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Welcome to the Write for a Reason podcast. My name is Janet Wilson; I'm a publisher of Christian fiction for young people with Dernier Publishing. If you are a Christian, and new to writing stories for kids and teens, stay tuned for encouragement, creative writing tips and actionable strategies you can implement immediately to become a better writer. Thanks for coming over, now let’s jump straight in to today’s writing tip, which is called:

Action!

I think I may have mentioned something like this before in a writing tip, but it's worth mentioning again as it's a common problem I see in unsolicited manuscripts: when writing for this age group (8-14s) you need to start with some action.

If you begin your story with a character who is struggling with an emotional problem because of family, school or church, you risk losing your readers in the first few pages.

This is because:

• Readers haven't had a chance to build up a rapport with your protagonist, so don't care about his/her emotional problem yet. They may do later in the book, if you allow us to get to know him/her first.
• Children want exciting things to be going on a lot of the time. They love reading about danger, fun, excitement, mystery . . . as opposed to emotional problems, which can be depressing to read about, whether it's bullying, parents' divorcing, a house move, illness (the list of life's struggles is, let's face it, endless!)

Of course, you need to have an issue, a problem, something awful going on to make a story. Then your protagonist can, by the grace of God, win through in the end. But instead of starting your story with your emotional problem, consider how you could draw readers in differently. Could you begin with something fun and amazing, which will then throw the emotional problem into sharp relief? Could you start with something dangerous, exciting or mysterious, which will pull us into the story? While you are writing your exciting beginning, help us to get to know your engaging and captivating character. Then when the awful thing happens, we will care about them and want to read on.

Give it a go!

Thanks for listening! If you found this helpful, hop on over to write-for-a-reason.com, where you will find lots more resources and encouragement to help you write excellent, relevant, fun novels and get them into your readers’ hands. 

I’d also like to tell you about something really exciting, if you are currently in the process of writing your novel and would appreciate regular support and encouragement – an oppoirtunity to be part of an online for a reason community. I haven’t worked out all the details yet, but it will be called write for a reason unite. It will definitely include online support groups, probably fortnightly, plus regular teaching and Q and A – all to do with helping you get your novel written to the very best of your ability. All you need to do, to make sure you get all the information you need, is to sign up for the I’m interested list on www.write-for-a-reason.com.

Any questions about it, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

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