Writing

Agency: The Dilemma for the Middle Grade Sleuth

By on January 17, 2025   /   Articles, Writing  

By C. M. Surrisi on January 17, 2025

Picture of children looking at a map

The Dilemma

Many authors who love middle grade mysteries would like to write one. Hurrah! We always welcome new mysteries. However, it is not uncommon in this endeavor to dive in with a clever idea and then at about page fifty, give up. Why? Because it’s darn hard for a kid to solve a mystery.

Why is that? To solve a crime, a sleuth needs the ability to take action that affects the investigation and outcome, or in a word: agency. The youth-sleuth has some inherent handicaps in this regard. So when writing the middle grade mystery, how do you deal with these obstacles, and what can you do to make the most of them?

Fortunately, there is an established model which appeared in the earliest middle grade mysteries (e.g., Emil and the Detectives, Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden) and endures in today’s kid-crime novels.

The model has three parts.

  • First, you should understand the kid-sleuth’s unique problems. For example:

    • They usually can’t drive.
    • They have curfews.
    • They have parents watching over them.
    • They have little or no money.
    • They do/don’t carry phones.
    • They lack life experience.
    • They can disagree and bicker among themselves (true of adults, also!).
    • They are told to stay out of the way.
    • They are discredited when they offer advice and evidence.
    • They are prone to misunderstand things they have no experience with and thus can misinterpret clues.

In other words, they’re kids.

  • Second, you need to create a story world where they can investigate successfully. For example:

    • A location they can navigate, e.g., a boarding school, a small town, a camp, etc.
    • A season that allows them access to the outdoors. This will vastly expand your opportunity for unique scenes.
    • A lack of constant, immediate oversight. In other words, a single parent, working parent(s), deceased parent(s), no parent(s), inattentive oversight by teachers, camp counselors, etc.
    • A knowledge of the law (however misguided) through TV, movies, parental jobs, the police station next door, etc.

  • Finally, turn their disadvantages into superpowers. For example, here are some ways to work around a few of the issues mentioned above:

There you have some pointers on creating a successful middle grade sleuth. If you can think of items you would add to these lists, please add them to the comments below. Happy writing!

(c)cmsurrisi

Back to Top

Pack for Where You’re Going: How to Write with Intent

By on October 25, 2024   /   For Writers, Writing  

Sitting down to write a book without a plan is like going on vacation without deciding on a destination. An exciting new idea will tempt you to simply throw things in a bag and run to the airport. But, like a heavy backpack, the farther along you get into your first draft, the more you start to feel the weight of all the decisions you haven’t made. Doubt catches up to you in the terminal. Where is this story going? How do you know if the idea is strong? What should happen, and who should it happen to?

The best way to start writing is by setting intentions. Intent is the why that informs your story, and knowing that will help you with the what and how as you write. Intent will help you make decisions on everything from theme to plot to syntax. It tells you what needs to be in the story and what doesn’t. Put another way, if you know where you want to go, you’ll know exactly what you need to pack.

 

A traveler sitting on her colorful suitcase at the beach | Setting intent with writing

Photo by Anastasia Nelen on Unsplash.

Using Theme to Set Intent

When you sit down to start a new project, it’s vital to know what you want to say. Theme is a great way to begin. I always recommend approaching theme as a sentence rather than a word or phrase like friendship or coming of age. This way, the theme becomes more dynamic and engaging because it’s expressing what you want to say about that topic. Here are ways you could craft a theme:

Friendship → Friends help you find out who you are.

Coming of age → Growing up means taking responsibility for what you care about.

As you can see, these sentences go a lot farther in helping you decide what the story will be about. To find your own theme, consider the words or phrases you associate with your book. When you have a grasp of the topic, think about what you want to say about it. What perspective would you like to share with your readers?

Using Intent for Plot and Character

Once you’ve got your theme, you’ve set an intention for what you want to say. Now let’s look at the elements of the story itself: the plot and characters that will make it happen. How can you use these elements to support what you want to say? Let’s go back to the examples above to see how intention can help you decide what needs to be in your book.

In the first example, you might be looking at plot elements that touch on identity and the kinds of characters that will emphasize that thread:

Friends help you find out who you are.

→ Your main character is unsure where they fit into a new group, school, or neighborhood.

→ A talent show or contest is coming up, and everyone is expected to participate.

→ Something or someone has changed your main character’s perception of themselves for the worse.

In the second example, you might consider ways to show the difficulties kids face as they start becoming more independent.

Growing up means taking responsibility for what you care about.

→ Your main character is brainstorming ways to raise money.

→ Your character needs to help out with a younger sibling.

→ Maybe they plant a garden, start a club, or practice hard to make a sports team.

These are just a few ideas, but I hope you can see how intent can help you see ways to use your characters and plot to keep working towards your intention.

Using Intent for Tone and Mood

Intention can also help you make decisions on the scene and sentence level. If you want to write a scary story, for instance, you need to think about everything the story needs to make readers bite their fingernails and scooch to the edge of their chairs. That’s where word choice, imagery, and setting come into play. A scary story might emphasize light and dark, creepy noises, unusual smells, or bad tastes. On the other hand, if you’re writing a funny story, you might reach for brighter imagery, more playful narration, and breezier verbs.

Reach Your Destination

When you set your intention, you have everything you need to start writing. Now you can get to work choosing elements that will support the book; everything from characters to plot to the way it’s written. Intention will also help you finish and revise. You simply have to ask yourself, “Did I accomplish what I set out to do?” If the answer is no, you can revisit scenes or chapters that aren’t supporting the intention you set and make changes so the story can get back on track. Remember, only pack what you need for where you’re going!

Interested in how other writers get started? Check out this article from the Mixed-Up Files archives!

Back to Top

Use Four Acts to Get Through the Murky Middle

By on October 21, 2024   /   For Writers, Writing  

Focus on the Midpoint

When I outline a novel or graphic novel, I love to reference Save the Cat. If you’re not familiar with this plotting method, it’s based on screenplays and breaks a movie into Act 1 (the first 25% of the book), Act 2 (the next 50%), and Act 3 (the last 25%).

I more or less stick to this, except I put even more emphasis on the midpoint.

A strong midpoint not only gives the reader a high-impact scene to break up the long slog of the middle, but it’s a great chance to change up gears. In fact, I try to make this moment so huge that it effectively breaks that long Act 2 into two acts, so each of the four acts is 25% of the book.*

Act=Goal

To do that, I think of each act as a goal for the MC. Act=goal.

So, in a sense, the flow of a novel could look like this:

  • Act 1: the MC is pursuing a goal, one that makes sense for their ordinary world. Then a catalyst happens to either put that goal in jeopardy or catapult it forward.
  • Act 2: Reacting to that catalyst, the MC sets forth to achieve a new goal. Then another catalyst happens (the Midpoint) that either puts that goal in jeopardy or catapults it forward.
  • Act 3: repeat, bringing us to the All is Lost moment, which is the catalyst for the last act.
  • Act 4: reacting to the All is Lost, the MC makes a final goal.

Sometimes the catalyst in each act is subtle. Sometimes it’s an accumulation of things learned in the act up to that point. Sometimes it’s huge, like a bombshell of information. Whatever it is, each catalyst prevents the MC from continuing to pursue the goal that they are currently on; they have to change gears.

Examples

Star Wars

Let’s look at how this works in Star Wars: A New Hope.

Act 1

  • Goal: Set up droids on the farm.
  • Catalyst: Ben Kenobi asks Luke to go with him to Alderaan and Luke’s aunt and uncle are killed, making his Act 1 goal of getting the droids set up on the farm irrelevant.

Act 2

  • Goal: Get the plans to Alderaan.
  • Catalyst: The Death Star blows up Alderaan and captures the Millennium Falcon.
image from Star Wars: A New Hope. Standing behind Han Solo, Obi Wan looks tense, gazing at something in front of them, saying "That's no moon."

Our Star Wars heroes are about to discover that they cannot achieve their Act 2 goal.

Act 3

  • Goal: Rescue the princess from the Death Star
  • Catalyst: They escape, but the Death Star follows them to the hidden rebel base.

Act 4

  • Goal: Destroy the Death Star to save the rebel base.
  • Result: Luke destroys the Death Star.

Other Examples

Movies:

  • Raiders of the Lost Ark (this goal shift is huge, as Indy’s goal goes from finding the Ark to getting it back from the Nazis; in fact, the entire second half of the movie is Indy trying to get and keep the Ark from the Nazis)
  • Monsters, Inc. (this is subtle, but Sully switches from wanting to save his career to wanting to save Boo, a goal shift that causes conflict with Mike)
  • Lion King
  • Up

Books: The Last Mapmaker and A Wish in the Dark by Christina Soontornvat are great examples of the main character’s goal shifting in at the midpoint.

Does It Really Matter?

I don’t think it matters to the reader whether you outline your story with a goal change in the middle, as long as the story moves along. But as the writer, I find splitting up that long middle to be incredibly helpful for getting through the murky middle. Basically, it’s chunking up a huge task into two more manageably sized tasks.

For example, imagine you’re writing Star Wars. Woud it be easier to plot if you had a list of goals for Luke that were:

  1. Set up droids on the farm
  2. Get plans to the rebel alliance
  3. Destroy the Death Star and save the rebels

Or:

  1. Set up droids on the farm
  2. Get plans to Alderaan
  3. Rescue the rebel princess and escape to the rebel base
  4. Destroy the Death Star and save the rebels

You could interpret Star Wars either way, but personally, I would find the second to be much easier to build a story around. The specificity helps me to keep the middle of the book moving along. It would give me something more concrete to write toward.

I can think of many stories that do not approach the Midpoint this way. (I can think of many that don’t even really have a Midpoint shift). But if you’re stuck in the murky middle, try breaking that long Act 2 into two goals, and give each a catalyst that disrupts that goal.

*For more information on four-act stories, click here to read about Joyce Sweeney’s plot clock.

Back to Top