Tuesday, February 28, 2006

The 10 Commandments of Middle Grade Fiction...

... according to author Kristine Franklin. You've all read Franklin, right? Her book The Grape Thief got a bit of attention a year or two ago and earned her a bit more cache. Well now she's come up with what she calls the 10 Commandments of Middle Grade Fiction. Here they are:

One: Keep it Simple
Two: Crisis Right Away
Three: Strong Point of View
Four: Not too many characters
Five: Do not rewrite while you are working on the first draft
Six: Character, Character, Character!
Seven: Action, Action, Action!
Eight: Everything Must Propel the Story to Its Climax
Nine: The Hero Must Solve the Problem
Ten: Wrap it Up One Chapter After the Climax


As you can imagine, the good folk of Child_Lit are livid and enthralled in turn. It really does make for an odd sense of what constitutes good Middle Grade Fiction. I quote it here in response to a request I received the other day to review more of this kind of writing. If these are the requirements for making such fiction good, however, I'm not sure I'll want to!
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2 comments:

  1. TheWriterStuff4:24 PM

    Now I have re-join Child_Lit just to find out what they're saying about this. Oh, my poor mailbox.

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  2. fusenumber812:25 PM

    I once had a job that allowed me to keep up with the postings every day. Now I can no longer indulge in such delights. I get the digest form which is fine and all, but I often have to contest with other children's librarians saying things like, "Did you see the snarky post on Curious George this morning?". I feel so left behind.... alas, alack, alack, alas.

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