I'm with you in believing that it all depends on the story and its intended audience. From one MG writer to another, I love the picture you've painted of the giant blue crabs!
Really interesting how you contrast the two writing styles. Intriguing how you adapted your own style to appeal to a different audience. What would you say are the main things you do/keep in mind when writing children's books? Also, when writing for adults how do you appeal to that audience, do you have a specific target in mind when you write?
Hi, Robert! These are great questions. Thank you! There are a lot of ways to answer. But for me, the simplest explanation is that when I write for mature audiences, I pull no punches in terms of content and verbiage. When I write for children (or more accurately, young teenagers and older), I pay much more attention to the content (relatively minimal descriptions of violence, no sex, etc.) and the verbiage (simpler structure, slightly limited vocabulary, etc.) The content change is actually more for the parents' benefit than the readers'. And the verbiage is an attempt to focus most of the attention on the story rather than its decorations.
I tend to enjoy a robust sentence however, the story does influence the style of writing. A humerous, topical story reads better for me wihen tight and concise. Longer literature that fleshes out characters over time, have previews/ hidden hints of things to come in the earlier volumes (like the Death Wizard Chronicles), seem to read better with longer and more complex sentences. Regardless of a readers taste the act of reading is priceless, and will add to the reader in ways not previously suspected.
What a wonderful thing to say ... thank you! I agree with you on Faulkner. Cormac McCarthy's punctuation can be fascinating as well. During the revision process of my latest novel, I've put a heavy focus on brevity. Not Hemingway-like brevity, but simply an effort to waste as few words as possible. I've learned some of this, ironically, from being active on Twitter. When I go 30 or so characters over and then edit it down to the required length, the edited version is invariably better than the longer version. Anyway, I appreciate your taking the time to comment!
I'm with you in believing that it all depends on the story and its intended audience. From one MG writer to another, I love the picture you've painted of the giant blue crabs!
Thank you! That is very nice of you to say. I will check out your blog as well.
Hi Wendy. Thank you very much for the nice comment!
Really interesting how you contrast the two writing styles. Intriguing how you adapted your own style to appeal to a different audience. What would you say are the main things you do/keep in mind when writing children's books? Also, when writing for adults how do you appeal to that audience, do you have a specific target in mind when you write?
Hi, Robert! These are great questions. Thank you! There are a lot of ways to answer. But for me, the simplest explanation is that when I write for mature audiences, I pull no punches in terms of content and verbiage. When I write for children (or more accurately, young teenagers and older), I pay much more attention to the content (relatively minimal descriptions of violence, no sex, etc.) and the verbiage (simpler structure, slightly limited vocabulary, etc.) The content change is actually more for the parents' benefit than the readers'. And the verbiage is an attempt to focus most of the attention on the story rather than its decorations.
I tend to enjoy a robust sentence however, the story does influence the style of writing. A humerous, topical story reads better for me wihen tight and concise. Longer literature that fleshes out characters over time, have previews/ hidden hints of things to come in the earlier volumes (like the Death Wizard Chronicles), seem to read better with longer and more complex sentences. Regardless of a readers taste the act of reading is priceless, and will add to the reader in ways not previously suspected.
Great observations! Thank you for taking the time to comment.
What a wonderful thing to say ... thank you! I agree with you on Faulkner. Cormac McCarthy's punctuation can be fascinating as well. During the revision process of my latest novel, I've put a heavy focus on brevity. Not Hemingway-like brevity, but simply an effort to waste as few words as possible. I've learned some of this, ironically, from being active on Twitter. When I go 30 or so characters over and then edit it down to the required length, the edited version is invariably better than the longer version. Anyway, I appreciate your taking the time to comment!
Yes! Succinct is a great word for it.