Eighteen months ago, I took up karate. It's a great workout, but the biggest reason I train is I want to be a formidable senior citizen. If someone tries to nab my purse or deny my senior discount at Denny's, I'll be able to answer with a quick roundhouse kick to the solar plexus. By laying the foundation now, I'll be a badass when I'm 65.
But the coolest thing about taking up karate when you're a woman in her mid-40's is that people don't automatically expect it. If you're just a casual acquaintance, you won't know I'm working toward my black belt. And by the time I'm collecting Social Security, the possibility won't even cross your mind. Unless you try to steal my purse.
In life most people become more complex as we get to know them. This should also be true for characters in children's books. At a conference recently, Lyron Bennett, editor for Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, called it "the slow reveal". It means giving your characters enough varied qualities that some can be withheld until called for in the plot.
The slow reveal is especially important when writing a series. If J.K. Rowling had allowed Harry Potter to reach his full power as a wizard in Book 1, would fans have waited nine years and six more books to learn if he finally defeated you-know-who? But equally important is planting the seeds early on for who you want your character to become. From the start, readers saw Harry's potential, and Rowling allowed greatness to surface in Harry when it was least expected. Those qualities grew along with Harry as the series unfolded.
You don't want to give away everything at once in stand-alone books either. Picture books and easy readers, with their lower word counts and straightforward plots, do best with characters who have one or two surprises up their sleeve. In Peggy Parish's classic easy reader Amelia Bedelia, the child sees that Amelia is doing a bad job on her first day as a housekeeper because she doesn't understand the list her employer left her. But even before Amelia starts on the list, she whips up a lemon merengue pie. What the reader doesn't know is that Amelia makes the best pies anywhere, which eventually saves her job at the end of the book.
Parceling out your protagonist's strengths and weaknesses keeps the tension taut in a novel. In Gary Paulsen's beloved Hatchet (ages 11-14), Brian, a city kid, is stranded in the Canadian wilderness after the his bush plane crashes, killing the pilot. Neither Brian nor the reader know if he's got what it takes to survive on his own. Can he figure out how to start a fire? Yes, quite by accident. Can he fish? Eventually. Kill and cook a bird? How about survive a moose attack or weather a tornado? Brian evolves from reacting to his predicament and stumbling upon solutions to carefully taking control of his situation. But nothing Brian does is out of character. Though he must teach himself to live in the wild, he draws upon bits of information he learned from watching television or at school, and reserves of strength that were in him all along.
Even if you're writing a single title, make your children's book characters complex enough to live for several books, just in case. Fans loved Brian so much that Paulsen was persuaded to use the character in several other wilderness adventures. Picture book series (such as Mo Willem's Pigeon books) or easy reader series like Amelia Bedelia generally grow because the protagonist's quirks are open-ended and funny enough that readers don't mind exploring them over and over in different circumstances.
The slow reveal works particularly well in mysteries. In this genre, the readers gradually get to know the victim (perhaps an honor student who is discovered to be running an Internet business selling test answers), and the villain (who may seem like a good guy at the beginning of the book). Or, how about a first person narrator in any genre who appears normal and likable early on, but becomes more unreliable as the story unfolds? Read Robert Cormier's timeless young adult I Am the Cheese for a masterful example of a shifting first person reality. If you prefer a broader perspective, try Avi's Nothing But the Truth: A Documentary Novel for ages 11-14, which looks at one incident from several viewpoints, gradually separating fact from fiction. So when you first breath life into your characters, don't stop too soon. Add layers that can be exposed later on. These surprises will keep readers enthralled, whether you're writing about a boy wizard, a demanding pigeon, or a ninja grandma.
Karen,
Great ideas! I agree with you about printing. I've missed errors when just reading online. As soon as I print it, the mistakes leap right off the page!
I'll use these tips on my current manuscripts. Thanks for sharing your wisdom.
GREAT TIPS!! I love the editing tips about the different font, and reading it backwards.
Great tips for all writers, Karen! I've tried not printing it out (trying to be nicer to the environment) but, like you said, it just doesn't work. I thought it was my own idiosyncrasy. Good to know I'm not alone!
I like the change of font idea. It's simple & different. I also have a list of "search-and-destroy words that I look for. Common typos that Word might never notice were used wrong like, Affect-effect,Grisly-grizzly,Picture-pitcher, Naval-navel,and so no.And then there's the ever-sticky, Its-it’s, their-they're, your-you're, etc.Of course we all know the difference, but somehow they do have a way of sneaking into our prose and camouflaging themselves well.
I never thought of changing the font and re-reading the MS, then read it again backwards. Sounds like a lot of work. Think I;ll pay my editor to do that for me.
But I do a lot of self editing myself. As much as I can. Makes life easier on my editor that way.
Stephen Tremp
Great tips. I'd heard the read it backwards one before, but I have a hard time doing that - lol. I can write backwards (really, I can; it's called mirror writing but I don't need a mirror to do it). I print mine out mostly for figuring out which clues are best as discussion questions for the back of the book and which would be better off in the study guide.
Changing the font is a new one on me. Think I'll do that next time - thanks for sharing - E :)
Elysabeth Eldering
Author of the Junior Geography Detective Squad, 50-state, mystery, trivia series
STATE OF WILDERNESS, now available
STATE OF QUARRIES, now available
STATE OF RESERVATIONS, coming May 2010
STATE OF ALTITUDE, coming May/June 2010
Where will the adventure take you next?
http://jgdsseries.blogspot.com
http://junior-geography-detective-squad.weebly.com
Thank you for sharing such helpful ideas.
Thanks for the great tips and for being a guest on my blog today, Karen!
Excellent advice. I've used most of them and best of all -- they work!
Hi, All, Thanks so much for visiting today. I haven't tried the reading your manuscript backwards yet, but I will. And, I agree, I think it will be time consuming.
And, Dana, those homonyms are so tricky and seem to sneak in when least expected.
Mayra, thank you so much for featuring me today!
This is great information. I'll be copying them and following them when I'm editing.
Blessings,
J. Aday Kennedy
The Differently-Abled Writer
Great tips. When I print, my printer has an automatic front/back printing option which I use. That way I save paper.
Hi, Jessica, I'm so glad you found the tips useful.
Katie, I never thought of using both sides of the paper. I think my printer has that option, I'll have to check.
Thanks for the tip!
This is a timely article for me as I’m going through an edit now. You’ve listed several clever ideas, I’m going to try. Thanks.
Hey, Jane. I'm glad they're coming in handy!
I'm in edits now also.
Great tips. I never thought of changing the font. Thanks for the advice.
Martha Swirzinski
Your welcome, Martha.And, thanks for stopping by!
Karen, These are great tips for self editing. I have a hard time catching errors on the computer screen and find printing the document to review works better.
Thanks again for sharing these tips!
What a great post! I especially love your tip about changing the font. I never would have thought of that but it is so true! Thanks Karen and Mayra for this helpful post.
This is a great list, Karen. I hope readers will also consider my book The Frugal Editor (www.budurl.com/TheFrugalEditor); it gives some editing/content advice straight from the mouths of top agents. Let's just say that they all seemed to have plenty of pet peeves. (-:
Best,
Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Hi, Brigitte, Dallas, and Carolyn. I'm so glad you found the post useful.
And, I have The Frugal Editor and it's jammed pack of great advice, tips, information, and resources.
Thanks all, for stopping by.
LOVE THIS! Will definitely share!
Thanks,
Deb
www.writeononline.com
Thanks, Deb!