Why I Write Middle Grade - by Stacey

Growing up, I didn't read much at all. I was one of those super stubborn kids who refused to do anything adults told me to. Up to the age of fifteen I'd read "The End" on two books—and not once was it a book we we're supposed to read in school (an impressive feat, honestly.)

  (Aw, look how sweet I looked… trust me, looks can be deceiving!)

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.