One day, I thought "Ya know, maybe I'll try
actually reading one of the books I do a report on." I picked up The Lord
Of The Rings for a book report and…. I LOVED it. When I finally got bored of
those, I reached for new books. My favorites? Tom Sawyer, Peter Pan, The Jungle Book, Alice in Wonderland, The
Chronicles of Narnia and finally, the book of all books—Harry Potter.
I loved falling into a new story and losing myself. So
eventually, I decided I wanted my own. My own characters, my own story, my own
world.
That's the story about how I became a writer. But why
Middle Grade?
I could list a dozen reasons why I love MG. I have a
ton of memories from my middle school years that are awesome! And some
not-so-hot ones. I could say how I've always loved kids books (did you notice
my favorite books in high school were classic kids books?) I could tell you how
I'm a Goonie at heart. Or that I want to make up for the time I missed reading
as a kid. Or even that I want to write stories that kids will want to read, not
just because parents or teachers tell them to.
All of those are great reasons, and they're all a
little true. But it's not really why I write Middle Grade.
The real reason is—I'm still a stubborn kid and write
whatever I feel like writing. (DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!) Middle Grade and
Young Adult is simply what I want to write. Pre-teens and teens are fun and
it's their stories that I can't seem to let go.
Sometimes, when a character crawls into your brain and
decides to stay a while, you can't help but create a cool world with lots of
exiting adventures for them.
Sometimes their story just needs to be written.
I write both YA and MG with no intention of growing up
from there. Maybe one day an adult character will poke at my brain until I
write them a new story, but until then, I'm sticking with teens or
almost-teens.
I write what comes to my mind, what stories beg me to
be written.
Time for a giveaway! I've decided to do something a
little fun. I'll be doing two giveaways-
One- will be the typical raffelcopter for a three
chapter critique by me!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Two - I mentioned that I'd read two books before tenth
grade. One of them was Music of The
Dolphins by Karen Hesse. The other was a Goosebump
books (remember those?)
So, for my
second giveaway- The first person to guess which Goosebumps (original series) book I read will get a query critique
by me (this prize is transferable, or savable. So feel free to enter just for
fun no matter what. Already agented? Give it to one of your friends or a random
other entrant, your choice. Don't have a novel ready to query? Save it for
later.)
Both giveaways are for MG or YA novels. I'd be willing
to do adult but I'm not an expert so enter at your own risk.
10 comments:
Great post! I don't intend to stray from kids' lit either. Part of me feels like maybe I need to grow up, and the other part of me goes, "Eh, why on earth would I do that?" Great blog you guys have here. I look forward to seeing more awesome posts :-).
Write what you love. Don't worry about everyone else :) thanks for stopping by!
It was interesting to hear about your gradual appreciation for reading. I totally understand why Goosebumps was a favourite, my kids LOVE them. Yep, they're still around.
Gret blog, by the way. It has a lovely feel. :)
Thanks Stacey. Glad you stopping by, I appreciate it!
That stubborn kid at heart lives somewhere in each of us. Good for you for listening to her. Keep going!
It's nice to hear about other people who took some time to get into, really get into, books and writing. I was an avid reader as a kid but after college I was burnt out after reading countless reasearch books and writing pages of papers (on said books and theories) and flat out refused to read a book for fun. Harry Potter changed that for me, and I've been unable to stop it ever since. Thanks for the great post!
Kids and teens are so passionate about what they read, which is why they're such a great age group to write for.
Anyone who says magic doesn't exsist hasn't read Harry Potter. "Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic" Ms Rowling certainly had some magic.
Glad you found your way back :) and thanks for stopping by.
Very fun and so very diverse. People don't give kids enough credit. Their stories can be so incredible. Thanks for stopping by!
I wouldn't know how to stop! ;-)
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