Writers in the Storm

By Kris Maze

Writing an irresistible novel that readers can’t put down is the goal of most writers. Using plot-strengthening techniques gleaned from Young Adult writing can improve any novel, no matter the genre or the age of readership. A story featuring a teen protagonist has a fertile bed of emotions to cultivate with built-in rites of passage moments that all readers can relate to or anticipate.

The following seven elements can heighten the drama and tension in any story, helping you write a book your readers won’t want to stop reading.

1. Utilize a subplot about Belonging.

Be it finding peace in a dysfunctional family, bonding with a band of misfits, or navigating the expectations of first love, YA books all have a coming-of-age component that stems from a need for acceptance.

Abraham Maslow formed a psychological theory describing man’s needs to survive and then thrive in a hierarchical system.  The inverted triangle begins with the basic physical needs of food, water, and shelter (physiological). 

The character arc you create should take care of these needs before the protagonist moves up to the higher levels of security and safety, followed by belonging and intimate relationships. 

For Young Adult fiction, you can usually stop at the level of belonging, but there should be the promise of improved self-esteem and self-actualization.  These deep-seated needs will feed a reader's satisfaction with the character’s growth.

2. Put the protagonist's worst moments under a microscope.

Teens are hyper self-focused and naturally worry about more than they need to. Bring your reader into those moments. Let your character wallow in self- pity. Let the sting of loss sink in with the reader; it resonates more when your character finds success later on.

Best friends move away. Students graduate and life will never be the same.  Accidents happen and cannot be undone. A scholarship can’t be regained. Death of a loved one will hurt forever. These are moments that set the stage for better times yet to come. 

Possible resolutions to these issues:

• Best friends move away. But they can join the ecology club and meet a new kid in town.

• Students graduate and life will never be the same. They can exhibit new independence as they get their first job.

• Accidents happen and cannot be undone. They can see their loss as a new opportunity to focus on what they really want in life.

• A scholarship can’t be regained. They can develop a new product that sells like social media hotcakes and pay their way instead. 

• Death of a loved one will hurt forever. They can learn the rich emotions surrounding the bittersweet memories of a loved one in honoring a special celebration.

3. Play up their flaws and make your character squirm. 

Zeroing in on your characters' insecurities or lack of resources makes them squirm on the page. If your reader is rooting for that character, every time you stick in the knife they will squirm right along with that character.

In the 2008 science fiction Knife of Never Letting Go, Todd Hewitt only has fuzzy memories of his mother after a Noise germ infected his town. The disease makes all men’s thoughts audible and caused women to disappear. When Todd's thirteenth birthday is days away, he realizes the town holds a dark secret that may cost him his life. He flees and meets a silent girl, one with an education who uses highly-advanced technology (not found in his primitive town) to heal.

Todd wrestles with his inadequacies as he tries to defend himself and control his audible thoughts. This becomes increasingly difficult as he figures out that the girl hears and understands him!  They must work together to survive and the plot escalates on many levels.

4. Make the stakes high and their relationships fragile. 

Katniss in The Hunger Games begins in her normal world hunting with Gale Hawthorn. By doing this, she establishes herself as a rule-breaker of the tyrannical Capital, but only within her small daily scope.  When her loyalty is tested, and she takes her sister Prim's place as Tribute, she has broken her whole world... including her future with Gale. 

Katniss is hardened by her past, having lost her father to the mining system and her mother to grief, but further resists taking on the role of revolutionary. She ultimately comes to terms with a compromised role with a new relationship with Peeta as the story spins wildly toward her goal of taking down the corrupt system and focusing less on her own perceived happiness.

5. Use your Character’s newfound skillset.

When you build your character, take stock of their personality, people skills, hidden talents, negotiation savvy, or ability to coordinate their friend pack to win as a team.  These are ways your protagonist should address the problem or conflict of the story. No outside help! Stay inside their personal world. I repeat, no outside ADULTS should solve the problem for them - this is a YA plot killer.

Would Dorthy of Wizard of Oz have had the same dynamic if she had Auntie Em to consult along the way?

6. Emphasize the protagonist's inner journey. Let them win!

 In The Perks of Being a Wallflower, the protagonist Charlie begins high school as the sensitive, reclusive younger brother of his popular siblings.  A group of senior misfits invites him into their bizarre social circle, and as Charlie steps out of his comfort zone he shares formative insights with each senior, developing genuine friendships.  

But Charlie makes mistakes, (spoiler alert!) jeopardizing his acceptance from the seniors. At a party, he is dared to kiss the prettiest girl which is, alas, not his girlfriend! He learns the nuance of tact along with ways a relationship can become permanently altered.

Charlie’s journey is complex in this modern classic, as he uses his new-found ability to understand others and lives up to his potential; he overcomes a dark past and becomes a true friend in the process.

7. The ending should not be tidy.

Teens know that there are things to look forward to, and things to solve in real life. Realism includes messy endings. Make sure the main conflict is ironclad, then let some pieces float into the chaos that we expect.

Some ideas:

• Does your character lack courage?  Make sure they demonstrate bravery.
• Do they have stage fear as their main conflict? Have their performance shine.
• Do they have an impossible escape room puzzle? Let them be the sleuth to creatively resolve the problem.
• Do they consider themselves too weak?  Let them run the marathon and win.

Other things may not resolve, but the main conflict MUST wrap up tightly.

Characters know life is unpredictable, it makes the story authentic. Teens will walk away from anything too contrived.

Pick a main thread and wrap that one up on all levels. Remember Maslow’s Hierarchy?  Make your character scale the tiers. Let them land somewhere in the top half and avoid making it too perfect. Trust the reader to fill in some of these ideas, and leave them with questions to contemplate. Giving them loose threads also helps you the writer with creating sequels!

How can you use these ideas to tighten a story?  What other resources or examples have most helped your craft? Share your insights below. I look forward to your comments!

About Kris

ris Maze writes empowering, twisty stories and also teaches Spanish. Her first Science Fiction novella was published in the summer of 2020.

Kris Maze has worked in education for 25 years and writes for various publications including Practical Advice for Teachers of Heritage Learners of Spanish and award-winning blog Writers in the Storm where she is also a host. You can find her brief speculative stories and keep up with her author events at her website.

A recovering grammarian and hopeless wanderer, Kris enjoys reading, playing violin and piano, and spending time outdoors with her family. She also ponders the wisdom of Bob Ross.

by Julie Glover

I've thought about marketing a lot.

I've read books about it, talked with other authors about what worked and what didn't, and tried various approaches. I've mulled over publishing industry changes, book signings and tours, internet tools, and social media. I've learned about Facebook ads, Amazon ads, and dipped my toe into the BookBub world.

One of the best sources for marketing information is this blog right here! Here's just a sampling of author marketing posts you can find on Writers in the Storm:

• Social Media Habits that Support Your Brand AND Your Life
• Using Amazon Categories to Sell More Books
• Want Authorly Superpowers? Build a Street Team!
• Exactly When Is the Best Time to Begin Your Book Marketing?
• Indie Publishing 101– Part III
• The Strategy that Leads to More Book Sales

But Here's the Problem...

I often make big plans and then don't follow through.

I might have a fantastic marketing strategy, all the tools I need to make it happen, and the budget to boot. I start with dollar signs in my eyes and visions of readers devouring my stories with satisfied grins on their faces.

And then I crap out.

Sometimes right away, sometimes much later.

Regardless, marketing is my least favorite part of being an author, and I'm not good at following through with big plans.

What's the Best Plan?

Many authors are naturally talented marketers, others are wonderful learners who apply savvy advice with success, and yet others are simply good at getting the required jobs done. Good for you!

But whether you're a sales genius or an embarrassing failure, I can tell you the best plan for you. After a lot of screwing up, I finally remembered that saying that the best exercise program is the one that you will do.

There's no point in telling yourself that you'll run a marathon when you hate jogging down the street. Nor should you take up ballroom dancing if you have vertigo and two left feet.

Remember how you told yourself at the beginning of a global pandemic that this was your chance to reacquaint yourself with the treadmill? And instead, you spent weeks perfecting your sourdough starter and cinnamon rolls? Surprise! Surprise! You followed through with the thing you actually wanted to do.

It's the same with writing. If you want to do it, you will. If you don't, you ultimately won't.

The best marketing plan is the one you will do.

Sift Through Advice.

You can save yourself a lot of heartache if you'll sift through all book marketing advice with this in mind. Ask yourself questions like:

• What are my marketing strengths?

Embrace those smart marketing tactics that tap into your talents. My coauthor and I have discovered that I suck at doing ads but I'm great at managing our Facebook group. We each play to our strengths.

• Which tasks do I enjoy doing?

What do you look forward to doing? Book signings do not work for many authors, but I know one who loves this one-on-one interaction so much that she becomes a sales powerhouse at signings.

• What marketing is desirable or necessary and what isn't?

Some things you have neither talent nor interest are still necessary tasks. For instance, you are not required to be on social media, but you must write a blurb for your book.

• Which required tasks should I hire out?

Don't like it? Can't do it well? Still need it done? Hire it out! Like you can get help with writing that blurb or hire someone to do your Amazon ads. Whatever needs doing—short of writing the book—someone out there can do it for you.

• What pace is reasonable for me to accomplish tasks?

Get real with yourself about what marketing will look like, given your personality and lifestyle. Not everyone can run the author marketing sprint. You may need to jog to your destination. And that's okay.

• What would success really look like for me?

Consider what results you can expect given who you are and what you'll do. If that image is not the success you want, revisit the points above. Reconfigure the plan until you have something that represents who you are, what you want, and what you will actually, honest-with-yourself complete.

In short—as my Gen-Z sons have often said—you do you. ("As if I could do anyone else," mutters their Gen-X mother.)

What marketing plan ideas have you learned that you will and won't do? What adjustments have you made or need to make?

About Julie

Julie Glover writes mysteries and young adult fiction. Her YA contemporary novel, SHARING HUNTER, finaled in the 2015 RWA® Golden Heart® and is now on sale! She is also coauthor, under the pen name Jules Lynn, of the supernatural suspense Muse Island Series.

When not writing, she collects boots, practices rampant sarcasm, and advocates for good grammar and the addition of the interrobang as a much-needed punctuation mark.

Images by StartupStockPhotos and Sabine Mondestin from Pixabay

Julie is represented by Louise Fury of The Bent Agency. You can visit her website here and also follow her on Facebook.

by John Peragine

Completing a draft of a book can feel like you scaled a mountain. You might take a moment to breathe and celebrate. You did it! You are on top, after a difficult climb. And then you notice, as the clouds clear a bit, that you have only scaled the first peak. There are three more even steeper peaks ahead before you can call it DONE! Those triple steep hikes are called editing.

I recommend three different edits completed by three different people. Try to use both men and women and people from different races and backgrounds than your own. They will provide a more diverse edit and provide you a broader perspective on your work.

If you are having the book edited by a traditional press, the process is similar to the experience of self-publishing in which YOU are the publisher.

I don’t recommend skipping any of these edits, because there is nothing worse than a manuscript full of typos, errors, and even plot holes.

Step 1: Developmental Edit

Hold on to your britches because the developmental editor is most likely the first person who will be reading your epic work. This edit usually takes the longest because they are looking at your manuscript through the lens of its overall story structure -- plot, characters, scenes, dialog, and more.

Before you open your editorial review document, have a glass of your favorite beverage and remember: this process is meant to help you polish your work. It isn’t personal.

It may feel personal, but it isn’t. The editor doesn’t hate your book. They love your work and want to help you bring the best version of it into the world. Editors have your best interest, so try not to cry and don’t give up.

Remember this mantra: ALL FIRST DRAFTS ARE CRAP! (Whenever you doubt that, watch this video from bestselling author Maureen Johnson.)

Pour yourself a second glass of whatever you're drinking and dig in. You have work to do.

Step 2: Copy Edit

Most of the time, you will move to the copy edit after the developmental edit. If your book needed a lot of work you might want to consider a second developmental edit, but try to find a different editor with fresh eyes to do it.

The copy edit is a step closer to perfection. Your grammarian will pull apart your syntax errors and dangling participles. They will point out beautiful things such as, “Don’t use the word large again. You have used it 80 times in this chapter. Treat yourself - buy a thesaurus.” (Taken almost verbatim to a comment I received.)

Once they are finished, your manuscript will be ready to sing. You can send out your Advance Reader copies and begin gathering the tons of compliments and reviews of your Pulitzer worthy masterpiece.

But wait…there is one more peak to conquer…

Step 3: Proofread

Many first time authors skip right to this step and believe this is all they need for their edit. If you skip the other two edits, a proofread can be compared to putting lipstick on a pig.

Remember: ALL FIRST DRAFTS ARE CRAP!

I could offer crasser euphemisms to describe what happens when you only have a proofread edit of your work, but I will confidently leave it to your imagination.

A proofread is the time to "cross eyes and dot teas." A good proofreader scans every word, every bit of punctuation, every missing pronoun, and creates a manuscript worthy of being printed on cream-colored paper. (I’m not too fond of white paper; it hurts my eyes. Be kind to your readers: use cream-colored paper.)

The Investment

If you are self-publishing your book, the process I mention here is an investment. Whenever someone asks me how much it will cost, I do my best impression of Dr. Evil and say, “One million dollars.”

The reality is, there is no standard price. It can vary, and more expensive editors are not always the best. More important than price is the output of the editor. The Writer's Market has a great section that offers market prices for editors and the like.

How do you know they're the best person for the job? Here are some things to consider:

1. Where did you find the editor? There are many great organizations, such as Reedsy. They vet their editors. There are a ton of sites that have lists of freelance editors, but how do you know if they are any good? I hire most of my editors through referrals from people I trust. Ask other authors who they use and their experience with their editor.
2. Not all editors are the same. I have not found any one editor that does all three kinds of edits well. They usually have one or two types of edits they do better than others. The reason for this is each edit is different and requires different skills. For instance, I tend to use College English professors for proofreaders. They are more versed in grammar rules and writing styles.
3. How much experience do they have in your genre? If you are writing a YA book, your first choice for a developmental edit may not be a historical fiction writer. You want someone who knows your genre and how the book should read in that genre.
4. Negotiate price. Most freelancers are flexible. You may even ask them to edit a couple of pages for you before you hire them. (You will, of course, pay them for this.) Tell them what your budget is, and they will often work something out with you.
5. Editors work hard and often make your book fantastic, where it may have started out mediocre. I recommend you do these three things for your editors:

• Tip them. A tip can be money or perhaps a nice bottle of whiskey.
• Acknowledge them in your book. Your grandma should be thanked for all the recipes you stole from her to write your cookbook, but be sure to thank the editors who made the words sing on the page.
• Refer them to others. If you like their work, send them to other authors. More work is the greatest ‘thank you’ you can give them.

What are your common writing mistakes? (Come on- we won’t judge.) Who do you recommend as an editor, and why? Share the love down in the comments!

About John

John Peragine has published 14 books and ghostwritten more than 100 others. He is a contributor for HuffPost, Reuters, and The Today Show. He covered the John Edwards trial exclusively for Bloomberg News and The New York Times. He has written for Wine Enthusiast, Grapevine Magazine, Realtor.com, WineMaker magazine, and Writer's Digest.

John began writing professionally in 2007, after working 13 years in social work and as the piccolo player for the Western Piedmont Symphony for over 25 years. Peragine is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors. His newest book, Max and the Spice Thieves, will be released this Fall. https://www.facebook.com/twilightdjinn/