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love this. ive worked on a lot of mg and i have many thoughts. first, i think it's really important to read stories published within the last few years. reading in the category you want to write in will teach you A LOT about pacing/character/voice/plot/all the things https://twitter.com/ebonylynnmudd/status/1287748229153665030
openings matter a lot. now this isnt to say we have to be plunged into action but you want to give the read an immediate sense of the world and character and stakes. mg readers arent gonna be as patient with you. dont take 50 pages to set things up when you can take 5.
this is guiding advice for writing anything, you need to know what your character wants most, whats in their way, & whats at stake. take percy jackson. he is just trying to do the right thing, but he's constantly getting into trouble and switching schools.
immediately he has your sympathy bc all of at some point have felt alone and ostracized and thats a huge feeling for kids of that age. he wants to fit in. but guess what, turns out that the things that made him feel alone actually mark him as a demigod. thats freaking awesome.
enter more stakes! his mom is captured, he has to save her but he doesnt feel like a hero AND he's blamed for a thing he didnt do. the book feels relatable while being epic. Percy struggles w a lot but ultimately makes friends and learns to believe in himself.
your book doesnt have to be epic like that. (also read something more current than percy jackson haha, i picked that bc its well known). bc remember, even the "smallest" things like breaking up with your best friend or being the new kid feel huge at that age and, well, at any age
i frequently tell ppl to pick up books in similar mg genres as the book they're writing. what do you notice about those opening pages, what pulls you in. its not just about reading whats been published to know the market, its a craft thing. study current books to improve craft
one of the biggest things i see as a problem is that authors talk down to readers. they take on this weird voice thats like "well what little timothy didnt know because he was only a young boy was that..." and like no one wants to read that. its not FUN.
and thats the second biggest problem, i often read books with fantastic premises that are just boring. there's nothing about the narrative voice or main character that pulls you in, its someone telling me the story without putting me in that world and letting me feel it.
you have to pull readers in no matter the genre. kids at this age are beginning to explore the world for the first time. and it can be a really hard time for a lot of kids. you must channel those feels into your book and character. that ties into voice.
you need to have fun writing this. and you need to remember what it was like to be that age. you have to remember that kids like to read up, so while your main character might be 10 or 11 or 12, the target readers are 8-11 or 9-12. (YA technically is 12 and up or 14+)
so dont dumb down your story for kids. i mean, look at whats on the nyt bestsellers lists in mg: https://www.nytimes.com/books/best-sellers/childrens-middle-grade-hardcover/ https://www.nytimes.com/books/best-sellers/middle-grade-paperback-monthly/ such a huge range of books. really anything goes these days in MG.
but first, you want to just write the book. i think you shouldnt worry so much about craft that you mentally block yourself and are being a perfectionist. so get the story down on paper. then revise.
3 books that i feel capture MG voice PERFECTLY that are recent and I adore are SAL AND GABI BREAK THE UNIVERSE (luckily for you, book two is also out!) https://www.readriordan.com/book/sal-and-gabi-break-the-universe/
THE FIRST RULE OF PUNK https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/553179/the-first-rule-of-punk-by-celia-c-perez/
and STAND UP, YUMI CHUNG! https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/605935/stand-up-yumi-chung-by-jessica-kim/
THE FIRST RULE OF PUNK https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/553179/the-first-rule-of-punk-by-celia-c-perez/
and STAND UP, YUMI CHUNG! https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/605935/stand-up-yumi-chung-by-jessica-kim/
also, check out @middlegroundbf (im on the "back to the future" panel and we cover a lot of this!) for so much advice: https://twitter.com/middlegroundbf/status/1284154663684710400
