Everything I Need to Know about Middle Grade Novels I Learned from Jurassic Park
Part 2

As I mentioned yesterday, the main characters in Jurassic Park all seemed to be 3-D with three main distinctive character qualities each:

The main dinosaur guy:
1. His favorite dino was the raptor.
2. He disliked kids.
3. He always broke computers.

The math guy (Malcolm)
1. Believed everything was chaos.
2. Gave a wisecrack about everything.
3. Was totally like a reptile and unlikeable (which made him somehow likeable!).

Grandpa (the owner of Jurassic Park)
1. Thought life was like an amusement park.
2. Spared no expense.
3. Was self-centered like a child.

The computer geek
1. Was totally over-the-top obnoxious.
2. Was messy and irresponsible and greedy.
3. Was the only guy who understood all the computer technology.

Each minor character had at least one unique characterization:
Grandson: very smart kid who loved dinosaurs
Granddaughter: computer whiz
Lawyer: very totally predictable lawyer
Overseer of dinosaurs: was in charge of raptors and worried about dinosaurs’ intelligence

Writing down these characterizations for Jurassic Park’s main and minor characters made me realize that every single one of my characters in my middle grade novel was one dimensional, a clone of the other, and bo-o-ring. My goal is now to give my main characters each 3 strong, over-the-top characterizations, and each of my minor characters at least one unique trait.

Tomorrow I’ll show how strong characterizations were developed over the entire length of Jurassic park and also affected the plot.

Everything I Need to Know about Middle Grade Novels I Learned from Jurassic Park
Part 1

Okay, okay…I may be a bit behind on the fact that I’ve never watched all three movies of Jurassic Park until this past month. But then, we’re a family who loves books, not movies. In fact, as some of you may know, we haven’t watched TV in the 25 years since my husband and I have been married. Oh sure, about 10 years ago we “inherited” a television that we keep out in our garage under a blanket. It’s handy for watching home videos. We have TV Guardian on the DVD player so that when we do watch an occasional movie, we don’t have to listen to all the swearing. (TV Guardian does a great job of blipping out all that stuff!)

So anyhow, we decided to watch all three movies of Jurassic Park this past month. Of course, I’m a wimp at watching icky stuff, so I closed my eyes for about half of each movie. But wow! Did it give me lots of material to work on with my historical middle grade novel that I’m writing!

Is my historical MG novel set back in dinosaur days? Not! It only goes as far back as the American Revolution. But watching Jurassic Park taught me AMAZING lessons about developing my characters. Here’s how.

Jurassic Park was the ultimate example of how strong characterization works. Each and every single character had unique qualities, distinctive voices, and over-the-top quirks. And each character either CHANGED or DIDN’T CHANGE by the end of the movie in a dramatic way. Also, they each used their unique characterizations to either SAVE THE DAY or BRING ABOUT TOTAL RUIN. In other words, their characterizations not only developed their personalities, but also worked to move the plot forward or throw obstacles in the way.

The main characters each seemed to be 3-D with three main distinctive character qualities each. Even each minor character had at least one unique quirk. The interesting thing, however, was that Jurassic Park 2 (Lost World) and Jurassic Park 3 did NOT have the same strong characterization. And my husband and son and I all agreed—as a result both the second and third movies were flat compared to the first. Tomorrow, I’ll explain what I noted in more detail.

Meet Author Evelyn B. Christensen!
E-mail: Evelyn B. Christensen
Web site: Author and Puzzle Creator

Bio:
One of six children of a minister and a teacher, Ev grew up in a lively family where puzzles, games, books, and questions were daily fare. It wasn’t uncommon for someone to jump up in the middle of a meal to consult the dictionary or Book of Knowledge to settle a question or argument. Game rules naturally existed to be revised or expanded. Ev fondly remembers the four-board Monopoly game (laid out cloverleaf-style) that occupied the living room floor much of one summer.

With such a background, along with having a passion for teaching from an early age, it’s not surprising that educational puzzles and games would be Ev’s forte as an author. She has a doctorate in math education and has taught at the elementary, middle school, high school, college, and graduate school levels. The last five years she’s been writing full-time and has had over thirty educational puzzle books published.

Featured Book: Multiplication Mosaics
Want kids to love practicing their multiplication facts? Then this is the book you need! Answers to the problems provide the color code to fill in the squares in the grid. As the colorful picture or design gradually unfolds, kids are motivated to keep solving the problems until it’s complete. The activities also reinforce graphing skills.

Interview:
Q: How did you break into the educational market?
A: I was very blessed. Clip-Clue Puzzles was my first book. It’d been used for several years in a couple of different classrooms before I got up the courage to submit it for publication. The first publisher kept it about six months, which as a newbie I thought was way too long. He rejected it but said I should definitely try to get it published elsewhere. The second publisher accepted it almost immediately. My real break came several years later. MindWare had been carrying my Clip-Clue Puzzles and I emailed them to ask if they’d be interested in carrying my Coin-Clue Puzzles. Fortunately (or by God’s grace, as I believe), MindWare at that very moment was looking for someone to write some puzzle books for them! I’ve written 18 books for them since then.

Q: Describe practical things an author needs to know to prepare a proposal for a puzzle or activity book.
A: Other authors might disagree with me, but especially for a first proposal I think having your sample pages look as professional as possible makes a big difference with editors. (I think that’s one of the reasons my first book sold so quickly.) Sure, the publisher’s design people will end up changing what you’ve done, but that first impression will let the editor know you’re serious about doing a good job. You’re also making it easy for the editor to visualize your work as a book.

For a first proposal it’s probably also important to try your ideas out with some kids in the intended age range for the book. What seems obvious to you may need more clarification with children.

Do check, and recheck, to make sure your activities and answers are error-free.

If you’re preparing a puzzle or activity book that you’re hoping will be used in the classroom, be aware of the effect of No Child Left Behind. Editors used to be much more willing to publish books which were fun, mind-stretchers. Now most of them want everything directly tied to curriculum objectives, because, they say, that’s what teachers are buying.

Q: What are some of the benefits of writing for royalty-based contracts?
A: From my perspective there are two main benefits. The first advantage for me is that I prefer to build an income for my retirement years rather than getting a lump sum immediately. My husband will be retiring soon. Right now we’re in a higher tax bracket than we’ll be later so there are also tax advantages.

The second main benefit to a royalty-based contract is that if your book sells well you get to keep on making money from it. I have several books which have sold more copies than I would ever have dreamed likely. If I’d been negotiating a flat-fee contract, I’d never have considered asking as much money for those books as I’ve actually made from them; and unless the economy gets really bad I’ll probably continue to make money from those books.

Of course, the disadvantage to a royalty-based versus flat-fee contract is that if your book doesn’t sell well then you can end up with a lot less money. This is especially true if your publisher doesn’t give advances which is the case with a lot of educational publishers. I have some books which would definitely have made more money for me with a flat-fee contract. So…it’s a bit of a gamble. Of course, most of the time you don’t have a choice, except in your decisions about where to send your submissions.

Q: Please share one tip you’d like to give to an author who is trying to land that first book contract.
A: This will sound obvious, but it’s still really important to study the market. You need to find the publishers who publish the kind of material you’re creating. When I subbed my first book I subbed it to the publishers who were my favorites to buy from as a teacher—I knew and loved their books and knew my book “fit” their publishing philosophy. If you’re not a teacher, spend some time browsing through the books in your local education store. If you’ve exhausted those resources, I have a list of educational publishers on my website for some additional possibilities at Educational Markets for Children’s Writers.

Resume Rescue! A How-to Manual
by Stephen Summerford

If you would like to have a book on your shelves to refer to as you build your resume, check out this how-to manual. Resume Rescue! is a practical and handy reference that teaches the secrets of writing your resume. Learn what works: what to write, how to say it, and how to type it. There are plenty of resume books on the market that go on — and on — for hundreds of pages. But if you need to write a resume today, you probably don’t have time to wade through all those books and determine which points are key. This manual tells you step-by-step how to write a professional resume.

By the time you have acquired enough writing credits that it’s too bulky to include in your query or cover letter, you’re ready to prepare an actual resume.

Keep it pertinent to writing and make it look professional. Here are several tips:

Header:
Center your name in a large font at the top of the page.
Underneath in regular font (Times New Roman 12), list your address, phone number, e-mail, and website or blog if it pertains to writing.

Directly underneath this list any job titles or membership in critique groups or writing societies. Many editors will actually take the time to seriously look at your manuscript if they see that you’re an active member of a writing society such as the Society of Children’s Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI).

Skip a space or two and then build the body of your resume. (Again, use regular font.) There are various ways to do this. In fact, over the years, the look of my resume keeps changing. At first, when I didn’t have many published credits, I listed the names of the various magazines I’d been published in. Then, underneath each one, I listed the title of my article and the date it was published. I centered all this to help give a better visual appearance. And of course, when my first book was published, it took top billing on the page!

Now that I’ve had over 75 books published, my resume is kind of easy. I just have the header with my name, contact information, and positions I’ve held as Contributing Editor, etc. at the top. Plus I include membership in writing societies.

Underneath that, I just list the various publishers and the titles of books I’ve written for each one. In columns. That’s it. Nothing fancy. It gets the job done.

One more note—over the years I’ve also had some news that certain publishers might be interested in. For instance, one of my books was a bestseller for Scholastic. Another book has won several nice awards. Stuff like that. I include that information on a separate sheet I call Noteworthy News. I also include lists of magazines I’ve written for over the years on that page. If an editor wants to know more about my publishing background, I e-mail them this page along with my resume. But not usually.

The final thing about building a resume is just to use good old-fashioned common sense. If it makes sense to you to include something, put it in. If it makes the layout of the page look good, put it in. If in doubt, keep it out. Don’t stress over it, and don’t worry about it. Just create your resume as it seems best. Then send it in with your manuscript submission.

When I was a beginning writer, I never submitted a resume. Why not? I didn’t have anything to put on it.

If you’re just starting out as a writer, you don’t need a resume either. What you do need, however, is a sentence or paragraph in your query or cover letter that describes your qualifications as a writer. Don’t even have that yet? Don’t worry! Just skip this part at first. If you don’t have any educational background, job skill experience related to your manuscript, or writing credits, don’t say anything about this in your query or cover letter. The worst thing you can do is describe something about yourself that has no relevancy to the manuscript you’re submitting. It’s better not to say anything. Just target your manuscript to a publisher who is open to working with new writers. How can you know this? Read your market guide.

For instance, I just randomly opened my Children’s Writer’s and Illustrator’s Market Guide. Moon Mountain Publishers was listed on the page. In their little blurb it says, “50% of books by first-time authors.” Bingo. They understand someone who doesn’t yet have publishing credits or a resume. Target publishers like this who say 50% or more of their titles or articles are with first-time authors. It ups your chances of getting your foot in the door so you can start on your way to acquiring an impressing resume.

After you do start accumulating publishing credits, then you can state in your query or cover letter a sentence or two about what you’ve had published. At first, you can list the one title of your article and the publisher it was published with and the year it was printed. As you gain more and more credits, you can list them as bullets in your paragraph of the letter. When you start to have so many that they don’t all fit in one paragraph, then it’s time to prepare an actual resume!

Tomorrow, I’ll share about how to prepare your first resume as a writer.

For a writer, a resume is part of a standard manuscript proposal. However, not all resumes look the same.

My older son is a social worker. He helps clients locate career-level jobs. He also helps clients prepare their resumes. In fact, he wrote guidelines the company uses to explain how it’s done. My younger son is graduating from college and just got accepted to grad school. Recently, he wanted to prepare a resume to apply as an intern to a local Hollywood company. They needed to know his academic background as well as his publishing accomplishments in the world of academia. His fellow grad students who already work at the company gave him tips on what to include in his resume. With this in mind, I turned to both my sons for advice on how a professional resume should be prepared. Here are key points they shared:

Keep resume one page long.
Use a professional font such as Times New Roman.
Use a font that is easy to read such as size 12.
Use standard margins on your page layout.
Make information pertinent to the project.
List experience that matters for the project.
Include educational background.
List job titles that relate to your field of expertise.
List honors or awards related to your project.

Tomorrow, I’ll share what to do about a resume if you’re just starting out as a writer and don’t yet have writing credits established or necessarily have an educational background.

Meet Author Janice Green!
E-mail: Janice Green
Web site: www.beelinepress.biz
Blogs:
QueenBJan’s Weblog
Tales from the Kid in Me
His Whisperings

Bio: Janice Green is a wife, mother, and grandmother with over twenty years experience in the public school system as teacher and as library media specialist. She also has four years experience as a commercial beekeeper. Janice loves working with and relating to children. She is anticipating retirement when she hopes to find more time to write for children, especially for writing Bible stories.

Featured Book: Backyard ABCs
This delightful book introduces young children to the wonder of nature from A to Z–in their very own backyard! Written and illustrated by a mother/daughter team, it’s a precious book every child will be sure to treasure. Available for purchase online at Lulu.

Q: Describe a highlight for you personally while you were writing this book.
A: I mustered up the courage to locate an illustrator whose work I liked, and called him up on the telephone to ask him to look at my manuscript. He was willing to look at it, and though he did not illustrate my book, both he and his wife who have written and illustrated several children’s books, gave me invaluable advice on ways to make the book more marketable.

Q: How do you hope to influence today’s young readers through this book?
A: I want to share with them my love for the great outdoors by introducing them to the creatures they are most likely to see, and tell them some facts and fun about each.

Q: Explain the process it took you to write an ABC book.
A: This book has evolved through a process that took about thirty years. It began with a list of common insects, plants, and objects of nature sorted out by the alphabet. I had resolved that no uncommon items would be named, so occasionally I had to substitute concepts like “under” (the place to look for critters) to keep from using something a child may never hear of again.

After sitting on the idea a few years, I dusted off my manuscript and contacted the illustrator I referred to earlier. He gently counseled me to simplify my book as I had way too many examples for each letter. So the manuscript went through major surgery in which there were no more than three items on each page. I also worked to see that all could reasonably appear in the same picture (no alligators with apples).

My beekeeping experience had afforded me the opportunity to use computers to create labels and brochures for selling honey. When I realized that the same technology could be used to self-publish my book, I began putting my pages together without illustrations. Then it occurred to me that my own mother who had a gallery of bird pictures and landscapes might be willing to illustrate my book, and we could print them ourselves using my computer and printer. It was a fun project and about six to nine months later we printed up a pile of copies which were sold to friends and neighbors. As it turned out, the time spent printing the books made printing and marketing them impractical so the project was again on hold.

I later learned about the website Lulu.com which took the labor out of printing the books. I changed the text from simple sentences to a poem for each letter and took suggestions from several critique partners making additional improvements in the text. I also used computer software to make a few adjustments in the illustrations before finishing out the book in its current form.

Q: Share one tip you would like to give to an author about finding time to write even while working full time.
A: You have to have more than a desire to write, you must have a passion to write that won’t let go of you. My father spent his life composing a book which he self-published late in life using a print-on-demand publisher. Most of his first 100 copies of the book were still in the box when he died at age 90. If you want to write, do it now. Farm out some of your homemaking chores (or wash dishes once a week) if necessary, to make time.

One of the things I love to do is write alphabet books. They’re so unique and have a structure and a voice all their own.

Sometimes, when I’m in the middle of a huge nonfiction project, I just like to do a fun little alphabet book or picture book on the side. It’s good for my brain after a day of intensive research. Or when I get stuck wading through years of facts, facts, facts I take a break and enjoy some light-hearted writing by working on a picture book.

This summer, I’m planning on taking an Alphabet Book Adventure. My critique groups joined in the fun with me last year. This year, I’m inviting you to join in, too!

Why am I telling you now? So you can have time to prepare. I got so many e-mails from writers when I launched the Book In A Month Club saying that many of you couldn’t join in the fun because you were already in the middle of another manuscript.

So this time I thought I’d let you know weeks and weeks ahead. Somewhere in the middle of the summer–just for fun!–I’m hoping to launch an Alphabet Book Adventure on my blog. I’ll invite you to join me as we target one specific publisher together and write a brand new alphabet book step by step that is designed to fit their market.

Get ready! It’s gonna be a LOT of fun!

Why are you a writer? Is it because you can’t NOT write? I know I can’t stop writing. It’s one of my favorite things to do.

Sure, I like to quilt, crochet, play the piano, take walks, garden, and watch the birds. Plus do all sorts of fun things with my family when they come home at the end of a long day of work.

But when I sit down to relax and put my writing away for the day, what do I do? I write! Even if I start to read a good book, I soon put it down because a brand new idea pops into my head that I just want to get on paper.

Even if I plan to crochet in the evening while my husband’s grading papers (he’s a teacher) and I’m sitting in the chair next to him, without thinking, I’ll pick up my notebook that I keep next to my chair. Before I realize it, I’m writing a little poem for kids or jotting down ideas for a fun, new manuscript.

I even place a notepad on the ironing board while I iron. I always get such great ideas while I’m standing there!

I have a notepad in the car because when we’re driving somewhere something always pops into my head. I have a notepad in my purse for when I’m out shopping. I just love to write.

Even when my husband retires and I don’t plan on working for deadlines any more, I’m still probably going to write. I’ve got file folders stuffed with entire book projects outlined and fleshed out that I’ve been too busy meeting deadlines to work on myself.

So I just gotta write! That’s one of the reasons I write, too.

How about you?