Writing a Middle Grade Novel/Call for Submissions

Today, I’m continuing the series, Writing a Middle Grade Novel.

We want our readers to be “there.” To feel the excitement, the wind, the joy, the fear, and more in the journey of the character.  Descriptive passages create an illusion. The illusion of reality pulls the reader into the middle of the action and holds the reader there through the last page. Description is the image-making power of the story. It engages the reader by making the characters and action seem real.

The setting may seem unimportant compared to character, plot, and voice, but descriptive setting enhance the realism. In mysteries, frightful settings play a critical role if sights, sounds, smells, taste, and touch are conveyed through sensory details. Touch can send goosebumps down a reader’s spine if the character is in a scary setting and something bumps him. Fog or smoke can blur the character’s vision and make the setting creepier or seem more dangerous. Portraying a specific locale with sensory descriptors allows the writer to make a setting appear so real the reader can almost step into the pages of the book.

In Amazing Grace, I wrote:

Riding shotgun suited me fine. I loved to perch in the front seat by the driver. Besides, I was on the lookout for something. As we rounded a curve on Route 23 past Louisa, a row of Burma Shave signs popped into view. I read the signs to Johnny:

Don’t stick

Your elbow

Out so far

It might go home

In another car.

In writing this scene, my goal was to transport the reader back in time to some of America’s first roadside billboards, the Burma Shave signs. 

Next week, I’ll give more tips on writing descriptive passages. 

[I will resume Call for Submissions for Young Writers in September.] 

Call for Submissions for Adult Writers:

The Wolfe Pack's Black Orchid Novella Award. Recommended free contest gives $1,000 and publication in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine for the best traditional mystery novella. Contest sponsor The Wolfe Pack is the official fan club for Nero Wolfe, a legendary fictional sleuth created by Rex Stout in a series of mystery novels published from 1934 to 1975. Entries should be 15,000-20,000 words. See website for thematic and stylistic restrictions. Essentially, they are looking for an old-fashioned story of deduction, with a witty style and an engaging relationship between the characters, and no explicit sex or violence.

Deadline May 31

Guidelines at http://www.nerowolfe.org/htm/literary_awards/black_orchid_award/Black_Orchid_award_proc.htm

Creating and Developing Ideas for Books/Contest/Call for Submission

A couple of weeks ago, I was attended the Kentucky Book Fair where I talked with lots of writers. One beginning writer asked a couple of interesting questions: What triggered the idea for my first book? and How did I develop the idea into a story? Sometimes I wonder why that particular manuscript struck a chord with an editor when previous manuscripts landed in the trash heap. Now that I’ve had time to reflect on the question, I think I can answer it, at least partially.

The writing advice “Write about what you know” certainly applies to my first book, Once Upon a Dime. The setting of the book is a small farm. I live on a small farm. The animals are named for famous Americans. For seven years, I taught American history and focused on many famous Americans. At the end of the story, the tree grows books. I became a librarian so I was surrounded by books every day. But the similarities don’t stop there. One day my husband came in from mowing the fields. He walked upstairs to change out of his hot, sweaty clothes. In the meantime, he emptied his pockets of coins and attempted to drop them into a glass jar that served as a piggy bank. Instead, the coins missed the opening of the jar and scattered over the floor with a ting and a ping and a plink. When I heard the noise I looked at my two canine girls and said, “The money tree is ripe and it’s dropping its fruit.” I immediately realized I had just spouted a plot for a book. Of course, the sound of the ting, pling, and plink became the sound of the money as it shimmied in the breeze.

I find that if I write about what I know or a subject I’m interested in, the story is easier to write. When I research, I’m always on the lookout for quirky facts and interesting information. In Once Upon a Dime, I added Chinese money, yuan, to the money crop. The hardest part of writing the story was creating names for the manure—pig squish, sheep biscuits—used to fertilize the crops. That was the most fun, too.

So to answer the questions, I wrote about a subject in which I was passionate and knew well—a small, Appalachian farm.

What subject are you passionate about? When you figure out the answer, you know the subject of the book you can write.

Next week, I’ll discuss more about developing ideas.

Fan Story Contest
Write a short love poem with fifteen words or less. $100 cash prize for the winner of this contest for poets.
Deadline: December 3
Details at http://www.fanstory.com/contestdetails.jsp?id=3301&at=177

Call for Submissions
Teen Ink is a monthly print magazine, website, and a book series all written by teens for teens.
Details at http://www.teenink.com/

Rejection, Writing End to Beginning, Call for Submissions

Rejections letters. Eeuuu, nobody likes them, but a few rejection letters specifically state the problems, such as The ending was not realistic. You now know where your story may be lacking and also more about the type of story the editor is selecting. Seriously consider the comments made by an editor. Editors know what manuscripts work for their publishing houses. The best rejection letters request you to submit a revised manuscript or offer to review some of your other manuscripts.

If rejection slips with no comments flow in like tidal waves, you may want to reevaluate the manuscript. Could the manuscript be lacking in quality? The sheer volume of manuscripts publishers receive is overwhelming and the cream of the crop rises to the top. We become so emotionally attached to our writing it is impossible to be subjective in evaluating our own work. Join a critique group and get professional feedback.

All rejections are not the same. Reflect on the number of rejections, the type of rejections, and the reasons for rejection. Correct the problem by revising your submission list of publishers, the cover/query letter, or the story itself; then resurrect the manuscript with another round of submissions. With a little reflection, you can take your story from rejection to selection.

Writing from End to Beginning

Students sometimes we have great ideas for stories but don’t know where the story should start. Create a plot outline and write the ending, then the middle and finish with the beginning. This activity encourages creative thought long before the first word is written.

Call for submissions:
Once Upon a Day
Deadline: May 15th.
Your protagonist is about to have a day. He doesn't know it yet, but it's going to be a day that, for him, will live in infamy. A day she will point to, years later, as the specific moment when something in her soul changed. It can be a teeny tiny change or it can be a ginormous change. But it has to occur in the light of day.
The first line of your story must begin with: The sun rose...
The last line of your story must end with: ...just as the sun went down.
That which occurs in between—be it drama, comedy, mystery, romance, fantasy, etc.—is entirely up to you. What changes your dawn character to the one we shall see at dusk?
Prize: $100, plus the story will be published in The Verb. More details at
http://www.readingwriters.com/contest.htm

A Cup of Comfort® has once again joined hands with REDBOOK magazine to sponsor a true story contest!

Enter the Cup of Comfort/REDBOOK Your Love Story Contest for a chance to win $1,000, have your story excerpted in REDBOOK magazine, and publish your story in A Cup of Comfort for Couples!

A Cup of Comfort® for Couples: (Call for Submissions)
Stories that celebrate what it means to be in love

This book will feature uplifting true stories with a balanced mix of tones—romantic, poignant, humorous—on a wide range of topics. Story Length: 1000–2000 words.

Call for Submission Deadline: April 20, 2010
Finalist Notification: June 15, 2010
Details at http://www.cupofcomfort.com/callforsubmissions