Writing the Middle Grade Novel: Start to Finish – Part Three

In Part 1 of this article you learned how to start your story. In Part 2, you learned some tips and techniques for charting your story. Many writers who start a middle grade novel get halfway through the story and then abandon the project. That doesn’t have to be your case. Here are some tips to help you FINISH your manuscript.

1. Don’t ask for feedback too early. Any criticism too early can confuse him or cause him to stop working on his story altogether. Wait until you are at least 6 chapters into your story before asking for feedback. Better yet, have a synopsis of the story to show your critics group, along with your first 6 chapters, so they can see where you want the story to go.

2. If you get stuck on a particular chapter, skip it for now and skip to the next chapter or even skip ahead several chapters. This will keep you writing and sometimes you’ll find out WHY you couldn’t get a particular earlier chapter to work and you’ll be able to go back and write it once you have a later chapter in place.

3. Don’t worry too much about getting all the details of each chapter at the beginning. The first thing you need to do is get the entire first draft on paper. This is the MOST important thing, so keep writing.

4. Avoid endlessly rewriting the first chapter or the first two chapters instead of moving on to new chapters. Generally, the writers are excited to write the first chapter or two. And the writing flows easily. After that, it starts to get harder and we think that if we go back and rewrite those first few chapters, we’ll be able to write the next ones just as easily as we wrote the first ones. But that is a trap that prevents you from moving forward.

5. If you get so stuck that you can’t seem to figure anything out for the new chapters, stop and walk away from the chapters. Get a pad of paper and start interviewing your main character, or the character who doesn’t seem to be doing what they need to do to keep the action moving. You’re probably stuck because you just don’t know your characters well enough.

6. Go back and write another chapter. Follow steps 2 through 5 until you finish the entire manuscript. Just focus on writing one chapter at a time and eventually you’ll have the entire book.

Now that you know how to write a middle grade novel from start to finish, then what are you waiting for? Start and keep writing until you complete your novel!