agent under cover
I took a 3-hour seminar last night on writing the young adult novel. This was completely incognito, meaning I went in as a writer and not as an agent and didn't tell anyone about that agenting part of my career. I can still do this because I've been agenting for a short enough period of time that my name hasn't really gotten out there, at least not in the YA world. Plus, the writers in the class hadn't really gotten to the agent-aquisition stage, while the author running the class already had an agent, so it was a pretty safe bet that I could stay safely in the shadows. I suspect I won't be able to get away with this much longer, but for the time being it makes things a bit easier.
Why would I do this, you might ask? Well, it's good research, for one thing. Part of being a good agent is knowing what's selling, so it gave me the chance to listen to a published author of YA and middle grade books talk about her experiences. And then, I don't want to put myself in the position of being the second expert in the room. The writer running the class was being paid to share her knowledge and I had no desire to undermine her. (I was able, however, to make sure a few important things got covered simply by asking a couple of careful questions.)
For anyone interested, the author running the class was Kerry Madden. She wrote a YA in the late 90s, and now has a series of middle grade books--one out last year and the next two coming out in '06 and '07. She has a background writing plays and articles and some fiction for adults as well. What struck me about the class was that she ran the writing advice portion very much like any other writing class, with short writing exercises that made us conscious of paying attention to details, especially sensory words, and lists of questions to ask yourself when developing character, setting, plot, etc. She also concentrated on showing just how easy it is to turn tiny life events into the potential opening of a story, by having us interview each other and then write a few sentences based on something about the other person's life. There wasn't a YA bent to that.
Where the YA part came in was when we started discussing markets and what age groups made up the different reading classifications. (8-12 for middle grade, 13-17/18 for YA) All this did was underline for me the fact that fiction writing is fiction writing, and really, when you're learning craft, it doesn't matter what you write or for what age group, you need to concentrate on those same building blocks. Yes, the stories you develop will differ depending on your genre or category, but early on you can pretty safely ignore all of that and just write from your heart. The important thing is to learn the craft itself. All the technical details can fall into place later.
If you're interested in writing for children or teens, you should check out the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.
Why would I do this, you might ask? Well, it's good research, for one thing. Part of being a good agent is knowing what's selling, so it gave me the chance to listen to a published author of YA and middle grade books talk about her experiences. And then, I don't want to put myself in the position of being the second expert in the room. The writer running the class was being paid to share her knowledge and I had no desire to undermine her. (I was able, however, to make sure a few important things got covered simply by asking a couple of careful questions.)
For anyone interested, the author running the class was Kerry Madden. She wrote a YA in the late 90s, and now has a series of middle grade books--one out last year and the next two coming out in '06 and '07. She has a background writing plays and articles and some fiction for adults as well. What struck me about the class was that she ran the writing advice portion very much like any other writing class, with short writing exercises that made us conscious of paying attention to details, especially sensory words, and lists of questions to ask yourself when developing character, setting, plot, etc. She also concentrated on showing just how easy it is to turn tiny life events into the potential opening of a story, by having us interview each other and then write a few sentences based on something about the other person's life. There wasn't a YA bent to that.
Where the YA part came in was when we started discussing markets and what age groups made up the different reading classifications. (8-12 for middle grade, 13-17/18 for YA) All this did was underline for me the fact that fiction writing is fiction writing, and really, when you're learning craft, it doesn't matter what you write or for what age group, you need to concentrate on those same building blocks. Yes, the stories you develop will differ depending on your genre or category, but early on you can pretty safely ignore all of that and just write from your heart. The important thing is to learn the craft itself. All the technical details can fall into place later.
If you're interested in writing for children or teens, you should check out the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.