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Need help writing your middle-grade novel? In this post, we share the top considerations you need to know about this fun and important literary genre.
- See through their eyes—not yours. Yes, you know what it’s like to be 12. But do you know what it’s like to be 12 in 2016? No. There are universal truths, certainly.
- Remember: Kids are real people. As adults, we have a tendency to view kids as one-dimensional creatures with no idea how things really work. Small people, small problems, right?
- Don’t turn your characters into a Cleaver. Middle-grade authors often struggle with how to make their characters “sound young,” so they fall back on their own days of yore and reminisce about what youth sounded like—or what they think it sounded like—back then.
- Don’t be a parent to your characters. Your readers hear enough from adults. They hear them at home. They hear them at school. They hear them in the grocery store.
Apr 7, 2022 · We will learn which age groups to target, what narrative styles work best and why, and what kind of word count you need in order to craft a strong middle grade book. We will also explore themes and how to approach difficult or ‘big’ ideas for middle grade readers.
- Read books for young readers. If you're trying to write for kids, you need to know what popular middle grade authors are writing about! Read as many middle grade books as you can get your hands on.
- Take care with real-world topics. If your protagonist is between the ages of 9-13, they’re in the stage of life where they are starting to develop their own identities, and seeing the world differently than when they were young children.
- Remember what you were like at that age. You may be years (or decades) older than the readers you're writing for, but one of the best ways to get into the minds of younger readers is to remember what life was like for you during that time.
- Don’t preach or teach. We’ve all read books where the author harps a little too hard on the universal lesson of the novel. No one enjoys that— especially not kids.
Apr 11, 2024 · Author Laurie Morrison shares six tips for how to write novels that engage and delight middle school readers—and explains what defines "upper middle grade" as a writing category.
Aug 3, 2022 · Tapping into universal human emotions, doing lots of research, knowing the ending to your story before you start, and more—author Elizabeth Raum shares how to make middle-grade novels believable.
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Nov 9, 2017 · Are you ready to write a Middle Grade novel? In this article we will explore the genre in order to learn which age group to target, what themes to explore, and what kind of word count you need in order to craft a strong Middle Grade book.
