Writer 2 Writer - Michael Reisman & Ben Esch

If you were fortunate enough to make it to the Flintridge Bookstore this past Sunday (yes, Superbowl Sunday) then you were witness to a side-splitting workshop by literary gunslingers Michael Reisman and Ben Esch. For those of you that were not able to join us, I volunteered to take notes.

Let me start by saying that if writing books doesn't pan out for these two (which I highly doubt), they definitely have a future in stand up comedy. Not since Sonny and Cher has there been such chemistry and audience uproar. But I digress.

On to the action, the mystery, the comedy, and the romance... er... maybe not so much. We are talking about boys after all.

I'll start with Michael Reisman, writer of the popular book series Simon Bloom, and his thoughts about writing engaging middle grade books. Check out more about Michael here - http://www.michaelreisman.com/index.php?page=books

Middle Grade for boys. Age range 8-13. That transition period between childhood and puberty. The place where a subtle crack divides a boy being friends with a girl and where he starts to notice that she is a girl (all flowery smelling). At this age range, emotional, sappy love stories with girls are not something that most boys want to read about. Not yet. So what do they want? They want skeletons and boogers. Monsters and aliens. Icky mud and 12ft tall bugs that can eat your entire family (but then burp them up later - because death is too dark of a subject at this age).

The stories are much more plot driven than character driven. Action, adventure, mystery and chills. Michael said that when he wrote Simon Bloom he was writing vicariously. What does that mean? It means that you give your hero that wish fulfillment. The what if factor. What if I could ride a broom and go to magic school. What if I was the long lost relative to Zeus. So he thought, how cool would it be to control gravity. Well at 11 years old, it would be really cool!

Be mindful of the details. Boys may not care about what everyone looks like. They will create the character in their head. Red hair, blue tennis shoes, a single pimple on his back may be too much detail (unless of course that pimple is an alien that will spread across his back and take over the world). They may not care so much about those details unless they are crucial to the plot. However, they do want to know what the monster looks like. What the skeleton looks like that helps them fight evil. Is there three slimy tentacles or a hundred? And do they smell like brussel sprouts? (I certainly hope not - bleck). One example of this is Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy.  Check out - http://www.skulduggerypleasant.com.

Boys have a lot of nervous energy and they like their stories to move along, keep them engaged. Bring in the dinosaurs, the zombies, or even whales on stilts. M.T. Anderson's wonderful book Whales on Stilts is another great example of high octane storytelling with what else? Whales that can shoot laser beams from their eyes. You can learn more about the author M.T. here - http://www.candlewick.com/authill.asp?b=Author&m=bio&id=2150&pix=n

Think about your audience. Boys like to create forts made of couch cushions, pretend that mom's spatula is the beloved Excalibur or that a cardboard box is the Millenium Falcon that can take them to the outer rim. Listen to them talk and observe what they do. Think back to yourself as a boy (if you are a dude) or a boy that you knew growing up (if you are a dudette). What did they say? How did they react to situations? Young boys don't always put their emotions on the table. They don't talk it out, they slug it out. They project their feelings in different ways than girls do. Boys still want to take over the world and blow up ant hills. But if they lend you their baseball glove or favorite Transformer, then there is a good chance they like you.

If you are struggling with dialogue for this age range, watch current television shows and movies with kids of the same age. Listen to the rhythm of the speech. Close your eyes and hear what is said - does it sound different to you?

Another wonderful book that Michael could not stop talking about was Lisa Yee's Standford Wong Flunks Big Time. To learn more about Lisa (if you don't already know!) check out her site at - http://www.lisayee.com/Site/Home.html

Let's switch gears and get to the nitty gritty. The PG-13, the R rated, the world of YA. The lines can blur between MG and YA territory. But what really separates them? Ben Esch, writer of Sophomore Undercover was able to help us in that realm. Check out Ben's hilarious site at - http://www.benjaminesch.com/

YA for boys. Age range 12 and up. Subject matter more adult in tone. For the most part, stories are character driven.

Ben's writing was based on a lot of events and memory from his teenage years. Writing YA was a personal journey and a lot of cultivating from those embarrassing moments that we all want to forget. But why forget them when they make for great writing? In fact, Ben was able to remember word for word conversations that he had in high school. Drawing from those conversations helped him create great characters and story arcs for Sophomore Undercover.

At this age boys are thinking about sex. In fact, they think about it a lot. And with changes in their body and voice there is plenty of space for quirky real moments. Just look at your yearbook and see what the boys wrote compared to what girls wrote. Girls were personal. Boys seemed to write only things on the surface (stay cool, don't be lame). But what you may not realize is that teenage boys are layered with complications much like their female counter parts.

Remember being a teenager? Do you remember how you felt when your body made drastic changes? What about the first kiss? The first French kiss or the time you played seven minutes in the closet? Let them boil up to the surface and write about them.

Ben made a great and hilarious point that maybe girls didn't realize it when they were dancing with a cute boy and he stood far away from them that he wasn't repulsed by them, he was actually turned on and didn't want them to feel how much. That is a PG-13 moment and not something you would find in a middle grade book.

I was a teenage boy and I can tell you that I was bothered if a girl didn't like me. If I put myself out there and was shot down - it stung. Did I sit around and talk to my friends while brushing each others hair? Not likely. No I had other ways of dealing with it. Most boys do. They don't talk face to face. They talk to each other shoulder to shoulder. Side by side. Facing out. They talk in short sentences and get to the point. Boys may seem simple but they do have layers. It's our job as writers to peel them back and give the reader something new and exciting to discover about them.

Ben pointed out a few of his favorite YA books that had strong voices and great stories.  

Girls for Breakfast by David Yoo - http://www.daveyoo.com/html/index.html
King Dork by Frank Portman - http://frankportman.com/index2.html

Both writers pulled from experience. That is what makes the writing real and have a voice. Think about those boys you hung out with. How did they talk and carry themselves? What was it that left a lifelong impression. At some point we have all known or dreamed about the Duckies, John Benders, Holden Caulfields, Harry Potters, Simon Blooms, and Dixie Nguyens. Now it's time to write about them.

Both Michael and Ben shared their # 1 rule. Write the story you want to read. Be passionate about it. Be into the story. Be committed to it. If you land an agent, there will be changes. If you land a publisher, there will be changes. There will be many steps to publication. So you have to love what you are writing because it could take you a long time to get it out to the world. Remember it is a marathon, not a sprint.

Michael and Ben, thank you so much for the laughs and all the wonderful advice. Thank you for giving us a great afternoon of your time. I look forward to reading many more of your books.

I would also like to give a very special thanks to Catherine Linka at the Flintridge Bookstore for coordinating such an awesome event. I have had the pleasure to attend a few of them so far and I am a big fan. To learn more about the bookstore and its events, check out: http://www.flintridgebooks.com/

And last but not least I would like to share a recent favorite of mine that had me rolling on the ground in the bookstore. A great boy book with a strong voice. 

Thank you Josh Lieb for this hilarious book. I will read this one many times. Have any favorites of your own? Books for boys that you couldn't put down? I'd love to hear about them.