I write middle-grade
fiction, but it has been a long time since I was in that age group. So should I
stick with my own generation during my reading time?
No way. Not only
do I enjoy middle-grade fiction on its own merits, but reading it helps me
improve my own work. That’s true for genre, too.
The age of the intended
audience is a category, not a genre. Middle-grade fiction covers many genre,
from fantasy to mystery to horror to historical. People who write for children should
read books at that age level as well as in the same genre. But the point is the
same for both.
Since I write
historical fiction, I read adult historicals as well as middle-grade ones. And
I read middle-grade fiction in other genres, as well. This provides multiple
perspectives, but mostly it helps me understand what my readers want.
It can even help
me find my way around a roadblock.
I don’t believe in
writer’s block. When the writing gets hard, I force myself to keep working. Most
of the time, the ideas start flowing again fairly quickly, although they sometimes
take a different route than I had originally planned. But once in a very long
while I get so stymied on a particular story that I set it aside without
knowing if I will ever pick it up again. That’s what happened with a book I was
going to write about the Pullman strike. I set it aside and moved on to my next
idea, which had the ideas flowing faster than I could write them down. And the
next project on my list is gaining that same momentum long before I am ready to
work on it.
But after that, I
may go back to the book about the Pullman strike. And how did I get around the
roadblock? By reading (or rather listening to) The Strangers, a
middle-grade fantasy by Margaret Peterson Haddix. And it did it simply by
reminding me that an author can add life to a book by using multiple
point-of-view characters with different perspectives. It also didn’t hurt that
the oldest POV character is a boy.
So far, all of my POV
characters have been girls. But the idea forming in my mind has twelve-year-old
twins as the POV characters, and one of them is a boy. That challenges me to
see the world through male eyes and sets up a conflict between the twins as
they support opposing sides during the strike.
Reading within your
genre (or in this case, audience age level) can tell you what stories and
writing styles attract your audience. But those books can also spark ideas.
From time to time
I hear people say they don’t read what they write. I’ve even tried that myself.
But reading within
your genre can only make you better.
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