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 ADVICE FOR FICTION WRITERS I'm including my checklist for fiction in the hopes that it will help you make your own manuscripts agent—and editor-ready. This is a list of criteria I use in assessing the fiction that is submitted to me by authors seeking representation. Not coincidentally, the middle-grade and young adult novels I choose to represent succeed on pretty much all these counts. Checklist for Fiction  Craft beginnings that reveal Who, What and Where.
Show character through action.
Throw a party and make sure your readers arrive fashionably late.
Make your story take off in the very first pages.
Create defining conflict. At the beginning of the story, introduce the central conflict of the narrative.
Hook your readers by raising questions in their minds.
Take control of the story and show us where to focus our attention.
Sustain the forward momentum of the narrative throughout.
Raise the stakes and compel us to read on.
Keep the reader in suspense, preferably on the edge of his or her seat. Limit time, limit information, and remember to parcel out pieces of the plot puzzle one at a time.
Throw obstacles in the path of your protagonist and create conflict.
Use a vicious cycle of external and internal pressures on your protagonist.
Focus on the adolescent conflicts of "To Be or Who Not To Be?" (See below)
Plot with a consciousness of the character's dramatic arc (your characters should change by the end).
Make the escalating pressures on your protagonist the agent for the character's change.
Use the fear dynamic—keep the pressure on and keep us wondering what will happen next.
Push your characters to their limits so we can see what lies below the surface.
Honor your contract with the reader. Fulfill the expectations you create so you don't wind up with unsatisfied readers.
Make us think and feel.
Write beyond the ending.
To Be or Who Not To Be? Bestselling author Michael Connelly quotes advice he received a long time ago: "The best crime novels aren't about how a detective works the case; they're about how a case works on a detective." Though Connelly is talking about mysteries, his point applies to all fiction: External pressures leading to internal ones inherently make for a fascinating read. In middle-grade and YA fiction, these pressures typically center on the experience of young readers who are its target audience. The defining conflict in these stories revolves around the issue of identity because kids this age are trying to figure out their place in their peer group, in their families, in society and in the world. Some important categories of conflict are: The escalating pressures on the protagonist usually center around one type of conflict that is the driving force of the story.  |
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