The Magic Words: Writing Great Books for Children and Young Adults

by Cheryl Klein

Overview

This master class in writing children’s and young adult novels will teach you everything you need to know to write and publish a great book.

The best children’s and young adult novels take readers on wonderful outward adventures and stirring inward journeys. In The Magic Words, editor Cheryl B. Klein guides writers on an enjoyable and practical-minded voyage of their own, from developing a saleable premise for a novel to finding a dream agent. She delves deep into the major elements of fiction—intention, character, plot, and voice—while addressing important topics like diversity, world-building, and the differences between middle-grade and YA novels. In addition, the book’s exercises, questions, and straightforward rules of thumb help writers apply these insights to their own creative works. With its generous tone and useful tools for story analysis and revision, The Magic Words is an essential handbook for writers of children’s and young adult fiction.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393292244
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	09/06/2016
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	180,238
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Cheryl B. Klein is the editorial director at Lee & Low Books. She was formerly the executive editor at Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic Inc., where she edited a wide array of popular and award-winning titles. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Table of Contents

The Magic Words: An Introduction, and How to Use This Book xi

1 Clarity and Connection: Principles of Good Writing 1

2 Experience and Emotion: Ages in Children's and YA Literature 11

3 Proficiency and Practice: Using and Developing Your Gifts 27

4 Promise and Premise: Crafting a Strong Story Concept 39

5 Effort and Flow: How to Write a Novel 56

6 Intention and Invention: Identifying Your Points 63

7 Identity and Choice: Creating Multidimensional Characters 74

8 Interest and Change: Building Bonds Between Readers and Your Characters 103

9 Power and Attention: Writing Outside Your Own Groundwork 126

10 Structure and Sensibility: The Power of Plot 151

11 Obstacles and Negotiation: Seven Ways of Looking at a Scene 202

12 Movement and Momentum: Controlling Your Pace and Prosody 216

13 Person and Personality: Fundamentals of Voice 238

14 Teases and Trust: What Makes a Good First Chapter 273

15 Worlds and Wonders: Writing Speculative Fiction 286

16 Perspective and Polishing: Considering Charlotte Keene 297

17 Vision and Revision: Twenty Techniques 319

18 Love and/or Money: Publishing Your Book 327

Recommended Reading 347

Acknowledgments 353

Index 355

Editorial Reviews

10/17/2016
Klein, executive editor at the Arthur A. Levine Books imprint of Scholastic Books, serves as an insightful and thorough guide to writing fiction for children and young adults. She teaches readers to identify a book’s “core”—its primary reason for being—and examines character, plot development, voice, revision, and specific genres, such as speculative fiction. After covering the writing basics, Klein addresses the nitty-gritty details specific to the younger market, such as choosing an age for the protagonist that will appeal to one’s audience, and insights into what YA editors are looking for (hint: no prologues). Klein also illustrates each section of her book with examples from successful children’s literature and includes frequent writing exercises. The book excels in clarity and usability: for example, it takes the reader step by step through the specifics of character development, which Klein separates into different components that include a protagonist’s compulsions, ethical values, degree of self-awareness, and tastes. She clearly knows the market and how to cut to the heart of what’s important, and provides valuable and methodical guidance for any writer on how to shape a manuscript into a salable book. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"Inspiring, comprehensive, and insightful, The Magic Words ably fills a gaping hole on the shelves of developing and experienced writers alike. An essential guide to the art and craft of writing for young readers."

Anne Ursu

"Editor Cheryl B. Klein guides writers on an enjoyable and practical-minded voyage of their own, from developing a saleable premise for a novel to finding a dream agent. She delves deep into the major elements of fiction—intention, character, plot, and voice—while addressing important topics like diversity, world-building, and the differences between middle-grade and YA novels."

Bookriot.com - Nikki Vanry

"Cheryl B. Klein [is] a craft-focused fairy godmother…[The Magic Words] is a well-organized master class."

Mary Quattlebaum

"What Cheryl B. Klein talks about when she talks about writing is what every aspiring children’s and young adult novelist needs to hear. She offers generous insights, frank talk, nuts and bolts advice, editorial wisdom, and ample encouragement. The Magic Words is all the inspiration and guidance you’ll need to get your novel started, and more importantly, to get it finished."

John Dufresne

"The Magic Words manages to articulate, in clear and compelling language, what others rely on intuition to understand. The result is a comprehensive and engaging examination of what readers will recognize to be true about the best novels—and yet have never heard expressed."

Eliot Schrefer

"Insightful, enlightening, and practical, The Magic Words is a book that belongs on every writer’s shelf. Loaded with concrete examples and specific strategies, it’s likely to end up dog-eared and well worn—that favorite book on craft that writers revisit again and again with each new project."

Kate Messner

Cheryl B. Klein [is] a craft-focused fairy godmother…[The Magic Words] is a well-organized master class.”

Mary Quattlebaum - Washington Post

Editor Cheryl B. Klein guides writers on an enjoyable and practical-minded voyage of their own, from developing a saleable premise for a novel to finding a dream agent. She delves deep into the major elements of fiction—intention, character, plot, and voice—while addressing important topics like diversity, world-building, and the differences between middle-grade and YA novels.

Nikki Vanry - Bookriot.com

★ 09/15/2016
To this work, Klein (Second Sight) brings 15 years of book editing experience and a boatload of strategies, exercises, and practical tips to help novelists publish for middle grade and YA audiences. Klein draws heavily on familiar series such as J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books, Stephenie Meyer's Twilight saga, and Suzanne Collins's Hunger Games trilogy, also relating her experiences editing Francisco X. Stork's Marcelo in the Real World and other titles. Though the author's advice is consistently strong throughout, it's mightiest in regards to the idea of character—for example, everyone who reads this wonderful book will know their characters must do things. The volume also distinguishes itself from other similar titles with its wealth of exercises, each provocative, proven, and sure to right the ship. For instance, the "book map" technique ties into a number of other methods that would improve any manuscript. There's also much-needed guidance on writing "outside your groundwork," developing a voice, and penning historical and speculative fiction. VERDICT The new go-to guide for aspiring middle grade and YA authors.—Paul Stenis, Pepperdine Univ. Lib., Malibu, CA

Library Journal

2016-06-22
An industry leader offers a manual for aspiring writers of fiction for children and teens.As executive editor at the Arthur A. Levine Books imprint of Scholastic, Klein has edited such well-regarded titles as Millicent Min, Girl Genius, by Lisa Yee (2003), Marcelo in the Real World, by Francisco X. Stork (2009), and If I Ever Get out of Here, by Eric Gansworth (2013). With this substantial volume, she distills years of experience into an intensely practical, appealingly conversational manual. Klein discusses what makes good writing, parses the differences between the middle-grade and young-adult markets, and identifies the many different points an author must consider in making choices that affect characterization, plotting, worldbuilding, voice, pacing, and more. She assumes that her readers are themselves readers, speaking to them with collegial authority and confidence in their familiarity with touchstones of the literature. Presenting real-world examples, she then analyzes what makes them work, showing readers how Suzanne Collins establishes Katniss as a character readers can empathize with in The Hunger Games (2008), for instance, and how David Levithan and Rachel Cohn balance narration and dramatization in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (2006). Discursive analysis is complemented by exercises that frequently challenge readers to analyze how they introduce characters or to rewrite a dramatized scene as a narrated one. Klein's prose can sometimes overwhelm, as in her description of creating a bookmap, a seemingly daunting task that may send readers to her website to see an example that could bear out their first impressions. Her use of technical terminology can also get in the way, as in a paragraph on plotting in which the seven uses of the word "obstacle" become itself an obstacle. Still, there is wisdom aplenty in this book, and the discussion of writing outside one's own culture is worth the price of admission all by itself. Readers serious about writing for young people could do far worse than start here.

Kirkus Reviews