member of ChaBooCha, all you need to do to be entered into the drawing for this book is comment on this blog post. Winners will be selected from a random number generator on March 31st at noon (GMT).

What to Do When you Hate What You've Written by Adam Wallace #ChaBooCha

What to Do When You Hate What You’ve Written

Writing is awesome. It is so much fun to sit and write or type something out, read it over, and be rapt in what you’ve written. It might make you laugh or make you cry. It might make you feel scared. It might make you feel like you can make it in this caper.

Except sometimes it doesn’t.

Sometimes you read a piece of your work and you hate it. Like, seriously hate it. It doesn’t have the feel you were after. It’s dull and drab and goes nowhere. It was a brilliant idea that doesn’t come across at all!

Think this just happens to you? Think again.

IT HAPPENS TO EVERYONE!!!

Sure, it happens more to some people than others, but it happens to everyone.

So what do you do when you’ve written something that you hate? To me, there are a few options.

1. Put it aside for a period of time. Especially if it is an idea or theme that you are really keen to explore, put it aside. Leave it. Move on to something else. Stick it in a drawer and do not think of it again.

Except you will.

You will think about it.

Suddenly, and it may be weeks or months down the track, something will pop into your head. An idea. A thought on how you can fix it, make it better.

That’s when you take it out of the drawer and get back to work.

(P.S. If that doesn’t happen, if you don’t get a burst of inspiration, you can still get back to work on it. Or not. You can also just leave it there for some more time.)

2. Work through it. Some people actually enjoy working through that phase of hating a piece of work, digging deep into it and really finding out why it isn’t working, doing the hard yards to come up with a piece of work that they’re happy with. To them, the final piece can feel more rewarding, and they can love it even more because they hated it at one point.

This isn’t me …

3. Show it to people you trust will be honest with you. Yes men are not your friend when you’re a writer. Not if you want to improve, at least.

Let these other people read it. If you tell them that you’re not happy with it, don’t say why. Don’t lead their comments in a certain direction. Just let them read it and tell you what they think. Two things might happen here. One is that they may actually like it. Just because you hate it doesn’t mean everyone else will. Then you have a decision to make, because is there a point to producing a piece of work if you hate it? Even if others like it? That’s up to you.

The second thing that might happen is that they, with a fresh set of eyes, may be able to give you ideas that can turn the piece around. If those ideas click with you, well, that’s when it’s time to get back to work.

4. The last and final thing I think you can do when you hate what you’ve written, and sometimes this can happen before or after you steps 1, 2 or 3, is to chuck it out. Just chuck it. You don’t have to love and keep every single thing you write. If you do, if you cling to thinking every piece has to be brilliant, and that you and everyone else in the world has to love every word you ever produce, you will never move forward.

You will never become a great writer.

You have to be prepared to just let some things go and move on.

Some pieces are steps along your journey, and that’s it. You need to get them out of your system to free yourself up for what you really want to write, even if you don’t know it at the time.

And even if you chuck a piece, there may still be snippets of dialogue or description that you may keep in a notebook, or there may be a theme that you may still like to try and write something around later, but you don’t have to keep the entire piece.

There’s no rule.

Not everything you write has to be a masterpiece, but it is all part of becoming a better writer. And sometimes, throwing something out and letting it go will free you up to write something brilliant.

Good luck, and happy writing!

About the Author

A qualified Engineer and Primary School Teacher, Adam Wallace settled on writing books for children as his career of choice. With more than 20 published, including Better Out Than In and the How to Draw series, Adam is fast becoming a well-known name in the world of children’s books. You can find Adam's books at Adam Wallace Books and his Facebook author page here.

Give-away

All you need to do, as a signed-up member of the Chapter Book Challenge, to enter into the drawing for "Writing Irresistable Kidlit: The Ultimate Guide to Crafting Fiction for Young Adult and Middle Grade Readers" by Mary Kole is to comment on this blog post. (If you are reading this in your e-mail, you will need to click on the link that will take you to the actual post and then comment.)

Interview with author Darren Shan #ChaBooCha

Darren Shan has generously offered to let me ask him some questions for ChaBooCha which I am sharing below. I have some children of my own who love reading his books and also love writing so they are very excited to be able to read his answers here. I know it's unlikely, but if you actually haven't heard of Darren Shan before, there are two things to tell you: 1 - Where have you BEEN? and 2 - His bio is at the end of this post.

Interview with author Darren Shan

What motivates you to write about the paranormal, to create darker worlds from which your characters draw their experiences?
I always advise budding authors to write about what interests them, and I've always been fascinated by the darkness and what moves within it, which is why my books usually explore some very dark areas.

Why do you think the darker elements in your books appeal so much to your readers?
I think horror and dark fantasy appeal to readers because they allow us to look at the world and our lives from a different angle, to examine ourselves in a different light, and reflect on our day-to-day lives in a different way. For instance, my book Lord Loss featured a character whose parents and sister are killed by demons. He descends into madness (understandably!) but then finds the strength and courage within himself to recover and piece his life back together. What the book is saying to readers is that we can overcome any tragedy that befalls us, even the loss of the people we love most. But by using demons and magic, it allowed my readers to do that in a way that was also exciting and intriguing. Like any medicine, a good message is best swallowed with a little something sweet!

How do you inject a touch of humour when things are going wrong for your main character without it seeming out of place?
Humour actually goes pretty naturally with horror. When you weave a truly dark story, you need the lighter moments to give the readers some relief, and also to contrast with the mosre serious scenes. This is an old writing truism, something that Shakespeare worked into many of his texts. Any good story should be a mixture of the dark and the light.

What advice would you give to other writers who want to write using elements of darker/supernatural worlds?
My key piece of advice to writers of any genre is the same -- create characters that readers are going to be able to identify with, characters they will be interested in. You don't always have to make those characters loveable and charming -- my protagonist in Zom-B starts out as a VERY unlikeable being -- but there has to be a way for readers to connect with them, otherwise they'll have no real reason to read on. Every writer is looking for a great plot, something new and extraordinary, but those plots are wasted if we don't people our stories with characters that readers will want to spend time with.

About Darren Shan

Darren Shan's real name is Darren O'Shaughnessy. His initial breakthrough in publication was with an adult book, in 1999, titled Ayuamarca (since re-released in the UK as Procession Of The Dead, and coming to the USA in 2010). In January 2000, his first children's book, Cirque du Freak, which he'd written as a fun side-project, was published. The first book in a series titled The Saga of Darren Shan (or Cirque du Freak, as it's known in America) attracted rave reviews. Shan loved writing for children so much, that for the next several years he focused exclusively on his books for younger readers. First, he wrote a total of 12 books about vampires. He quickly followed up his vampiric saga with The Demonata, a series about demons. Running to ten books in total, The Demonata cemented Shan's place in the UK as the Master Of Children's Horror, and saw him score his first UK #1 bestseller. 

He also wrote a one-off short book, called Koyasan, for World Book Day in the UK. There was a very successful manga adaptation of Shan's vampire series, drawn by the Japanese artist, Takahiro Arai. It was originally serialized in Japan, but collected volumes are now on sale in the USA, UK and other countries. In addition to writing for children, Shan has now returned to his first love and is once again writing for adults as well. He has had two adult books published in the UK, Procession Of The Dead and Hell's Horizon. They have been released in a number of other countries too, and are due to hit the USA in 2010. A third, City of the Snakes, goes on sale in the UK in March 2010. His first adult books were released under the name of D B Shan, but they are being reprinted under the name of Darren Shan in March 2010, and City of the Snakes will be released under the Darren Shan name. 

By the start of 2010, Shan's books were on sale in every continent, in 39 countries, in 31 languages, and have been children's bestsellers in America, Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway and other countries. The books have topped adult bestseller charts in Hungary, Japan and Taiwan. In total, Shan's books have sold close to 15 million copies worldwide! The movie rights to Cirque Du Freak were bought by Universal, and the first movie (which combines elements from the first three books in the series) was released on October 23rd, 2009, starring newcomer Chris Massoglia as Darren Shan, along with a wide array of established stars such as Josh Hutcherson, John C Reilly, Salma Hayek, Willem Defoe and Ken Watanabe. The movie was called Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant. It was released on DVD and Blu-Ray in February 2010.

Give-away

The give-away today is a copy of "Writing the Paranormal Novel" by Steven Harper. Only signed-up members of the challenge are eligible. In order to be entered into the drawing, just comment on this blog post. (Comment must be on the actual blog, not a response to the e-mailed version of it.) Winner will be chosen by a random number generator at noon on March 31st.

Choose your Mentor Texts by Nancy I. Sanders #ChaBooCha

Choose Your Mentor Text: It’s Your Flashlight in the Dark!

Joining the ChaBooCha challenge is such an exciting adventure! But as any brave explorer would do before embarking on a journey, choose a reliable flashlight to help you find your way.

For writers, our flashlight is a mentor text. What exactly is a mentor text, you may ask? In a nutshell, it’s a chapter book that you want YOUR chapter book to be similar to. Your book won’t be similar in content to your mentor text, but in many other elements, it can follow your mentor text very very closely.

How should you choose a mentor text?

If there is a publisher you want to eventually submit your chapter book manuscript to, choose one of their current published books that you want your own book to be like. If there is an agent you’d like to submit your manuscript to, choose one of their client’s recently published books that you want your own book to be like. If you plan on self-publishing your own book or just writing a new chapter book for the experience, choose a current published chapter book that again, you want your own book to be like. If you’re following along with my teleclass, Write Your Middle Grade Novel in One Month (available at http://www.workingwritersclub.com/10253/writers-workshops-3/write-a-middle-grade-novel-in-one-month-presented-by-nancy-i-sanders/), the mentor texts are already chosen for you.

Once you select your mentor text, the first thing to do is read it straight through for pleasure. Then it’s time to dissect it and see what works for it so that it can shine a light on your own writer’s path as you move forward through the month to write your book.

TIPS ON DISSECTING YOUR MENTOR TEXT

Format

How many chapters does your mentor text have? How many words are in each chapter? How many words are in the total book? (If your book is listed on Renaissance Learning, they’ll already have that word count listed for you. Type in your title at http://www.renaissance.com/store/quiz_home.asp?c=1 )

Plan to write your own manuscript with a similar format as your mentor text.

Plot

How does your mentor text’s plot develop? If it’s based on a three-act structure, in which chapters are the plot points to move from Act 1 into Act 2 and to move from Act 2 into Act 3? What significant event happens in the very middle of the story? If you’re not sure how to chart the plot of a published book, visit my blog for help at https://nancyisanders.wordpress.com/2013/05/22/basic-plot-worksheet-a/

Plan to write your own manuscript with a similar plot structure as your mentor text.

Setting

How does your mentor text develop setting? Is there a short paragraph of description at the opening of each chapter to put the characters in their place? Or are there pages of words that paint each scene?

Again, look closely at the techniques your mentor text uses to develop the setting and plan on developing your own setting with similar techniques.

Character

What techniques does your mentor text use to develop the cast of characters in its story? Are there three strong character tags for the main character? How do the voices of each character differ from one another? How are the main character’s motives developed? How does the main character solve the main story problem? Is there much inner dialogue within the heart and mind of the main character?

Study the character development in your mentor text and plan on using some of the same techniques to develop your own cast of characters.

A well-chosen mentor text can help improve your own writing as nothing else can. Instead of stumbling around not knowing where you are going with your chapter book in the month ahead, your mentor text can shine the light more clearly on the path ahead of you and put your feet on solid ground.

About the author

Nancy I. Sanders grew up on a dairy farm in Everett, Pennsylvania, with 5 older sisters and 1 older brother. She spent her childhood days milking the cows, baling hay, and ice skating in the winter. She also spent many happy hours with her nose in a favorite book whether perched high up in an apple tree or floating on a raft in the middle of their pond. Today Nancy loves to write and is the author of nearly 100 books including Yes! You Can Learn How to Write Beginning Readers and Chapter Books.. Now, one of her favorite things is to encourage other writers and help them learn practical strategies to use to build their own successful and satisfying career.

https://yesbeginningreaders.wordpress.com

Give-away

Nancy is the author of "Yes! You Can Learn How to Write Beginning Readers and Chapter Books."

The Chapter Book Challenge has given away a copy of this book every year since the site's inception, and this year is no exception. Comment on this post in order to be entered into a drawing to win this book. Only signed-up members are eligible. Winner will be drawn at noon on March 31st, 2015.