My niece came over the other day and showed me some characters she invented and drew in her notebook. They were pretty good. So I'm writing her a short story based on them, aiming for 10k words. To learn middle grade, I'm reading this: And it's great. The author is very good at using modern prose and showing emotion without naming emotions. Really solid storytelling. Anyway, does anyone have any major tips on how to write a good middle grade novel?
Kids 'read up', protagonists are usually 10 - 13 depending on subject matter. Parents are present but don't help in a meaningful way. Economy of words and word choices. Characters react to what is going on. If you have a dream of selling one- keep adults in mind when writing; adults tend to introduce books or series to that age group.
I remember that most books were too slow paced for my young taste, so keep it light and interesting. The worst thing is when a book ends with the feeling of not having started the second act. Make the events easy to follow, but leave the reader with something to think about. Some children are sick of being targeted by happy stories, so you can use a bit of tragedy to make it more powerful like "Forest Gump".
Yeah, books targeted at preteens. My niece is 10, so she probably shouldn’t read about cutters, drug abuse, suicide, sexy vampires, main characters dying and so on. Tropes adults don’t like are fair game, like mermaids learning how to brush their hair, and dialog is more on the nose. That said, the books can still be longer. The book I posted above is over 200 pages on my phone. 10-20k words seems typical.
That was the age/tier when I truly fell in love with reading. As you've already mentioned, the books are usually lighthearted, but when done well are very immersive. My favorite middle grade book was (I guess it still is) Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher, by Bruce Coville. That book put me on the path of fantasy as a boy, and I've stayed on it ever since. Best of luck on writing something magical for your niece.
