I was reading a middle grade book last night, and what struck me about the author was the way she used very simple language to create surprise in her writing. Her style struck me because the last few middle grades I read used a lot of repetition to get ideas across.
I think repetition is a pitfall of any YA or MG writer, maybe especially for MG writers. We are never sure if kids are connecting with the ideas we are saying, so we, as adults, tend to hammer them in a little too strongly sometimes. We do it in life, so it's pretty natural that we do it in writing. Kids, of course, pick up on this instantly. Case in point:
The other day, Christopher, who is now nineteen, came with me to run a few errands. He works about 30 hours a week, maintains a good GPA, has a steady girlfriend, and just completed and passed two summer classes. So, really, I should know better. Dashing into the library, I looked over at the semi busy road and called to him, "Be careful crossing that street!"
He looked at his friend, grinned, and said, "Aw hell, Mom, I'm just going to shut my eyes, run into traffic and hope for the best."
I know. I pretty much deserved that.
So now that I am writing more full time, I am doing a lot more revision. (Writing to me really IS revision - I can't go forward until I've gone back and tinkered for a bit) My new editing eye is to delete anything that is not only obvious, but anything that is predictable.
This is harder than it sounds. I remember reading assigned novels in college and skipping over long passages of dialogue or description because I pretty much knew what it would say. That's the other piece: you want to make your characters consistent, but you also don't want to make them dull. And a lot of what I had to read in college were the kind of books where characters represented ideas or theories, so it may have been worse. In kid lit, the cliched characters are lethal.
All this being said, I will leave you with this bit of advice:
Great post Anne. I think, if the kid is reading, we as writers, should give the kid the benefit of the doubt and assume he/she has the ability to understand. And if not, then has the ability to ask someone to explain.
Love your son's response. And that last photo, I'm still giggling.
hahaha! Love the signs.
When I revise, I have to take out a lot of repetition...I think because I write in small bursts, I am often reminding myself (the author) of what is happening in the story, forgetting that the reader just read about it three pages ago!
Great post.
Shelley
You're right, Bish, but I also agree with Shelley - I also try to write in short bursts with a crazy time schedule, so I do a lot of rewriting, I think, to remind myself: "Oh, yeah, he's the dominant kid."
That photo is a particular favorite of mine. Unfortunately, it reminds me of work...
Then again, Shelley, I also REVISE in short bursts, so I may have forgotten from two days ago whether or not I already took that out.
And thanks for saying this was a good post. I honestly sat here and read it over thinking, Is this something everyone already does? In other words, I didn't want to be obvious.
"And a lot of what I had to read in college were the kind of books where characters represented ideas or theories, so it may have been worse. In kid lit, the cliched characters are lethal."
This is why I so prefer children's lit to adult literary classics.
Sounds like our sons are similarly plagued.
I had such a problem in my earlier writing repeating things. I would tell myself, "But what if the reader forgot this?" and "They need to be reminded since this is an important point."
I'm cutting away at my wip right now. I learned a lot from my crit group regarding this.
Several times I've noticed a book drag along because of repetition. It slows the story down in a major and unpleasant way.
Amen, Marcia.
Hi Lesli! I think they are so used to this particular plague that they might be immune to its damages ;)
I know what you mean, Medeia. It's a bigger problem for teachers because we are so accustomed to repeating important points in all the modalities to make sure all our learners get the message.