Author Panel Creating Memorable Characters for Series - Bruce Hale

Bruce Hale has written over 50 books, picture books to middle grade novels. He's excited to talk about writing series' characters.

Bruce says a main character is memorable if they have a unique point of view and attitude, those elements combine to give you a great VOICE. He's made seven series, and the ones that stay in print have those strong attitudes and views from the very first page.

As an example, he shares the first lines of THE MALTED FALCON, his first book in the Chet Gecko series.

Focus on making the character first, that's usually the way, though sometimes it can be a situation that sparks an idea.

When he was asked to write CLARK THE SHARK, he had no idea it would turn into a nine-book series, and he credits its success with the deep development of the main character, Clark, and that readers wanted to keep having fun with him.

Bruce is working on a standalone novel right now, which he finds very scary, to only be able to give this character that one moment in life.

"Drawing pictures of the characters is part of my process for writing, I was a cartoonist before I was an author, and what a character looks like often shapes their personality in a way just writing about them does not."

Is there anything you do to get to know your characters better?

Paula Danziger recommended an exercise that Bruce likes, which is to describe what is in your character's closet and what it says about your character. Sometimes he'll do an interview with his characters.

Working on character isn't just working on the character, but the setting can also form and change a character's personality.

Author Panel: Creating Memorable Main Characters for a Book Series - Ben Clanton & Debbi Michiko Florence

Ben Clanton

Debbi Michiko Florence (Photo credit Roy Thomas)

Ben Clanton is the author/illustrator of the Narwhal and Jelly books) as well as an editor-at-large for the Little Bigfoot imprint of Sasquatch Books.

Debbi Michiko Florence is the author of the Jasmine Toguchi and My Furry Foster Family series.

Both were part of the author panel focusing on the development of characters for book series.

What makes a memorable character? 

Debbi: When Debbi reads a book, she wants to feel comfortable with the character, like they're a friend.

Ben: He thinks it's vital to have a character connect with the reader.

When you're starting out, do you start with character or plot? 

Debbi: Jasmine Toguchi started off with an idea she encountered in a newspaper, a story about a Japanese family that got together to make mochi in the traditional way. According to tradition, the man pounds the mochi and the woman rolls it. But her character, a girl, wanted to pound the mochi, and she wouldn't leave Debbi alone.

Ben: It starts with character. He gets to know them, sometimes for a period of years. His original inspiration for Narwhal and Jelly was a book of photographs that captivated his imagination. He found himself filling pages in his sketchbook with narwhals and other creatures. He started asking them questions. What would they do? He started dressing them up as super heroes. And then one day he was standing in line for ice cream and was smelling waffle cone, and it occurred to him that he'd look like a narwhal if he put his waffle cone on his head. Then he knew his character was sweet and on a perpetual sugar rush. A foil character, Jellyfish, was more cautious, and then this pair inspired a whole lot of story ideas.

When do you know what your characters look like? 

Debbi: She can't draw, but when she got the sketches of Jasmine from illustrator Elizabet Vukovic, she cried. She loved her (even though she had a better wardrobe than Debbi.

Ben: All of his characters start in his sketchbook. With his potato creature, in 2011 he started drawing a little dirt clod creature that would eat all of the cute things in his sketchbook. They wouldn't go away. He didn't know why he felt a need to draw vicious potatoes, but he kept doing it. "If they won't go away, there must be a story there." He made a few alterations in how they looked, and their characters emerged.

How do you get in your character's head? 

Debbie: She journals as her character. She thinks about them all the time. Almost none of that goes into the story, but it helps her with her stories. Also, every draft, she gets deeper and deeper into character. She has to write several drafts to get into the character.

Ben: Even if you're not an illustrator, you can sketch your character. Make a visual map of their lives. It can be a good exercise to help you get to know your characters.

And Then There Were More: Series

Author and agent Ammi Joan Paquette of the Erin Murphy Literary Agency talked with us about the art of writing a series.

As an author, she's written the Princess Juniper middle grade series, and the Two Truths and a Lie nonfiction series co-authored by Laurie Ann Thompson. (She also writes picture books and gives a strong impression of being an immortal, all-knowing being when it comes to children's literature.)

Her client work includes series books The False Prince by Jennifer Nielsen, Grounded by Megan Morrison, Divided We Fall by Trent Reedy, Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman, All Four Stars by Tara Dairman, and House Arrest by K.A. Holt.

Here are a few highlights from her incredibly useful breakout session.

Why write a series? 

Joan gave us four reasons to write a series: You can tell a larger story. You can make the most of your created world—that took a lot of time and energy, and you can carry it on further with a series. Kids love them, especially in the MG age. And why not?

Princess Juniper was her first plunge into series, followed by Two Truths and a Lie--connected nonfiction books that don't carry on a single story.

She gave us an overview of categories:

• YA: tends to be high concept. Lots of fantasy and dystopian. 
• MG: there can be both fantasy and realistic series. 
• Chapter book. Many of these series go on for a long time. 
• Picture book series. Rare to sell a series. If it's wildly successful, a publisher will say "let's do more."

There are also genres:

• Paranormal/dystopian. 
• Fantasy, epic fantasy, and science fiction
• Action adventure—tends to be especially middle grade
• Mystery—sometimes in MG, sometimes in YA. 
• Outliners—contemporary, historical, literary (like the Luxe series). You don't see a ton of contemporary in series  

They come in numbers:

• Duology—two books
• Trilogy—used to be the name of the game (editors might be wearying of this) 
• More-than-that-logy 
• Also ongoing (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Babysitters Club) 

How do you know your book might be a series ?

• Does it tell a larger story? 
• Does it have an irresistible hook?
• Can you sell it? 

How do you query an agent with one? 

It makes an agent nervous to be pitched on a series that's all done or mapped out. Publishing isn't a sure thing. Best bet is not to write the whole series ... yet. Here's a handy phrase: "This is a standalone book with series potential."

How to Create a Book Series: Matt Ringler

Matt Ringer rocking theBabysitters Club hat.

Matt Ringler is an Executive Editor at Scholastic, specializing in chapter books, middle grade, and YA fiction.

Benefits of series;

• With series, you know what you're going to get out of it. Often this helps to keep kids reading. 
• Any new book in a series sells the books that came before it.
• There's also a physical element in the bookstore. A series takes up more space, each book helping the other be recognized/noticed.

With series you have to stick with what works while it's working, but also be adaptable when that stops.

The Puppy Place series has almost reached 50 books. Ellen Miles has figured out a format that works. Each book is basically a stand alone, but it will be familiar to the reader each time. This consistency is important for young readers. In each Puppy Place book, a puppy will have an issue, go to a foster family, by the end someone adopts the dog, and it all feels good .

These books don't win awards but they teach kids to read.

Sometimes a book finds a great deal of success but wasn't intended to be series, but then is asked to be one. This can be challenging.

There are many ways to do a series.  It's about finding something that works.

There's nothing that doesn't have series potential for Matt. Another editor who primarily works with stand alone books may not look at a book's series potential in the same way.

Megan McDonald and Mary Lee Donovan: Judy Moody: Forever 8—Creating and Sustaining a Series

Mary Lee Donovan

Mary Lee starts off with this caveat: "We never set out to make Judy Moody a series, which is probably good and bad to hear."

Once it took hold, though, some choices in the writing and pacing of the books were very deliberate, but in the beginning that was not the goal. Megan and Mary Lee tell us about Judy Moody's Origin Story:

Megan McDonald

Megan's early works were not funny, her parents passed away when Megan was 30 and for a long time Megan's voice was fairly quiet and serious because she was in such a dark place. But in an effort to capture family memories, she grew up with four older sisters, Megan had been writing down all of the crazy, outrageous, hilarious things that had happened in her family.

When Megan and Mary met at a conference, they had an instant connection and Megan asked Mary Lee: "I have all these stories about my family that I don't know what to do with, but I want to do something, do you think you could look at them?"

Mary Lee chimes in, "Let me add, you are so funny, I can't believe you didn't start writing funny. I could see you had this incredible energy and sense of humor... I just knew, how can I work with this person, how can I work with this material. It was already episodic, which was great for chapter books, but we needed it to add up to something more."

From there Megan and Mary Lee worked on adding that something more and eventually Megan had a full novel.

Megan's original Judy Moody book was much, much longer and not illustrated. Mary Lee calls cutting over half of the original book like having a sour dough starter, the cuts could be used—would be used—for a next book. (Actually, those cuts were not used until book 3.)

Megan probably calls cutting over half the book mildly terrifying. But after the designer and then Peter H. Reynolds added in so many superb visual elements, Megan was in love with the book's everything and on board with all of the cutting.

Megan and Mary Lee share a bit more about the journey of Judy Moody and then give the audience some tips on creating a series. Here is one tip below, some questions you should ask yourself after you write that first, great book.

Are we doing a Book 2? Or are we doing a sequel? 

Can things be episodic? Or are you going to wrap things up in the book's entire world within the next one or two books?

Sara Shandler: Developing and Selling a Series

Sara is the senior vice president of editorial at Alloy Entertainment, a creative think tank that develops and produces books, TV series, and movies.

She talked to us about how her company develops series, which she loves because she can stay with a great character for a long time.

Alloy has weekly brainstorming ideas where eight people pitch an idea or two. Every year, 10 to 15 ideas get developed. "There are no bad ideas, there are ideas that are just not right for right now," she says.

It even happens that ideas that have been pitched in the past are repitched and developed years later, because sometimes the timing just isn't right.

When they have a great idea, they partner with writers and develop them. Sara's job combines a bit of writing, agenting, and publishing. She shared a lot of tips with us about how to develop a series; here are three:

Have a clear concept for your series
You have to pitch an idea in a sentence. This is a good litmus test for whether your concept is clear. You have limited time to capture someone's attention, and there are a lot of ideas out there.
 
When Sara sends out queries, she sends out very short pitches, with a paragraph about the concept, a paragraph where we are in the story at its beginning, and a third that summarizes the essentials of the plot, with comparable titles, and information about the author.

She gets query letters that are just too long.

Don't try to think of a series. Think of a great idea.
Almost anything can be a series if you have a few things: amazing characters, ongoing narrative potential, a series obstacle.

Every book has an arc with its own contained story and has to feel satisfying.

"A series-long obstacle is super-important," she said. An ongoing love triangle like the one in Gossip Girls can work. So did the mystery of A's identity in Pretty Little Liars.

Love what you write. Write what you know. Write honestly because everything counts.
The best concept in the world will not be a successful book without amazing execution. It's hugely important.

It doesn't mean your book needs to be you. It's finding something of yourself that you identify with in your character. That will make the character go from generic to special. 

Coleen Paratore--Writing for the Tween Market: Turning Inspiration into Income

To Coleen Paratore, “this is all about inspiration.” Writing is about catching that spark of inspiration, and you never know when it’s going to come. Inspiration is like a firefly in your backyard, and you have a mayonnaise jar to catch it.


Before she began writing she worked in advertising for years, but she never thought she would be a writer. She was first hit with inspiration for a story as she was on a morning jog. She ran home and started typing. Then she began to research, using CWIM and joining SCBWI. She kept sending stories, and she kept getting “royally rejected.” And then rejections began to get better.

But she really wanted to make a living, and was encouraged by an editor to write a novel. At an SCBWI PA conference, her editor through a title out at her: THE WEDDING PLANNER’S DAUGHTER. As she was driving home, she thought: the wedding planner’s daughter…what does she want? She wanted to have a father. When she tapped into that, she pulled over and started writing. WEDDING PLANNER’S DAUGHTER came out in 2003. It sold out in hardcover, was picked up by Scholastic Book Clubs, etc. The book changed things for her and made her realize she could make an income from writing.

The main takeaway from her session: Sieze the opportunity for inspiration when it hits.