Book-Crush Wednesday (4)

Woohoo! It's Wednesday! Time to talk books!

Before we get started, have you been over to WriteOnCon? Amazing things are happening over there. Crits, sessions, chats, and lots of learning. Major props to the organizers - I'm getting a LOT out of the conference! And it's FREE! Yay! So if you haven't been there...go. NOW.

OK, where were we? Oh yeah. Book-crush Wednesday. Today's crush is on a fabulous book called How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford. I read this book earlier this year and my mind was blown. BLOWN, people.

First of all, let's talk about the cover. It's PINK. Pink is pretty much the best cover ever. If I didn't think it would drive readers away, I would have an all-pink blog background with pink text, a pink header, and pink active links. Also, the chapter headers are PINK. I would like to hire Natalie Standiford's design team to work on my book, please. (Because pink is obviously the best choice when you are trying to attract people to a dystopian book. Clearly.)

But what really made me love this book was the voice. The main character, Bea, can definitely be unsympathetic at times, but she's also quirky and made me laugh. And the cast of characters that surrounds her absolutely jumps off the page with life. All of them have their own stories, their own characteristics, even if not all of them get the chance to play out on the pages of the book. Particularly the radio show participants - Don Berman, Myrna, Larry - are so wonderful that I can see myself scanning the AM stations at midnight, hoping for a Night Lights of my own to whisk me away on a carpet ride one lonely night.

I also loved that Bea and Jonah, the male main character, could have a true, no underlying chance at love, real best friendship. As someone who had a male best friend in high school, it was totally refreshing to see that on the page. I feel like so often in YA books it's easy to let the best friends of opposite genders become love interests (and it's natural, too), but for Bea and Jonah it didn't even seem to be a possibility.

How to Say Goodbye in Robot is not a light read. In fact, I would even say it's heartbreaking, gut-wrenching at times. And yet the writing is so excellent that Natalie Standiford can pack an emotional punch while she's describes the hottest guy in school or a batty old lady. And the ending? One of the most amazing and tragic and hopeful things I've read in a long time.

This book is wonderful because it's not about boys, or crushes, or school, or any of that. It's just about the power of friendship, and how a beautiful friendship can simultaneously repair and destroy two very damaged people. I know last week I talked about The Sky is Everywhere, and many of you said you loved that book. I think fans of Jandy Nelson will probably enjoy How to Say Goodbye in Robot, as well.

On Boy Middle Grade (More from SCBWI!)

Alright, now that I'm sort of rested(ish) and caught up from my trip to LA (read: my suitcase is still laying all over the floor with my clothes in it, but my laptop is out of its case), I thought I would share some more notes from the SCBWI-LA conference!

So many editors and agents were talking about how boy middle grade is The Thing. It's what everyone wants. And since I happen to have an idea for a boy middle grade project, I thought I would attend a session on boy middle grade fiction with Courtney Bongiolatti, associate editor, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.

What did I learn? Basically, middle grade boys like genre fiction, so it's good to be very specific about genre with boys. Middle grade boys are often much more reluctant readers, whereas girls will pick up anything. You need to know your genre in order to write for it and be successful.

What are the main genres for MG boy fiction?

• Action: No paranormal, no magic, just a regular kid who is in a crazy situation. Examples: Alex Rider books by Anthony Horowitz; H.I.V.E. series by Mark Walden

• Adventure: These books are different from action, though the genres are similar. Usually adventure is more based in reality. The main character is often not the cool kid with a lot of friends like they are in action - they’re still trying to figure themselves out while getting into a lot of trouble. Typically with action the kids are choosing to do what they're doing, but with adventure they were forced into that situation. Examples: Holes by Louis Sachar, Hatchet by Gary Paulsen.

• Fantasy: Harry Potter changed the industry so much, particularly the MG fantasy genre. Often with fantasy there’s a great goal at stake other than your own life or your own happiness. Fantasy is also appealing to boys because they like the idea that one day it could be them fighting gods or becoming a wizard. A lot of readers of fantasy need that. But it still needs to be obvious why your character is doing that - what's the motivation? Harry found a home in his new world, even though it was difficult. Often fantasy readers are more shy, already more of a reader than say an action reader. You try not to generalize, but you still need to sit down and think about who the reader is. Examples: Harry Potter, Percy Jackson 

• Mystery: This genre leaves room for a nerdy protagonist. a lot of times with MG, they don’t want someone nerdy for a protagonist, but in mystery it works. Often these kids who are already reading John Grisham’s adult novels, even at this age. The books take a lot of the aspects of an adult formulaic mystery novel and apply them to an MG book, which makes it comfortable for people who are familiar with reading up. Examples: Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer by John Grisham, Encyclopedia Brown

• Humorous Mystery: Takes the mystery and adds something most MG boys love - humor. Examples: Belly Up by Stuart Gibbs, Brixton Brothers by Mac Barnett (I have to add that Courtney said this one works because it's a humorous update to the Hardy Boys, where the kids are accidentally solving mysteries. So parents give their children these outdated Hardy Boys books, then the kids find the Brixton Brothers on their own which totally make fun of the books their parents loved.)

• Sports: These books can range from the simple to the complex, but always revolve around a sports story. They work well for a simple reason - 12-year-old boys love sports. Examples: Return of the Home Run Kid by Matt Christopher, Heat by Mike Lupica

• School stories: For MG kids, the classroom is their life. It’s their home. They are with those same students and friends all the time, so that’s who they hang out with. School stories are mostly set in the classroom; the characters are hardly ever seen at home. Examples: Frindle by Andrew Clements, The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt

• Historical fiction: One of the toughest sells in MG. You will often have girls who read it even if it has boy protagonist just because they like that genre. Example: Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko

• Combinations: Use of graphics and text combined are growing much more popular with the male MG audience. Examples: Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The Invention of Hugo Cabret

• Relatable: There are a ton of books that deal with kids that are bullied, and that’s who your audience is in these books - kids who are being bullied. But you need to be truthful, particulary with the ending. Don't throw in a popular kid to widen your readership. the same thing with . that book is aimed at them, you’re not going to help yourself by throwing in a popular kid to widen your readership. Examples: Loser by Jerry Spinelli, The Misfits by James Howe, So Hard to Say by Alex Sanchez, Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key by Jack Gantos

• Out of the box: MG is a good place to experiment. It's a more difficult sell, but if the writing is good you can get an agent behind you. Examples: Fat Kid Rules the World by K.L. Going, Staying Fat for Sarah Bynes by Chris Crutcher, I Am a Genius of Unspealable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President by Josh Lieb

Other things to keep in mind when you're writing MG for boys:

•  MG books should be aspirational
• They should have series potential. Editors often like MG series because it's so hard to find successful books for boys that they want to buy a series. Courtney's boss will almost always ask her, whenever she pitches an MG book, "Great, can it be a series?"
• Experience. MG boys will throw a book aside the second you get a word wrong or if a character is wearing the wrong thing. So you have to know everything - not just dialogue and what they're thinking, but the whole experience of being an MG boy. If you have sons or nephews or cousins, watch them.
• Honesty. MG boys don't want an after-school special. They want you to stay on-camera for the gross-out things. Don't write a book that caters to their parents, with light bulling and a lesson at the end. They want to see a book about what really goes on at their school.
• Voice voice voice voice voice! You can work on it by READING, especially aloud, just to make sure it sounds like an MG boy.

Hope that helps! Are any of you working on an MG book?

Sunday Funday! (35)

Happy Sunday everyone! Today was just about the laziest day of my life. And why might that be, you ask? Two words:

Veronica Mars. In some twist of evil/awesome, Netflix decided it would be an EXCELLENT idea to put this show, which I had heard a ton of great things about, on their Watch Instantly queue, so I could get it direct to my TV through my Wii. So what was going to became a controlled watching of the show a few episodes at a time via the old red envelope model has suddenly turned into the "Heather stays in her lamb-print PJ bottoms until 2pm" model. I'm almost done with season 2, but I'm not deleting these from my Watch Instantly queue because they are SO GOOD. People. Seriously. If you have never watched Veronica Mars, do it. Now. I was skeptical at first, and it definitely took me a few episodes to warm up to it, but I am obsessed. And my friend Shana is having a watch-along with discussion on her blog. Shana attributes everything she learned about writing mysteries to studying Veronica Mars, and I can definitely see what she's talking about.

Anyway, so now that I'm done talking about how totally lazy I am and admitting my love of the lamb-print PJ pants I've had since the ninth grade (yes, really, but I love those things to death), here are some great blog posts from around the Internet that you should check out while I watch more Veronica Mars!

Agents and editors always say they want a book that's "high concept." But what the heck does high concept mean? Agent Elana Roth explains in this post from Adventures in Children's Publishing.


YA author Michelle Hodkin gives some excellent tips on how to get noticed at a writer's conference! (Note: tips may or may not be served with a healthy side of sarcasm.)

If you're looking for legitimate tips on attending conferences, check out this post by Kiersten White. Who is extremely awesome, by the way, so if you do happen to meet her in real life, please do say hello and don't let her super awesome author status stop you (so, in short, listen to her first piece of advice, which may or may not be a reference to me and my friend. I have no idea what you're talking about. Let's just watch some Veronica Mars and we can forget this ever happened, hm?)

Literary agent Jennifer Laughran has an excellent post on why you shouldn't be too mad that the Justin Biebers, Popes, and Hillary Duffs of the world are publishing children's books so easily while you wait and wait and wait for your Big Break.

The lovely Amna had an excellent guest post on YA Highway about how your taste in books doesn't make you better than anyone else. Since I've dealt with this phenomenon often, I have to say...well done, lady.

Natalie Whipple writes about why you shouldn't really care about trends (even though you obsess over them) because there's nothing you can do about them anyway.

Jodi Meadows reminds us not to give up, in a guest post on Corrine Jackson's blog.

Write on Con starts on Tuesday! Are you ready? Are you signed up? Head on over here if the answer is no! It's free and it's online!

I was also going to link to a bunch of great SCBWI-LA posts, but I think YA Highway did a wonderful job of picking out the best in last week's Field Trip Friday. So just go there if you want to see a list of some great SCBWI posts.

OK, have a great week everyone!

Book-Crush Wednesday (3)

It's Wednesday! So I debated about whether to continue with SCBWI posts or if I should keep up the book-crush posts and postpone my next set of notes for tomorrow. But since I just sent a rambling cra-cra email to the author of the book on today's book-crush Wednesday, I figured I had to go through and continue telling everyone how AWESOME the book is (though I guarantee you have heard it from about everyone else under the sun.)

My current book crush is on The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson. And let me tell you, blog readers...I am crushing on this book hard. Like so hard that I'm hyperventilating thinking about how awesome it is, and I might have taken it with me to SCBWI on the off chance that the author would be there and I could run up to her and scream "OMG I LOVE YOU SO MUCH PLEASE SIGN THIS AND BTW BE MY BEST FRIEND." She wasn't there (which is probably good because I would have seriously embarrassed myself), although it turns out bringing books like that was not that crazy of an idea because a lot of awesome debut authors were there, just in attendance like regular people (THEY'RE LIKE ME! See, I've gone super crazy. That's what this book does to me. I bet Jandy Nelson gets Google alerts with her name in them and is reading this post right now and backing away slowly from her computer thinking I'm a psycho.)

Anyway, this book took the blog review world by storm, and there were several weeks where I saw the cover art all over the place. But I have to admit that it didn't really grab me. (The UK cover, pictured below, is far superior in my opinion and is WAY cooler inside.) The big heart, floating in the sky...it seemed kind of chic-lit-y, and I just wasn't into it. But then the reviews were so positive, and my friend Jessica spoke highly of it, then Tahereh over at Grab a Pen wrote this review/letter to Jandy, and since Tahereh is one of my most favorite bloggers ever, I finally gave in.

And, uhm, WOW. WOW.WOW.WOW.

Listen, people. This book will change your life. The writing is like painfully amazing. It makes you laugh and cry, sometimes in the same sentence. I would be smiling because the word play was wonderful, or there was a great exchange or sweet scene, and suddenly there was HEARTBREAK and TRAGEDY and I wanted to cry. The main character, Lennie, writes poetry and leaves the poems all over town. The way the poetry is used to move the plot forward and give a little back story is really smart - Jandy Nelson has an MFA in poetry, as well as an MFA in writing for children and YA from VCFA (OMG THAT'S WHERE I'M GOING! We'll be bffs, I know it.)

The teen voice in The Sky is Everywhere is very true, and I think that's why the book is so funny. I think Lennie was just a funny girl, particularly before her sister died. But her sister's death overshadows her humor and then she has to struggle with questions like - is it OK for me to be happy even though I'm supposed to be grieving? What kind of normal person wants to kiss boys at a funeral? Am I moving on too quickly? (Things are about to get real, so let's put on our emotional caps.) My mom died when I was 18, and I can tell you first-hand that the grief Lennie experiences is so real. It was like Jandy Nelson was inside my head, reading the mind of my teenage self. Lennie thought things that I thought, and even though my relationship with my mom was complicated, and in some ways Lennie deals with things I couldn't relate to, in other ways I felt like the pain Lennie was experiencing was totally real. I could feel it in my bones, in my head, and in my heart. This book is just real, and it stays with you.

So. I know a lot of you have read this. But some of you probably haven't. Some of you are probably rolling your eyes, thinking, "Ugh. Another review of The Sky is Everywhere. How good can that book be?" AWESOME.* That's how good.

*I know I throw that word around a lot on this blog. I mean if you did a wordle of my blog, I'm pretty sure awesome would be the biggest word. But if ever a book or post or topic was deserving of that word, that phrase meaning "full of awe," it would be The Sky is Everywhere.
**If you still don't believe me, go here and read chapters 1 and 2. FOR FREE. Then go here and buy the book and support your indie book store and your favorite new debut author.

Carolyn Mackler’s Four Keys to Creating Characters (SCBWI Post!)

Well, I am officially back from SCBWI! It was awesome. Being surrounded by all the inspiration and learning so much was incredible. And children's book authors and illustrators are some of the funniest people I've ever met. I'll post some photos and a general conference review (including overall conference tips) in another post, but I thought I would continue posting notes from the conference sessions I attended since I have enough to make days and days worth of posts.

One of my favorite sessions was Carolyn Mackler's breakout session on creating characters that come to life. Not only is Carolyn Mackler totally adorable and down-to-earth, but she gave some great advice on how to create distinct voices for each of your characters (this came in particular handy when she was writing her novel Tangled, which has four distinct characters, and which I will be giving away a SIGNED copy of on the blog at some point in the next month. I have epic, epic contests in store, people.)

So, here without further ado, are Carolyn Mackler's four keys to creating characters:

1. Think about the character's quirks. Every person on the planet has a quirk. Fun Heather fact! (Which is also potentially gross) I chew my cuticles when I get anxious or nervous. Not my nails, my cuticles. Little mannerisms like that are inherent in all of us - and since your characters are people too, they need to have quirks as well. Who is your character? What do they do? If you think you're running low on material, head somewhere and people watch - this can be a great way to  find some new quirks to give to a character. Alternatively, think about some people you know now, or people you knew when you were in high school. What were their quirks? Did they collect bobble-heads? Nod whenever someone else was speaking? Those are the kinds of things you can incorporate.
2. Nail their specific language. When I was in high school, I had an excellent biology teacher. Seriously. The best (and only halfway decent) science teacher I'd ever had in my life. Unfortunately, she ended up being the butt of a lot of jokes in the hallway because she said, "Mmkay?" at the end of almost every sentence - and this was right when South Park first skyrocketed to popularity, with an annoying guidance counselor character who had the same unfortunate habit. It's sad that her speech issue overshadowed her incredible knowledge (at least at first until us smart-ass teenagers wised up), but my point here is that people have language ticks - and so should your character. Does your character talk in questions or statements? Do they swear or not? Do they say "I mean" or "like"? (Because some teens say those things, but not all of them do. And some adults, like ME, are perpetually stuck in our teen years and also say those things.) To really test your language, read your book aloud so you can see the rise and fall of the dialogue and how often you're repeating words.
3. Research. For Tangled, Carolyn Mackler had to write her first male POV ever. She felt pretty daunted by the task, so as she was giving talks she would say, "By the way, I'm looking for some male teens to talk to for some research for my new book." And at one of her presentations, a guy who was the spitting image of one of her characters came up to her and offered to chat. She set up a series of phone interviews and they chatted for hours. Carolyn asked how he viewed his body, what music he liked, what he did when he worked out, what he thought of his friends - everything she could think of to get into his head and create a unique and truthful character. Another one of her characters is an actress and goes on an audition, so she was able to get permission to sit in on an audition process, and afterward she interviewed a teen actress. All of her research - because fiction books do require research - added to the authenticity of the voice in her novel.
4. Ask questions about your character. Get to know them and get inside their head. I talked about this a little yesterday when I discussed Rachel Vail's voice workshop. But think about things like, what is the first thing they do in the morning? What does the inside of their closet look like? What do they keep hidden in their underwear drawer? Who would the character contact if something good happened, and what would that good thing be? What do they do when they’re anxious? What are they proud of? What are they ashamed of? How do they feel about their family? What is their family status? Carolyn likes to go for walks to get her character questions answered. I prefer drives. You find whatever works for you, as long as you make it happen.

And remember, when you're thinking about character, that it's not just your main characters that need to have depth and quirks and language - it's all characters.

Revising with Gennifer Choldenko

Since I’m painstakingly rewriting my WIP, I thought Gennifer Choldenko’s workshop on rewriting and self-editing would be an excellent choice for my morning break-out session. She talked about Do’s and Don’ts, tips for revising, and gave us a list of questions that we should be asking ourselves as we rewrite our manuscript. At the end she took questions, and I took notes and posted my favorites/ones I thought would be most helpful.

(OMG these intros are painfully boring. I’m so mentally tired I can’t be as humorous as usual. But hopefully the post is helpful and awesome. It was a great session! Also this post is super long, but it's mostly lists.)

Do’s and Don’ts

• Do get time away from your manuscript. One option for this, if you don’t feel like taking time completely off (you overachiever you) once you finish a draft, start researching your next novel
• Don’t be lazy
• Do remember that good work takes time
• Don’t be defensive
• Do know that every writer needs an editor - so get someone else to read your book
• Do be patient with the process
• Don’t be a good girl. Make mistakes and be ready to do things that might not make the everyone happy, but are right for your characters.
• Do have the goal to make your book better, not check off every item of your critique letter. If you’re not sure you agree with the crit comment, don’t take it.
• Do follow your instincts - you can’t write without them. Aside from crit groups, you might also want to send out your finished novel to 3-5 readers (brand-new readers, and maybe they’re readers, not writers) who you really trust. Get their critiques back and see where there’s overlap.
• Do revise as creatively as you can
• Do have courage
• Do believe in yourself

7 Ways to Build a Strong Protagonist

1. Protagonist needs to be active. It’s difficult to create a good protagonist who is on the sidelines or overshadowed by a sidekick character.
2. Protagonist needs to be warm and likable - or if not likable, we need to have compassion for him/her because of his/her circumstances. Or at the very least, we need to understand why the protagonist behaves the way he/she does.
3. Protagonist needs some complexity to his/her personality. In other words, protagonist needs to be interesting. (Have depth.)
4. Protagonist needs to want something.
5. Protagonist needs to reveal things to us about ourselves.
6. Protagonist needs to take things farther than we would.
7. Protagonist needs to be flawed.

33 Questions to Ask Yourself

1. What is the single biggest problem this manuscript has? You have to think in terms of the biggest thing you can to improve because you only have so much time. Think BIG.
2. What am I avoiding? Often you write around the most emotional thing. You’re writing toward it and your writing slows.
3. What will my reader wish was there?
4. Is there an off scene interchange that needs to be on scene?
5. Where does my mind wander when I am reading?
6. What is my least favorite chapter? How can I get rid of it or develop it to the point it isn’t my least favorite chapter anymore?
7. Are my best crit sources in agreement about any one point?
8. What is the climax of the main plot? Ideally this happens around both plot and character. If your book is about Hurricane Katrina, obviously the hurricane would be the climax. But if your character can interact with the hurricane somehow, that’s ideal.
9. What is the inciting incident? This is the thing that sets the plot up. In HP 1, it’s Harry’s birthday. In A Wrinkle in Time, it’s the father’s disappearance (even though it happens before the book starts, that’s OK.)
10.  Is my protagonist the same person at the end of the manuscript as he was at the beginning? The protagonist doesn’t have to do a 180 - it can be a small change.
11.  Do character traits of my protagonist drive the plot to at least some degree?
12.  Are any of my characters stereotypes?
13.  Do my subplots add to the book?
14.  Where do my subplots climax? One way to deal with the middle of your novel not being as tense as you like is to have your subplot climax in the middle. However, make sure that your subplot adds to the book instead of taking away from it.
15.  Do I have too many characters?
16.  Have I done a search for each character’s name and checked to make certain dialogue from one character doesn’t sound like dialogue from another character?
17.  Have I missed an opportunity for humor?
18.  Can research better this book in any way?
19.  Is there a way to strengthen the domino effect of my plot? This will help up the tension in your book. Not everything in the book will be a pure domino, but usually there will be one main domino for the plot. 
20.  Is there a consistent style in my book? Have I violated that style in any spot? Often the troublesome chapter in a book is in a different style or a different voice than the rest of the book - it doesn’t fit in with the rest of the book. Usually the style will come out of your writing once you start, you can’t force style onto a book. But it’s important to recognize it once it shows up.
21.  Where does the text need grounding?
22.  Are there soliloquies? Can I get rid of them?
23.  Have I used setting to convey feeling? You don’t want to just say, “I am sad.” if the character is sad. Using setting can be a great way to convey mood, particularly in first-person narratives. If the narrator is feeling desperate, they won’t head to the fair, they’ll head to the moonlit dock by the foggy bay.
24.  Have I left room for the reader?
25.  Will applying the rule: show don’t tell strengthen any part of this manuscript?
26.  Have I read the entire novel out loud?
27.  Have I searched for my pet phrases?
28.  Do I care deeply about my protagonist?
29.  What is fresh and original about this novel
30.  Are there plot holes? Can I fix them?
31.  Are there clear motivations for each characters behavior?
32.  Is the world I’ve created completely believable?
33.  What is this book trying to say?

Q: I can make people laugh when I talk, but I’m having a tough time putting humor in my writing. Do you have any tips?

A: I think I’m not funny in person [Heather note: not true] but I am on the page, so I need to get everyone out of my office. So maybe you should try the opposite. Look and take notes on when you’re making people laugh in real life and see what it is that people are laughing about. Maybe it’s the conversation that’s stimulating it. There are also some things that are just inherently humorous. So I just look through and try to see those chances for natural humor.

Q: I find over and over again I hear the same thing about wanting to start the action quickly, but I tend to like to start a story slow. Do you have advice for the beginning?

A: I would look at the big changes first. The tendency is to do 400 revisions of chapter one and then, “Wow! Does that shine!” But you really need to look at it on a macro level. So avoid that chapter one revision and try to look at the whole thing. But in the end it depends on what you like better, so try it both ways - try the fast revisions and then see which you like better.

Q: Do you feel like as a debut novelists editors are looking for something that’s ready to go or were they willing to work with you?

A: I will say that my first novel had the fewest amount of revision notes. A lot of authors don’t revise well. They can’t handle the emotional part of it. And I think some editors, depending on the working relationship, don’t want to deal with writing a long revision letter. But if they find something that could be great, they’ll put the time into it. It’s the most important skill for a working author to be able to revise.

Q: Can you talk a little more about show vs. tell?

A: Show don’t tell just gives the reader room to experience your story. If you’re narrating your life, you don’t say, “This is a sad moment.” You just experience the moment. So if you describe experiencing that moment, we can experience that moment. But if you say the feeling, you’re keeping us out. So think about how you’re narrating your day. That’s the key. You want the reader to feel as if they were there, inside them, not outside them being told.

How to Nail Voice (According to Rachel Vail)

Today, I attended a workshop session with Rachel Vail. The session was all about voice, and how to create a different voice for each of your characters. The house was PACKED and with good reason - with more than 30 books for children under her belt, she knows how to create unique voices that match each of her character's identities. Better still, she has a background in acting, so even before she was writing she was mastering voice.

Rachel actually uses her acting past to help her when she writes. When she needs to get into the head of one of her characters, she'll think about the way they walk or sit, and she'll walk or sit that way - for example, one of her characters was a ballerina, and in researching Rachel learned that ballerinas don't cross their legs when they sit down (something to do with messing up their turn-outs or otherwise general awesomeness. I watched "Center Stage" as I was packing for the conference so I know how important it is to keep all that in tact.) And they sit up very, very straight. That same character also talked very slowly and deliberately because she used to have a speech impediment. So when she was getting ready to write, she would sit up straight, uncross her legs, and drop her fast-talking ways. And she noticed an immediate change in the voice in her head. Her character came much more naturally, and the voice on the page sounded more accurate.

If you're having trouble getting into your character's head or keeping it fresh, Rachel has a list of questions she suggests you answer. She calls it her "Form to Form a Character." When she first started listing these, I sort of sighed a bit. Haven't we all seen lists like these before? But after a few lines I got it - the difference here is you shouldn't answer as you, answer as your character. Fill out the form as the character sees themselves. A 12-year-old girl who has watched her friends develop before her wouldn't describe herself as "thin," but she would say she was "flat-chested." Think about those intimate details, and more importantly remember how you thought about yourself when you were that age, because that can be a great clue to getting inside a child's head. (You can also eavesdrop! I love doing this, especially at the mall, where girls will talk endlessly about how they feel about their looks. Just try not to get too close and be sure to look inconspicuous enough that you don't look like a creepy stalker.)

Here are some of the questions from the form:

My name is
My name came from
My nickname is
My name means
My age is
I look...
I can’t stand...
I love my mother but...
My friends...
I wish...
If I could change one thing about myself...
My favorite food is...
I love to wear...
When I grow up...
The worst thing I ever did was...
The best part of school is...
I wish I were more...

At the end of the day, remember that the character won't come out in the first draft - of course it won't. That was the first thing that came out of your brain, so it's bound to be cliche and boring. As you go through and revise, pay attention to giving each of your characters as distinct a voice as each person has in real life (because your characters are like real kids), and eventually you will nail it.