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WNDMG Wednesday – M. K. England Guest Post

By Jennifer Swanson on March 9, 2022 / Articles, WNDMG

Illustration by: Aixa Perez-Prado

WNDMG Wednesday is thrilled to host author M.K. England this month. M.K. wrote a fantastic post for us exploring themes central to their writing–themes that consistently create connection and validation, which is the connective tissue of what diverse kidlit is all about. Thank you so much, M.K.! And congratulations on Player vs. Player — so excited for this book!

Guest Post, by M.K. England

My work as an author is a bit all over the place. I started out in YA sci-fi/fantasy with The Disasters and Spellhacker, skipped to adult sci-fi with Guardians of the Galaxy: No Guts, No Glory, then hopped to YA contemporary with The One True Me and You, which just came out on March 1st. Now, after all that, I’ve finally found my way to middle grade—and what a joy it is to be writing the Player vs. Player trilogy.

Two Consistent Features

What in the world could possibly connect all of those very different books, other than the fact that they all lived in my brain? There are two consistent features of everything I write:

Strong, loving, supportive friend groups that treat each other like family, and,
A reading experience that I, the queer nerdy Star Wars loving gamer child, would have felt validated by.

It’s dangerous to go alone!*

In the Player vs. Player trilogy, both of those features are fundamental to the story. We get to see the formation of my hallmark friends-as-family group in action as four kids come together to bond over their shared love of a video game called Affinity. Book one, Ultimate Gaming Showdown, is like a video game version of Mr. Lemoncello’s Library, where four kids team up in a virtual tournament to do battle for an amazing prize package. They play well together… but there are whole heaps of loneliness and isolation (and maybe a few secrets) keeping them from playing their best and coming together as a team—and as true friends.

Josh’s family moves around a lot for his mom’s job and just wants some friends to game with.
Hannah struggles in school and plays alone at the public library every evening while her mom works a second job.
Gaming is banned altogether in Larkin’s household, and she’s got a million other things going on in her life—but her heart and dreams are filled with video games.
Wheatley struggles to relate to other kids and has an overbearing father… and a secret that could wreck the whole team.

I loved getting to design the video game these kids play together, and writing the action of the tournament was a blast. It’s the process of getting these kids together as a team, as friends who trust and care about each other, that ultimately propels the book forward though. There is such incredible power in finding the people who see you and validate the things you care about, something all of these kids desperately needed. To many people, video games are a waste of time, something shameful that kids should avoid. To these kids, gaming is a critical lifeline, a source of purpose and pride… and maybe even a future career.

Of course, as we’ll find out in PvP book two, it’s not all smooth sailing once you’ve found your people. Staying friends, especially when you’re on a team together? There are… challenges.

* – A classic Zelda reference that the kids in this book would totally not get. I embrace my status as an Elder Millennial Nerd.

Gamers are cool now, right?

The second constant in my writing, a reading experience that validates my queer nerdy young self, is baked right into the core concept. I loved video games a lot as a child. It’s the earliest thing I remember being very into, starting with button mashing on our old original Nintendo as soon as I could get my hands around the controller.

However, when I was the same age as the kids in PvP, it was the late 90s. Being a gamer at that time wasn’t especially cool for anyone, but definitely not if you weren’t a boy. Things have improved, but gaming is still a boy’s club in a lot of ways. For example, the vast majority of the top streamers on Twitch are straight cis white guys. Meanwhile women, BIPOC folks, and queer people get harassed right off the site. We clearly still have a long way to go.

For adult me, a queer non-binary person who grew up as that weirdo “gamer girl,” the opportunity to write this story is healing. The gaming team in PvP includes two girls competing at the highest level in eSports—and as a kid, I would have been obsessed. PvP is a book I would have read until the paperback had gone soft and fuzzy, full of creases and little torn off chunks missing from too much time spent in a backpack or wedged between the bed and the wall. Though there weren’t books for kids and teens back then that mentioned the word nonbinary (that I knew of), I gobbled up anything where I saw kids like me—girls who didn’t fit, who dared to ferociously love unexpected things, who chafed against their boxes. If there’d been a book series about girls in video games? Game over.

((Also into gaming? Read this archive STEM Tuesday interview with Janet Slingerland, who wrote VIDE GAME CODING))

Press start

It’s been fascinating to me, writing characters who are just beginning to discover who they are. Characters in YA are doing the same thing, but they’re much further down the path. In middle grade, kids are just starting to take those first steps to differentiate from their families and embrace who they’ll become.

For some queer, trans, and gender-expansive kids, by the time they hit that 8-12 range, they’re already well aware of their identities. For others, like me, it takes longer. Maybe it was just the lack of representation in media and the “tomboy” label I was saddled with as a kid, but it wasn’t until high school that I really started to understand and embrace some aspects of who I was, and the full picture didn’t come into focus until my early 30s. Before that, it was much more subtle. Blushing glances, that awkward blend of curiosity and embarrassment, experimenting with clothes to see what felt right. While I’m sure I’ll write a more overt middle-grade story later, for right now I’m enjoying writing this subtle growth into queerness that so reflects my own experiences while the characters put 99% of their brainpower into their gaming goals.

It’s an honor to be writing directly to and for the next generation of gamers, who I hope will create a much more open and welcoming gaming culture in the years to come. I’ll still be here, controller in hand.

M. K. England grew up on the Space Coast of Florida watching shuttle launches from the backyard. These days, they call rural Virginia home, where their house is full of video games, dogs, plants, Star Wars memorabilia, and one baby human. MK is the author of THE DISASTERS (2018), SPELLHACKER (2020), THE ONE TRUE ME & YOU (2022), and other forthcoming novels. Follow them at www.mkengland.com.

Stay connected:

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Need a plan for your MG? Ready Chapter 1 kicks off March with the Plot Clock

By Faran Fagen on March 7, 2022 / Articles

By Faran Fagen

If you read my last post, you learned about Ready Chapter 1, a year-long, interconnected workshop series that meets you where you are at as you write your middle grade novel.

In March’s class, agent and author Joyce Sweeney, along with moderator Fred Koehler, discussed Character Development with an emphasis on the Plot Clock. The Plot Clock is a great tool for planning out any piece of fiction—including middle grade books—and is also a powerful way of determining what is missing is a story once you’ve completed your first draft. Just by looking for each component of the Plot Clock you can easily see where a hole is in your plot, where you’ve spent too much time or not enough, and how to add more dramatic tension to your writing.

The Plot Clock is often used by writers to develop the plot of the stories, to see where a story might need more oomph, and to find places to add suspense.

One of the main questions Sweeney addressed in the Ready Chapter 1 March session was, how does the main character (MC) change from the beginning of the story to the end? The plot centers around the main character’s arc.

What does the Main Character (MC) need to change? Are they too shy? Too aggressive? What are they fighting against? How do they resist change? How do they overcome the obstacles you, the author, place in their path and how does it shape them?

One thing Sweeney said was that story telling is a part of human nature and we all have an internal plot clock. Sometimes we read a story, hear a story told, watch a movie or television show and it just doesn’t feel right, but we can’t say why. Our internal plot clocks tell us that something is amiss. We don’t want our readers to get this “amiss” feeling. This is where the plot clock comes in handy.

The Plot Clock is a circle divided into four equal quadrants making up four acts. Some acts might be longer than others, but the clock works best when the book balances all fourth quadrants in length and substance.

The picture below shows a plot clock with the four acts. Sweeney actually wrote and published a short book in 2019 called Plotting your novel with the Plot Clock that goes into much more detail. This book helped me immensely with my MG The Save, which is being shopped around by my agent.

ACT 1

Ordinary World—The story begins in what is normal for the main character. Are they a star athlete in a troubled family with a sick parent? A young girl in Kansas who yet to realize “there’s no place like home”. You can’t care about what will happen later in a story or see the ramifications of it, if you don’t know what the status quo is for the main character.

Inciting Incident—Somewhere in ACT 1 (or even multiple times in ACT 1), something happens that shakes up the norm. The apple-cart of the plot is turned over or, at least, upset in some way. The Inciting Incident gives a clue to the reader what the Special World the character is entering will be like (even though the character may or may not realize it himself/herself).

Binding Point—The Binding point is where the character does something that causes him to be bound to the Special World. He has bitten the forbidden fruit, climbed onto the pirate ship, followed the rabbit into the woods, shook hands with the devil. And that turns what was the normal, ordinary world on its ear.

ACT 2

Special World—After the Binding Point, the MC enters into a Special World. That doesn’t mean he/she is transported to the past in a Delorean, but now the character is dealing with the problem of the story. The Special World could be a psychological state, a problem, a challenge, a recognition, an experience, and it could even be a magical place. “It is the place where the character goes to do all the work of the story.”

Tests and Challenges Failed—During this act the character tries to deal with his/her problem and fails—over and over and over. Usually the situation is growing worse and worse and worse.

Low Point—Often in ACT 2 the situation gets worse and worse and worse ending with the Low Point. The Low Point is usually the worst thing the MC is dreading comes to pass. And then leads to the Change in the MC.

Change—The main character comes to realization that he/she needs to change and gets a clue that the old strategies he/she was using aren’t working. The main character makes a Change and moves out of “all is lost” and into ACT 3.

ACT 3

Tests and Challenges Passed—ACT 3 mirrors ACT 2. However, the main character begins to figure out what will work and may even get cocky with success. But as the main character is getting stronger, the antagonist is getting stronger, too.

Turning Point—The Turning Point comes at the end of ACT 3. It’s something unexpected that shocks the reader (“Luke, I am your father”) and makes the character move towards the climax.

ACT 4

The time period between the Turning Point and the Climax of the story is the darkest of all for the main character. This time leads to the Climax.

Climax—This is the battle to end all battles and answers the dramatic question of the story. The Climax may also resolve other sub-plots. The Climax may take as much or as little of ACT 4 as needed.

Denouement—This is where the story resolves and is often the ah-h-h-h-h moment of a story. In the original Star Wars, it’s where Princess Leia puts the medals on Luke and Han. In Return of the Jedi, the party with the Ewoks. You get it.

The Plot Clock is a lot (hence the need for an entire book on it) but’s super helpful. You should give it a shot and plot your book with it.

Ready Chapter 1 has more plotting action next month. The April 1 class features “High Impact Plotting” with award-winning author Janice Hardy. Visit www.readychapter1.com. Happy plotting!

Spring Training 2022!

By Mike Hays on March 4, 2022 / Articles, For Teachers, For Writers

“Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good.” – Malcolm Gladwell, OUTLIERS.

Creating something from nothing is 100% magic. One simply has to employ the fruits of the innate gift handed down from the creativity gods. Simply grab a pen and paper, find an inspirational environment, hit the creativity switch, and wait for the muse to arrive. Simple.

WRONG!

Creative work is a doing thing. It’s work. Sometimes hard, hard, hard work but most of the time it’s rewarding work. We are wired to create. The reality, however, is it’s not magic. It’s work. Three steps that are often listed as the way to becoming a better creative are study, practice, and feedback.

Wait!

Did someone say, “Practice?”

The memory of NBA superstar Allen Iverson’s 2002 press conference popped into my head when I thought of the word “practice”. AI’s rant on practice is a favorite and often repeated saying at the Hays House.

And since creative work is a doing thing, transformation only comes from doing the thing. Whether you’re seven working on your first creation or seventy and writing a family history, doing the work to do better work is important. Sorry AI, but practice is at the core of elevating the skills.

Despite what AI might have thought back in the day, practice matters.

It’s early March 2022. Spring training time for us writers and creators (and hopefully, soon for the Major League Baseball players and coaches.) Time to take a critical look at how we treat our craft and produce our creative work. Time to evaluate how we practice and then tweak or adjust the routine as needed to take our work to another level.

It’s time to analyze how to improve and get better. Creative work is a constant move forward. Here are a few tips for better practice that I’m going to incorporate into my 2022.

Practice with a Purpose

There’s so much awesome in this video excerpt from sketchnote expert Eva Lotta Lamm’s Pragmatic Sketching Masterclass.

Video Link: Eva Lotta Lamm: How to Practice Effectively

The value of a regular and deliberate practice is transformative. Keep in mind the performance and enter into the practice with expectations.

Focus on:

The doing.
What’s going on.
Notice what’s happening instead of judging what’s happening.

Practice widely

I’m a former strength and conditioning coach. I’m also a fan of a power training guru named Marty Gallagher. I first became aware of Mr. Gallagher after reading his essay with its nod to The Band, Fitness From the Big Pink. What I’ve liked about his training philosophy is it’s a simple, multi-faceted approach to physical and mental transformation.

According to Coach Gallagher, “Your fitness efforts fail because you are one dimensional in a four-dimensional universe.”

This is also true for creative efforts. One-dimensional creative practice often results in the creator hitting a rut and losing enthusiasm. Trying a variety of activities can unlock creative growth and transformation in the desired skill or in a completely different direction. Try something new when you feel your practice hitting a rut. Transform.

Creative practice is eerily similar to physical training. A multi-faceted, well-balanced approach to any form of training is a great plan of attack for improving skills. Marty Gallagher’s balanced approach for transformational training includes progressive resistance training, cardiovascular training, nutrition, and brain-train. Creative training might include drawing, poetry, meditation, music, or free-writing. The sky’s the limit here.

Try new things. Perform them badly. Fail. Practice. Try again. Transform.

As Marty Gallagher said, “With practice, tangible gains generate enthusiasm and enthusiasm causes the trainee to redouble their effort.”

Blank Page

People often freak out about the blank page. It is intimidating. This intimidation ingrained in us since most of us were kids stems from the idea of the blank page will be eventually graded AND should strive for perfection. We should be thinking instead of a blank page as an invitation to make something instead of an assignment.

Practice is an invitation to transform the empty space in front of us with the contents of our creative brain. Instead of a place to make mistakes, we should treat the blank space as a place to make things happen.

No right. No wrong. Just a formerly blank page that is now alive with ideas.

Just Do It!

The most important thing about practicing and training your creative self is that you do it. That’s the process. One word, one mark, or one idea at a time moving forward towards transformation.

As a sign from the creative universe that this was the right topic for my post, this was in the weekly newsletter for an online drawing class I’m taking.

“You will find that, without exception, practice will reward you, so be brave, be committed, keep putting your pencil to paper and you will be pleasantly surprised.” – Drawing Nature, Science and Culture: Natural History Illustration 101 weekly course newsletter (3/2/2022).

Happy Spring Training!

Be brave. Be committed. Keep putting your pencil to paper.

Do the work. Enjoy the ride.

You will be pleasantly surprised.

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WNDMG Wednesday – M. K. England Guest Post