CHAPTER 7

Writing Your Story

Now it's time to get to the heart of the matter: writing your story. This chapter helps you get started on your story, shows you how to keep the writing process flowing smoothly, and offers tips and advice to help you get past those obstacles every writer faces. Are you ready to write?

Getting Started

While it would certainly be nice to sit down and just let the story flow from your fingertips, most writers find that this rarely happens. Usually there is a lot of prep work to be done before the story begins. Don't be discouraged; the prep work can be a lot of fun and will make the actual writing advance smoothly.

First of all, you need to make sure your workstation is set up properly. Do you have your new-book file? Are your reference materials within reach? Do you have paper and pens? Are you comfortable? Try to eliminate all possibilities of distractions and interruptions. You need to focus on your work. You won't be able to concentrate if you have to get up and walk across the room for the dictionary constantly or if you are trying to eavesdrop on a television program on in the next room.

Read through your new-book file. Jot down any other ideas that pop into your head while you're reading. Don't ever assume that you will remember something. Your initial idea probably won't incorporate all the needed elements for a children's book; therefore you will need to sketch out an outline so you are sure of where you're going and can remain on track while writing.

Nonfiction

If you are writing a nonfiction book, you should have a well-defined topic. Be careful not to make the topic too broad. Narrow it down as much as possible and maintain your focus. You may want to write a one-sentence description of the book and put it up on the wall in front of you or on your computer — somewhere in your direct line of vision. If you ever feel yourself wavering from the main focus, read over your description again.

Before you begin writing, make sure you have all the sources you need within reach. If this involves several books, you may want to use sticky notes to mark specific passages or make notes. If you are especially industrious, you can use different colored sticky notes for your chapters. This will make referencing your sources quick and easy.

Your outline should be divided into chapters. Give each chapter a working title and list the points you want to cover in that chapter. You might find it helpful to give each chapter its own index card. (This also makes reorganizing easy.) When it comes time to write, you need only pull out that index card and you can concentrate solely on that chapter.

Remember that this is just an outline. It will help you organize your thoughts and develop your line of progression throughout the book. However, it doesn't mean that this outline is set in stone. As you conduct more thorough research, you may find that you need to alter the outline somewhat. Outlines may be very bare, medium in detail, or very detailed. Try all three to discover which works best for you.

Fiction

Fiction may be a little more difficult to sketch out; it's not quite as straight-forward as nonfiction. Before you begin writing fiction you should answer the following questions:

Again, try to come up with a one-sentence description and post it in view to help keep your focus. Answering the previous questions will certainly help you to begin writing, but there is one more thing you will need to know inside and out if you want to get your writing endeavor started off right: the characters.

The Characters

You need to know your characters intimately before beginning to write. It helps to think of your characters as real people instead of figments of your imagination. You should know what they look like, their likes and dislikes, any idiosyncrasies they may have, and their personality traits. If you believe your characters are real people, it will be easier to write them as real people.

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Characters that are perfect are not realistic and normally do not work well in children's books (or adult books either, for that matter). All your characters should have weaknesses and flaws as well as strengths. Children want to relate to the characters in stories. If you create a perfect person, you will isolate that character, making him out of reach.

The Main Character

The main character should be the most in-depth character. Because this character will be the most developed, you may want to start off with this one. Running through the rest of the character descriptions will seem much easier once you have the main character sketched out. Plus, the secondary characters may very well play off of the main character in regard to their functions in the story.

Figure out as much as you possibly can about your main character before writing; don't expect it all to come to you as you go along. Create a character description by answering the following questions as well as any others you can think of that will help define your character:

Your main character is the one who will grow and develop throughout the book. Do you have a game plan for this growth progress? It isn't acceptable to simply have the character suddenly come up with the correct solution and end the story happily ever after. You will need to show how the character struggles with her progress, how she overcomes obstacles, and the thought process along the way.

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Stay away from making your characters inanimate objects. While it has certainly been done, editors usually cringe when reading a manuscript in which an inanimate object such as a couch or refrigerator suddenly comes to life and can walk and talk.

Secondary Characters

Your secondary characters don't need to be as detailed as your main character. However, they are still essential to the story, so you should know them well before you start writing. You'll need to know the names, ages, and physical descriptions of these characters, as well as their relationships to the main character. Do you need to know their personal strengths and weaknesses? It will help, even if you don't reveal these traits explicitly in your book. If you know the deep background of all your characters, your readers will feel it.

Because these characters won't be as evident as the main character, it sometimes helps to give each one an individual quirk or habit that will help both you and your reader recognize and distinguish the character a little better. For instance, maybe your main character has a four-year-old sister who is constantly sucking her thumb. Or maybe the main character's best friend is superstitious and is always on the lookout for bad and good omens. Use your creativity to keep these characters from being only pawns in the story. Though they may not be as important as the main character, they still deserve their own identity.

You will also want to stay away from stereotypes. It is easy to give in to the temptation, but editors are looking for fresh and original characters. For instance, if you find yourself using that kind old lady doling out cookies and milk to the neighborhood kids, give her a flaw that will take away from her seeming perfection. Maybe her cookies are often salty instead of sugary because she is always misplacing her glasses. No one is perfect and if you want to make your characters believable, you'll have to recognize that in your character descriptions.

Developing Character's Voices

While your characters should each have a different voice, you need to establish your main character's voice before starting out to write. This will put the finishing touches on knowing your main character inside and out.

A good way to find your character's voice is to create a mock journal in which your character writes daily. Because a journal is personal, your character will feel free to write what he feels without worrying about outside opinions. Create a week's worth of journal entries for your character. This should be sufficient to identify a style and voice that is all his or her own.

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Another exercise you might try to find your character's voice is to have the character write a short autobiography. This will force you to have the character speak in her own words and will help you to establish a background for this character.

Remain consistent with your secondary characters throughout. However, let characters be surprising at times, and let your main character grow. After a crisis, you want readers to feel your people acted at their best or worst, consistent with the potential that was hinted at earlier.

Writing Dialogue

Using dialogue helps keep the text fresh and stimulating. For those learning to read, the use of dialogue also provides white space on the page without seeming to purposely give the reader a break. For these younger readers, white space is often a relief to see.

Writing dialogue is a skill worthy of practice. You want your dialogue to help move the story along and sound natural at the same time. It should have a purpose. A unique line of dialogue displays values and intelligence — in short, it reveals character.

One of the most difficult tasks a writer faces is making dialogue sound natural. The best way to achieve this is to listen to what people say and how they say it. How do children speak to each other compared to how they speak to adults? Do the conversations among girls differ from those among boys? What about the conversations between boys and girls? Pay close attention to the dialogue in well-reviewed books written for your target age group. Most importantly, your characters should have a way of speaking that fits the world of your book. They should not sound as if they were recorded on a playground; while sounding natural, their speech should reveal their unique intentions and fears.

Realistic Speech Styles

Pay attention to grammar and style. Children do not always speak in complete sentences, and if you consistently use complete sentences in your dialogue, it will probably sound unnatural. You will also find that people stammer, use the wrong word, pause while searching for what to say next, and repeat themselves over and over. You don't need to reproduce these verbal habits in your writing. While they are natural styles, they can also be very distracting. Would you really like to read the same sentence five times in a row?

Use your best judgment and focus on the purpose of the dialogue. If a speech style helps to define your character or move the story along, then you can certainly use it. But keep in mind that overhearing real people and reading about fictional people are two different things. Allow your reader to tune out boring speech, just as he might in a normal conversation. Focus instead on speech that moves your story forward.

Your characters will speak differently depending on their personalities. You may have a shy girl who hardly says a word at all and an outgoing boy who loudly expresses his opinion on everything. Match up speech patterns with personality traits. Children speak differently in different regions, and differently from each other — even from family members and friends. Make use of this in your story to help the reader delineate the individual characters and better understand them.

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The only way you can tell if your dialogue sounds natural is to read it aloud or have someone else read it to you. This will also help you to get to know your characters better. Read the conversations as though you were acting out the part of each individual character.

Using Correct Language

You must be careful to not write your dialogue exactly as it is spoken. People sometimes run their words together or leave off endings. For instance, you may hear the word “gonna” used frequently, but it is often best to translate it into “going to” in your work. If you are writing for young readers, you don't want to lead them away from correct language while they are still learning. Even if you are writing for advanced readers who know better, it is still best to use correct language.

If dialect is required to develop your character or story, use it sparingly. A little goes a long way to suggest a speech pattern. Instead of misspellings, use colorful expressions like “tuckered out” or “dag nabbit.” Avoid clichés and invent your own expressions, such as “he was plum tummy full” or “she was mad enough to bite.”

Years ago, writers often used phonetic spelling to represent words used in dialect. For example, a writer might have indicated the words “it sure doesn't” by writing “it sho dont” — without an apostrophe. There are two reasons to avoid this practice. First, it is difficult to use phonetic spelling accurately for dialect you didn't grow up with. And second, if your characters are smart, phonetic spellings will make them seem less so. This practice may also suggest class, social, or racial snobbery and can reinforce cultural stereotyping.

Identifying Speakers

When writing dialogue, you also must be sure to identify the speakers. No one wants to retrace a conversation to figure out who is speaking. If you write straightforward conversation between only two people, it isn't necessary to tag each line. But if it goes on for a while, you will need to identify the characters every few lines just to keep things straight. Also be sure to start a new paragraph with each new speaker.

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While you want your dialogue to sound natural, try to stay away from using current trendy phrases. This will date your book and label it relevant only to those children of today. If your story is packed with popular sayings, it will be inaccessible to children forty years from now.

Using the word said is perfectly acceptable for a tag line. Don't feel as though you must substitute a variety of words for said. Using too many adverbs or an assortment of said synonyms will weigh down the dialogue. People are used to plain old said and can easily read through it without having to grasp any more than the identity of the speaker.

Show and Tell

If you take a writing class, the “show, don't tell” suggestion will almost always be brought up. This applies to children's writing especially. Because you are writing for children, you want to write action-packed stories. This doesn't necessarily mean you need burning buildings and extreme drama. But you should always have something happening that advances the story of the main character struggling against obstacles to attain her goal. A good way to keep the story moving is to show the action instead of simply stating that something happened.

As a writer, you must always allow your reader to figure out some things on his own, especially when it comes to understanding what a character is feeling. Children are smart and capable readers and are up to this challenge. For instance, instead of simply stating, “Amy is shy,” show Amy standing alone in a corner, biting her nails, glancing around, yet avoiding eye contact. Your readers will understand — maybe all too well — what Amy is feeling.

Showing, through dialogue and description, is important, but so is telling, through narrative summary. Showing an action unfold draws readers close to the characters. Moments of narrative reflection allow your characters and your readers to pause and consider the meanings of events that have happened thus far in your story.

Using the Active Voice

Another good rule of thumb is to choose the active voice over the passive voice whenever you can. This makes the text more stimulating and gives it an effect of movement.

If you use the passive voice too often, the text seems lifeless and static. For example, compare the two sentences below. Which is more lively and better suited for a children's book?

The vase was shattered to pieces after it was thrown by Mary.

Mary threw the vase and shattered it to pieces.

The first sentence uses a passive voice, which tells the reader what has happened. The second sentence uses an active voice, which shows the action. Can you tell the difference? The passive voice normally uses a form of the verb to be, such as is, was, are, or were. The active voice uses action verbs such as throw, hide, run, and sneeze. If showing versus telling is still unclear, write a story using only the passive voice. Then write the same story using an active voice. Read them both aloud and you should be able to hear a distinct difference between the two.

Writing Tips

As you well know, writing for children is no easy task. You can learn only so much from reading how-to books, and the rest you will have to learn on your own.

If you are writing your very first book, you might feel overwhelmed at the moment. It will get easier as you get into the habit of writing regularly and progress with several works. Don't feel as if you are alone out there. Writing for children isn't easy for anyone, even seasoned authors. Keep the following tips in mind; they will help you throughout the writing process:

Writer's Block

Nearly all writers suffer writer's block at some point during their lives — some even do so on a regular basis. Writer's block is simply that period of time when you stare blankly at your work without writing a single word. Your inspiration seems to have flown out the window and your brain has shut down. Writer's block can be very frustrating and will test your aptitude for writing. But you can't let it get the best of you. You are the one with the fantastic ideas and wonderful talent. Just as any job has obstacles, so does writing: writer's block is an obstacle that you will need to overcome.

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To make the best use of your allotted writing time and to help alleviate writer's block, schedule your writing time during your most productive time of day. For instance, if you are most creative during the early morning, get up an hour earlier and schedule that time to write.

The Root of the Problem

To overcome writer's block, you need to get to the root of the problem. Try to figure out what is causing you to stall. While there are several possibilities, quite often writer's block is caused by one of two things: fear or stress.

Whether you are just beginning or are a seasoned author, fear can get in the way of your writing. Perhaps you are afraid of this new venture and believe that you are not good enough to make it. Maybe you have been successful with a past book and are afraid your next is not going to meet the high standards set by your audience and publisher. The good news is, writing is often about facing your fears. You can draw energy from creatively combating what bothers you.

Another common source of writer's block is stress. Perhaps you are working under a tight deadline. Maybe you have three children screaming in the background while you are trying to work. Or you may have a relative who is ill and who you can't stop thinking about. Try to identify sources of stress affecting your ability to write.

Of course, fear and stress aren't the only factors that can affect your work, but they are good starting points if you are unsure of what is causing writer's block. Once you know what the root of the problem is, you can then take steps to overcome it.

Overcoming Writer's Block

One of the first things you'll want to try is to just write. Start typing. Don't worry about quality — just use this time to get into your story. Many writers start each writing session this way and eventually throw out the first page. By the second, they have often found their groove and the quality returns to their sentences.

If you are just simply stuck and can't think of any particular reason why you are suffering writer's block, you may want to try some writing exercises that will loosen you up and take the pressure off of writing a particular story. For instance, try a free-writing exercise in which you simply write whatever comes to mind. Don't concentrate on anything and don't stop to think, just write. This may loosen you up, produce notes for a future story, and allow you to return to your book with a more relaxed concentration.

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Sometimes writer's block hits so hard that your only option is to temporarily abandon the story. While this may be necessary, don't ignore your daily writing schedule. Use that time to work on another story idea, compose a letter to a friend, or write in your journal.

You might also try a change of scenery. Maybe you have worked so many hours in a small corner of the house that you are beginning to feel suffocated and antsy without even realizing it. Grab a notebook and pencil and walk to the park or a coffee shop to write. A breath of fresh air may be just the cure for your bout with writer's block.

Or perhaps looking at books will inspire you. Pay a visit to your local library. Wander through the stacks, looking over books of various kinds. Have your pencil and paper ready and jot down anything that occurs to you. You never know where and when inspiration will strike.