Writing and Selling the YA Novel (11 page)

Try mapping out your novel on paper. Write down each of your main characters and chart the journey that character makes. Does each character arc have a beginning, middle, and end? Does each character change in some way? Do they accomplish the purpose you set for them? Or did you leave them hanging?

Do the same thing for each theme or conflict you introduce. Which themes are present from the beginning to the end of your novel? Are any of them abandoned midway through? Which conflicts are resolved and which ones are left unresolved? Were your choices realistic?

Resolution is an important part of any plot. The ending of your book is the last thing a reader will think about before he's done reading. Spending the extra time to make sure you've gotten everything right will allow your book to be remembered for all the right reasons instead of all the wrong ones.

Now that you know the basics on which a plot hinges, it's time to get down to the nuts and bolts. When you're sitting in front of a blank computer screen, how do you begin to organize events so there's plenty of conflict, a satisfying resolution, and enough credibility for your readers? You've got the idea and you've got the characters, but you need the structure.

How will you tell the story? Will you tell it in a linear fashion where events unfold as they would in real life? Maybe you'll want to use flashbacks. Should you reveal everything from the start or should you hide key pieces of information to be parceled out as the story moves along? Gould you open from the point of view of the bad guy and then switch to that of the good guy later on or should your point of view remain consistent?

Each of these decisions is dependent on the type of story you're telling and your strengths as a writer. Young adult is a broad category, and different genres within the boundary of YA fiction have different styles of writing associated with them. You'll want to be aware of what those styles are in case you want to use them. For example, it's common for fantasy novels to open with a scene featuring the villain. Mysteries are usually dependent on the author keeping certain information hidden from the reader. Romance is commonly written from multiple points of view.

But for every rule there are exceptions, and being aware of how other authors have organized their plots does not mean you have to make the same choices. Instead, assume that common formats are used precisely because they work well for that style of book, but balance this against how
you
want to tell the story and what you know your strengths and weaknesses to be. Maybe you can never get flashbacks

right or crawling into the head of a villain always ends up sounding false when you attempt it. Deciding how to organize your plot should come from the story itself and shouldn't be forced.

Ask yourself the following questions to help you decide what form your plot should take:

• Who is telling the story and what are her motives?

• What kind of mood would you like to create?

• How fast should the pace of the book be?

• Is any aspect of the story dependent on a need for secrecy?

• How important is your antagonist?

• How much time passes from beginning to end?

• Do you need to accommodate multiple points of view?

As you answer these questions, you can begin to determine what format is right for your story. Linear forms lend themselves to fast pacing. Flashbacks slow down the action, allowing the reader to take a breather. They can easily be used to create a nostalgic or sentimental tone. Alternating chapters can allow you to look at the same event multiple times. A combination of these techniques might allow you to accommodate many points of view and piece out information slowly to your reader. Just beware of using forms simply for the sake of the form. The simplest way of telling the story is almost always the best. Remember that any writing technique risks calling attention to itself, pulling your reader out of the story, so keep believability in mind.

ORGANIZING YOUR PLOTS AND SUBPLOTS

Once you've made some basic decisions about the form your plot will take, it's time to start planning things out—what will happen when.

Writers approach this task in many different ways. Some writers use outlines. This allows them to think out each plot element ahead of time and saves a lot of confusion and rewriting along the way.

Other writers use various systems of note taking, or more loosely based methods of gathering ideas. If you write your notes on index cards, for example, those cards can be shuffled again and again to try out different time lines. If you're still unsure about what form you want your plot to take, this can be an excellent way to experiment without actually writing the text. This approach is similar to the storyboards that moviemakers use.

Some authors know only the basics of their story when they set out and have to discover the plot of their book along the way. I've always been this type of writer. I usually have one or two key scenes in mind, but other than that I let the characters direct the story. This can be a
tricky approach because you can
easily write yourself into a corner or stray too far from the path of your plot. But when it works, it allows for the most freedom and surprises.

No matter which approach you choose (or perhaps you'll come up with one of your own) the important thing to remember when creating your plot is to make sure there is something that ties everything together from beginning to end. I like to imagine a straight line running through my books. That line is my theme, or my central dilemma, and no matter what happens around it, the line must be present.

But what about subplots? How do they fit in? What if there's more than one theme? Plots and subplots are similar to main characters and secondary characters. There's almost always one main character, and although you can develop several major secondary characters, if you try to develop too many the book becomes crowded and the reader starts wondering, "Whose story is this anyway?"

Just as the secondary characters exist to help tell the main character's tale, subplots work to strengthen and enhance the main plot. A love story subplot can release tension through humor or sentiment, or it can create tension if the love interest ends up in danger. Either way it can enhance the experience of the characters in the book. A parent's developmental subplot in a teen drama might round out the depiction of the character's world, or it could juxtapose the decisions the main character makes with the decisions of his parent. Subplots are wonderful ways to enrich your novel so long as they exist to further the main story line.

A metaphor I find helpful when balancing plots and subplots is the image of weaving a tapestry. When I start a novel, I imagine each plot and subplot as a strand of colored thread. I have all those strands in my hands as I begin, and I must have all of them in my hands as I end. The colors will overlap and intertwine, but there's one dominant shape or picture they're all working to create. The important thing is not to let any threads go and to make sure each stays in its rightful place.

What kind of tapestry are you creating? Whether you know exactly what it will look like beforehand or you want to be surprised, you've got to have a recognizable pattern by the end. Weave your threads carefully so your end result will be an artistic creation and not a mess of threads.

PACING AND SUBSTANCE FOR YOUNG ADULTS

No discussion of plots in a book about writing for young adults would be complete without addressing the questions of pacing and substance for teenagers. The authors of books for teens must ask themselves not only how to create, organize, and balance their plots and subplots, but also how teen readers will respond to the events unfolding in the story.

You
might wonder why I didn't begin the chapter with this section. Why not set our boundaries right from the start so we don't waste time? If there are content or forms that are off-limits, shouldn't we know that before we begin? These are good questions, but they also have a good answer.

Writing for teens is not about limits, it's about possibilities.

Deciding to be a YA author is not about confining yourself within the limitations of established rules-, it's about writing with the maximum integrity for an audience that is intelligent, complex, and primed to explore.

We'll talk more about hot-button issues like language, sex, and violence at the end of this book, but for the purposes of creating the plot of your novel, know that YA literature is full of diverse examples of almost every form imaginable. YA plots range from fast-paced, first-person narratives to meandering trips back and forth in time, and they cover everything in between.

That said, you should be aware that most YA books are shorter than their adult counterparts, so unless your book is an exception to the rule, your pacing will need to vary accordingly. In teen literature every word must count, and there isn't always room for long passages of description or exposition. Instead of stretching a plot for 400 pages, you will most likely be fitting it into about 250 pages.

The same is true for content issues. Although almost any subject can be written about for teenagers these days, you still want to write a book that is appealing and relevant to your audience. Remember that the one defining characteristic of YA literature is its audience, so you want each facet of your plot—from beginning to middle to end—to reflect, entertain, or challenge today's teens. Ultimately, it's what you believe teens are capable of reading and enjoying that will define your choices about what will happen in your novel.

How many of you took Social Studies in school? Remember the way the world map was usually on a roller and the teacher would pull it down like a window shade? Remember those thick, battered textbooks, packed with information we took for granted was true? Now we might look back on those same textbooks and cringe at their interpretation of events. Christopher Columbus, who once "discovered" America, now "colonized" it. The "radical" idea of desegregation is now something we can't believe was any other way. Our understanding of the world has changed over time just as the world around us has evolved into what it is today.