Chapter Book Formula

So, the other day I was dappling with a new story that I figured was a children’s chapter book. It turns out it wants to be a middle grade novel. But while I was toying with the idea of a chapter book, I thought about how to convey a whole novel in approximately 4,000 words. There must be a formula for children’s books I mused to myself. How else can you quickly and easily keep yourself on track with the story arc and things like establishing characters, setting up conflict, bringing in action, building to the climax, resolution, etc.

Being a bit of a research nerd (or just plain old nerd if you prefer) I turned to a few chapter books and created a formula. So, if you are thinking of writing a short chapter book, this formula might help you out.

Here’s what I found:

Chapter 1: Introduction to backstory, setting and main characters established along with their goal.

Chapter 2: Introduction of story problem

Chapter 3-4: Conflict introduced and builds

Chapter 5: Final build up of conflict leading to story’s climax

Chapter 6: Resolution

To come up with this formula, I took three chapter books from the Rainbow Magic series by Daisy Meadows and ran them through the formula wringer (me). In this case, the book reading levels ranged from 4.3 to 4.9. The books are aimed at ages 6-9. Word counts vary from 4059-4254. Pages range from 65-67. 6 Chapters per book. Chapters tend to be about 8-10 pages long.

There you go. Zero to sixty and back to zero again in sixty pages. How sweet it is. I suppose I could also apply this to middle grade novels, but stretch it out a bit more, taking more time to establish details and deepen the conflict.

P.S. If you are looking at writing a chapter book, this link with tips might help you out. As well, this site, while a commercial site for teachers, is great for finding the word counts of published books.

New Year Writing Workout #3: Discovering Your Character’s Culture

Okay, today’s exercise is a fun one. You get to sit back and use your imagination. Are you ready? Let’s go!

You’re going to need a partner for this one. So either grab an existing character who needs some fleshing out or create/fill out a new character who’s hanging out in a work in progress and needs some help.

Generally, when people think of characters, they first think of their outside appearance. Are they blonde, brunette? Eyes blue, green, brown, grey? Etc, etc. That’s all fine and dandy, but what about the aspects of what makes them real? (Case in point, New York Times Bestselling author, Sophie Kinsella, never actually described her character Becky Bloomwood in the Shopaholic series. Yet, she is so real that readers want to reach through the pages and slap her, hug her or simply meet her for coffee.) So, once we’ve got the appearance down, what can we do to flesh these ‘character’ people out?

Please note that if you don’t know the plot, it’s okay. You can build plot first or character first, or even build them simultaneously. Whichever you choose, try and ensure that the plot and character work together in terms of believability, firing up motivations and the like. Right now, we’ll put our finger on who exactly this character is:

First of all, we need to do some digging.

What is the cultural background of your character? Are they of German decent, Finnish, English, Italian? Small things like this can influence the way they feel about food, family, even physical proximity to others. Personally, I find this one tricky seeing as I pretty much see everyone as part of that big melting pot called Canada and think we’re all fairly similar. However, when I’m creating a fictional character these ‘stereotypes’ can be helpful for filling out small details in the character’s behaviour and personality.

Next up, how does their family background affect their behaviours, attitudes, philosophies as well as how they express themselves? You can move these questions along to the effects of their social background (where they grew up, education, wealth or lack of it) as well as religious background and emotional background.

Once you have some of the bones of who they are and how they were raised and their inner core, we can put some meat on those bones:

• What was your character’s most embarrassing moment?
• Who was their first boyfriend/girlfriend? How did the relationship end? How does it influence future relationships?
• How do they feel about animals?
• What is their occupation?
• What are their friends like?
• What are their dreams?
• What are their relationship like with their parents and siblings?
• What is their biggest weakness? This can be anything from chocolate to sappy movies to the inability to say ‘no’ to the urge to run away any time things get difficult in their life.
• What does their home look like?
• Do they collect anything?
• What are their hobbies?
• What movies do they like?

I’ve built a few worksheets you are welcome to use if you want to help organize yourself in this activity. Context and Character (pdf) Context and Character (Word) (scroll to bottom of page) as well as Character Core (the sample) and Character Core (Word version to fill out at bottom of page).

Enjoy getting to know your characters. It’s time well spent when you hit the pages of your manuscript.

Character Core Worksheet

So, this week in the world of Jean has consisted of an awful lot of crossing things off my ‘procrastination list’. This even includes vacuuming under the beds and changing the alternator in my car. And man, have the prices of alternators gone up! It is really quite astounding.

Anyway, what have I been doing this week to progress my writing? Well, the usual Agent Query Connect banter and whatnot that goes on over there. Lots of wishing I had more time to write (but life is good nevertheless). A bit of blog reading. I also asked Meg Cabotif she would be so kind as to send me one of her extra copies of ‘She Went All The Way’. I even tried to be witty and have my email stand out among the undoubted thousands of emails she got from the world’s free book grubbers, like myself, begging to be chosen. Anyway, I never win anything, so probably no book for me. Although, I got a nice autoreply from her email account. It is sort of cool to see an email in your inbox from a famous author.

Oh right, what have I been doing to actually IMPROVE my writing? Well, a little brainstorming. And since I was making a brainstorming worksheet for myself, I decided once again to share it. It, like the other one I have created, is based on content in Linda Seger’s book “Creating Unforgettable Characters”. This has been a fun exercise. Basically, you brainstorm core characteristics of your characters. For example, someone into fashion, may also know something about interior design, etc, etc. You pick a core characteristic and just keep going out and out from that one characteristic as well as any ideosyncrasies that might pop up in such a character. If you are curious, or what to learn a bit more about it, go over to my favourites online and at the bottom of the page are the worksheets I’ve created. Open one up and enjoy!

Have fun, I’m off to ensure that my cookie levels don’t dip into the red (low) zone.

Character Development Worksheets

Where have I been?

Well, I’ve been to London to visit the queen. Well, no. Actually I went on a nice trip and exhausted myself with lots of people watching, ocean viewing, geocaching and hanging out with family.

Anyway, while I was gone, I did submit the odd blog post as I read The Stranger, a bit more of Linda Seger’s book, Creating Unforgettable Characters, and I also came up with about a zillion story ideas as I watched all sorts of interesting characters. If you ever feel blocked, just try people watching. Wow. There are some excellent characters out there–especially if you let your imagination run wild.

Anyway, as I read through the first chapter of Seger’s book, I decided to make myself a worksheet that would help me develop the context for my future characters as well as to solidify some of my current characters that need a little more depth. Then as I was forming the worksheet, I thought, well, why not share it? So, if you are interested in developing your characters a bit, check it out. The worksheet focuses on things like social background, religious background, education and occupation. I have posted the worksheet in my favourite stuff area over on my main page. Feel free to use it, adapt it and share it.