Tips picked up at "Writing YA" masterclass

I mentioned earlier in the week that I had attended an event put on by Bloomsbury and the Writer and Artist's Yearbook called "Writing YA" with Sarah Crossan and Julia Churchill.It was a fantastic event, great to meet some fellow writers, including some of the writers from my SCBWI e-critique group - great to finally put some faces to the stories (even if my mind did go temporarily blank and forget who was writing what).

The evening was full of lots of useful advice, and I thought I'd gather some together here, together with some of the tweets by Ellie Gibbons, who works for Writers and Artists/Bloomsbury!

Sarah Crossan (author of Apple and Rain, The Weight of Water, and Breathe) spoke first about her own writing experiences and tips.

On voice, Sarah said that for YA novels, the voice needs to be immediate, and so she writes in first person, present. She also used several examples to show that the first pages of many novels either have lots of blank spaces, or use lots of questions or question marks as a good way to get into the story. The tone too should be informal, relaxed.

Of course, Sarah pointed out, that all these rules are made to be broken! 

One of the things that stood out to me however and really resonated, was the idea that all the ugly experiences we have give us unique voices, but these experiences have to be put onto something else (if that makes sense).

'You have to use your own experiences, your own pain, your own joys, in order to make it genuine.' @SarahCrossan #writingYA
— Ellie Gibbons (@EllieJGibbons) October 14, 2014

Sarah also suggested that teenager's voices are often unreliable, just because they don't know any different.

On story, Sarah said that you must remember that concept and story are very different. The characters need to grow throughout the story and get to a better place by the end.

Difference between concept & story: a story is about knowing what the beginning, middle and end is. #writingYA
— Ellie Gibbons (@EllieJGibbons) October 14, 2014

Another thing that really resonated, was that the things that REALLY matter to teens are often the little things that we don't worry about anymore. The small things, which feel huge at the time.

'YA fiction is about having your character grow through experience.' #writingYA
— Ellie Gibbons (@EllieJGibbons) October 14, 2014

Remember the little things that matter to young people that may not matter to you as an adult. #writingYA
— Ellie Gibbons (@EllieJGibbons) October 14, 2014

Julia Churchill spoke after Sarah and gave some more general tips on submissions and the submission process. Julia said that she looks for SIX things in submissions:

Concept,
Character,
Story,
Setting,
Theme,
Voice. 

Common problem with submissions: too much going on and not enough focus #writingYA
— Ellie Gibbons (@EllieJGibbons) October 14, 2014

Wherever your book falls on the YA spectrum, you need high stakes. Give the reader a reason to keep reading #writingYA
— Ellie Gibbons (@EllieJGibbons) October 14, 2014

Those were some of the highlights from the night! It really was a very inspiring night and filled with me lots of ideas, inspiration, and a new clarity - making me determined to get very focused again!

Country girl in the Big City

It's Thursday again - how did that happen?

This week has been a little more manic than ususal, i.e. I have had stuff on that menas being out the house all day and that means I am now exhausted! And unfortuantely haven't had much writing time. *sob*. I am wriitng a Christmas story though, which is very exciting, inspired by Stephanie Perkins' My True Love Gave to Me collection, which is utterly wonderful, in so many ways. If you want to feel Christmassy or just love Christmas, warm stories or brilliant writing, GO GET THIS COLLECTION NOW!

Anyway, that was not meant to be the point of this blog post!

On Tuesday I ventured out of my small country world, and up to the big smoke (i.e. London) for the first time in ageeeeees. It's always weird and stressful arriving in London and realising just how many people there are and that you have to go on the tube and things like that. And there are too many distractions,  like the new Foyles, where it is far too easy to buy too many books - not that this happened to me at all *cough cough*.

Nice as it was to have a change of scene, it was utterly EXHAUSTING and I couldn't wait to get back home again and SLEEP!

But, in the evening I was due to the attend a Bloomsbury Writers and Artists Yearbook masterclass, called Writing YA fiction - Breaking the Rules with author Sarah Crossan and agent Julia Churchill. The evening was fantastic, and really reinspired me, and gave me lots of things to think about. (Also, walking in, it was great to see some HP books in their bookcases.) It's always good to regather your thoughts and refocus. Now, I just need to get on and use that info. It was also wonderful to meet some of the scbwi people I know from my online critique group - great to finally put some faces to the names and stories, although I had a complete blank when meeting them and couldn't remember who had written what. They put me to complete shame, remembering exactly what I had written! Sorry guys. But it was wonderful to meet them and I was very glad that I had gone to the event. Sarah Crossan was also WONDERFUL. I saw her speak at YALC over the summer, and that was one reason why I thought this would be a great event to go to.

I'll try and write up some of the things that were said later in the week, but for now, I am going to try and crack on with some writing, grateful to be back in the countryside!