Tag: young adult fiction

Categories
Writing for YA

Naming the Book Baby: How to Create a Compelling Title

My books rarely keep their working titles. This may be because the title wasn’t that great to start with, or because after the story evolves, it no longer fits.

A great title is part of what captivates readers, enticing them to pick up the book to find out more, but crafting the perfect title isn’t always easy.

I asked a couple of YA authors how they came up with the titles for their novels.

“If a book doesn’t come to me with a title already attached and I have to find one for it, I usually start by writing a list of the themes in the book and any symbolic objects. That’s how I found the titles for both Cloaked and One Bad Apple. 

If that doesn’t work, I’ll search through Shakespeare using OpenSourceShakespeare.org for words and phrases that apply to the book and see if he’s got anything cool I can use.

I also sometimes search through Ecclesiastes, Psalms, and Proverbs looking for titles, often using BibleGateway.com. That’s how I found the title for My Rock and My Refuge.”

Rachel Kovaciny, Author of Western Fairytale Retellings

Stephanie Daniels, Author of YA Historical Fiction says:

“I tend to love titles with double meanings. If I can latch onto a theme that might also work as the outer goal for the character then that’s what I try to do.

I do a ton of word webbing when I brainstorm. And nothing is too obscure or ridiculous.

I also love when a character’s name can pull double duty.”

Other ideas for finding the perfect title:

Use metaphors or symbolism. For example, my upcoming release is titled The Key Collector’s Daughter. The key is a symbol of my character’s yearning for home and is an object of special significance. The literal key itself has a double meaning, because it means one thing to her father, but has an entirely different significance to her mother.

Use words that have strong emotional impact. Words like heartbreak, promise, lost, or any other word you can think of that evokes a strong feeling may be good contenders as part of a title.

Focus on setting or character. Some book titles incorporate a character’s name or the setting. As long as it’s descriptive and catchy, that can sometimes work well.   

Go for a memorable title. This one can be a bit tricky. If the title is too obscure or difficult to understand, readers won’t be drawn to it. If it’s too similar to what’s already out there (or if it’s already being used) it can cause confusion and frustration for the reader. Research in your genre and subgenre to see what titles work and aim for a variation, making your title unique enough to stand out, but familiar enough so customers are attracted to it. Consider a title that hints at genre, mood, setting, or some other element to pique interest.

Keep it concise. Long titles are hard to remember. Try to come up with a title that is descriptive but catchy.

Always ask for feedback. It’s hard to give up a title we become attached to, but it’s part of market research to ask others’ advice and opinions before committing to the final title. Survey your intended market and other authors. They’ll be happy to help.

Check your genre. For writers of young adult novels, it’s important to do the research and stay up to date on what title appeal to teens today. What worked in the past, or what works for other markets may not give authors of young adult fiction the competitive edge they need to succeed in the genre right now.

Keep these things in mind, and you’ll have a head start on coming up with a great title.

Do you have any additional tips on naming your book baby? Leave a comment!

Donna Jo Stone is an award-winning author of young adult contemporary and adult historical fiction. She writes about tough issues but always ends her stories on a note of hope. Her novels are about common struggles and finding the faith to carry on through those battles. The first book in Donna Jo’s young adult series is scheduled for publication in 2025.Her short romance, A Wedding to Remember, released Feb 1st, and her adult 1960s inspy romance, JOANN: Apron Strings Books 5, released May 15th.

Stay in touch and receive the latest news by signing up for Donna Jo’s newsletter at  donnajostone.com.

Both Stephanie and Rachel are members of a Facebook group, Christian Fiction Readers and Authors. https://www.facebook.com/groups/T.YA.Christianfictionreadersandauthors

To find out more about Stephanie and her young adult historical fiction, including her book, The Uncertainty of Fire, visit her website at https://authorstephaniedaniels.com/

To find out more about Rachel’s Western Fairytale Retellings and her latest releases, including her recent release, The Man on the Buckskin Horse, you can visit her website at  http://www.rachelkovaciny.com/

Categories
Writing for YA

Interview with Contemporary YA Author Michelle Dykman

Young adult author Michelle Dykman isn’t afraid to tackle tough subject in her young adult novels. Her three book series is set at Bethel Private School, an environment many teens can relate to. Her characters make mistakes, find themselves in difficult situations, and ultimately find hope.

DJS: Why did you choose the setting of Bethel Private School, and the particular issues you did to write about?

MD: The Bethel Private School series came to me while I helped one of my ESL students in high school work through an English assignment. This incident led me to think about the many times a student had come to me with a problem to discuss, or used me as a sounding board. After roughly six years of teaching high school students, I wondered if there were books out there that could help these teens find their way to Christ, meeting them at the place where they were. I decided to write a series of books specifically for teens with characters facing the same challenges they were, with a message directing them to the Greatest Problem Solver of all – Jesus Christ.

DJS: Did you learn anything about yourself as you wrote the series?

MD: I learned a lot about myself and relived many of my less than positive high school experiences. It also allowed me to see how far I have come from those days, and how much maturity gives perspective. God was good to me when I was a teen. He is still good to me today. The series allowed me to see how much more teens are facing today and how much society has influenced the path of mental health issues in teens. My research has given me a bit more insight into the challenges my own children face, as well as the ones I see in classroom each day.

DJS: Your YA books are about some pretty serious topics. Were you surprised or shocked by anything you learned about as you were writing/researching?

MD: My husband and I have been involved with teen ministry for a number of years and I have seen, heard and discovered far more than I would have liked to about the students I taught in Sunday School and youth group as well as in class. I make it my motto to not shock easily, as this is a surefire way to discourage a teen from discussing an uncomfortable topic with you, or sharing anything they are ashamed of. Many teens have spoken to me because I don’t judge. We all make mistakes. I always want to create a safe space for a teen to share their struggles with me.

DJS: What is the main thing you would like young readers to take away from your books?

MD: Jesus Christ. In all my books there is a very clear gospel message on which direction to turn when life is too much or problems seem too great. My main motivation in writing all my books is that teens would find Christ and know no matter what they have done or where they have gone, they are never too far that God cannot find them or they cannot turn or return to Him. I want teens to know the freeing message of the gospel. I also hope that if they see the consequences of my characters choices, it might make them think twice before making the same mistake.

DJS: What is the main things you would like parents and teachers to understand about relating to teens?

MD: One thing I would like parents and teachers a like to understand about teens is that they are going to make mistakes. No matter how many times they are cautioned, warned, or dissuaded, somewhere down the line they are going to mess up. There are two ways an adult can react. You can go through the various stages of “I told you so” and lose your teens trust in you, or you can come alongside them by using that opportunity to show them to Christ and help them to understand that no matter what they have done there is always forgiveness. Lovingly remind them that although their choice will have consequences, your love and God’s love for them remain unchanged. I think sometimes we, as adults, forget being a teen is such a confusing time of life. We would rather forget it ever happened. The more time I spend with teens, the more I realize, sometimes it does us well to remember that not all the choices we made at a young age were great.

Michelle Dykman is a reader, teacher, and debut author of If These Stars Could Talk.
After spending ten years crunching numbers, Michelle discovered her two true passions, teaching and writing Clean and Wholesome Christian Romance novels for adults and teens. Michelle lives with her husband and two boys in the snowy and sometimes hot rural areas of Canada. From time to time, she misses the dry warmth of her home country, South Africa. 

About the series: Being a teen is tough no one knows this better than high school friends Willow Rysen, Candace Hillman and Amy Carter. These friends navigate peer pressure, an unplanned pregnancy, and finding their faith at a time when life is confusing, the future is daunting, and the answers to life’s questions are far from easy.

Donna Jo Stone is an award-winning author of young adult contemporary and adult historical fiction. She writes about tough issues but always ends her stories on a note of hope. Her novels are about common struggles and finding the faith to carry on through those battles.

The first book in Donna Jo’s young adult series is scheduled for publication in 2025.

Her short romance, A Wedding to Remember, released Feb 1st, and her adult 1960s inspy romance, JOANN: Apron Strings Books 5, releases May 15th. 

Stay in touch and receive the latest news by signing up for Donna Jo’s newsletter at  donnajostone.com.

Categories
Writing for YA

Tell Me Again, Why Do We do This Writing Thing?

My thoughts are still marinating on the past year. I’m ticking off half-done accomplishments and not-so-successful projects. This type of evaluation can be disheartening, and seems all too common among my writing friends.

One such friend said recently, “Tell me again why we do this.”

I immediately replied, “We do it for love.”

Then I stole some song lyrics from “The Glory of Love.” (I may have sung them.)

The advice in the song isn’t half bad. At the risk of sounding corny in this post, I’m going with the idea of taking, giving, and of course, the inevitable heartbreaking writers encounter, and plan to apply it to the coming year.

Take a Little Instruction

Trying to learn a skill without listening to instruction is a natural recipe for disaster, yet it’s oh-so-tempting to forgo the process of continuing education to become a writer. After all, people start talking and figuring out language before they can brush their teeth, and storytelling isn’t far behind. However, for most of us, producing a great work requires a bit of skill sharpening. There are exceptions, but in my experience, to create words that connect with readers in a deep way takes a huge effort.

I suspect this is why my piano teacher used to say, “Practice makes perfect.” As far as I can tell, practice doesn’t always lead to perfection, but generally produces improvement in whatever I’m tackling.

Take a Little (or Big) Chance

From the moment pen is put to paper or fingers to keyboard, this writing gig is about taking chances. Even in the musings I share with no one but myself, the act of writing challenges me to think, examine my beliefs, and clarify those thoughts on paper. Sometimes this process shakes my world. That’s taking a chance.

If I want to learn and grow, develop the ability to create a marketable product for wider consumption, sharing the work for critique is necessary. This sharing business sounds fine and dandy until a mentor, critique partner, or random beta readers I connected with on the internet cut too close to the bone.

I’m suspicious of anyone who says harsh dissection of their work doesn’t bother them. The truth is, criticism stings, and harsh criticism can wound. Oftentimes, it hurts because there is a nugget—or shovelful—of truth in the feedback. Facing possible negative reaction to our work is part of the creative life. Without taking that chance and asking for feedback and opinions, I won’t know if my prose conveys what I meant it to. (Not that an author should take every criticism to heart.)

If an author is brave enough to share a finished book, poem, song, or article with the world, they risk rejection and ridicule in the form of bad reviews and negative comments. But there’s no other way to be heard, except to take the chance.

Give a Little to the Writing Community

To be successful, not only does a writer need to take advice, I feel they should give back to the community. This helps others and it helps the author. Giving back can grow a support network, and working with the right group is a valuable experience, propelling an author’s writing to the next level.

Give a Little and Adjust Your Expectations

I’ve had to give a little on my plans. My journey simply refuses to stick to the carefully plotted road plan. There have been detours, bumps, unexpected tragedies—and treasures—scattered along the way. As long as I do my best and keep moving forward, I can be please with my progress, even if it doesn’t follow the prescribed path.

I heard someone once say, “To get to where you are going, you have to go through whatever it takes to get to the destination.”

Let Your Heart Break a Little

Rejections, bad reviews, poor sales. Authors face all of these, along with long work hours and criticism of all sorts. If that weren’t enough heartbreak, in order to produce a moving story, writers must invest enough in the characters to make the reader care. Authors pour real emotions on the page, impart real messages that we may well end up crying over. Our hearts break over a topic or issue and that’s what we write about, because without passion a story is just a story. So why do we do it?

For many of us, it’s because we have a message, we care, we need to be seen and heard, to deliver a truth to the reader who needs our words.

And that’s the story of … why we write. (At least part of why I write.)

Why do you write? Leave a comment and let me know.

Donna Jo Stone is an award-winning author of young adult contemporary and adult historical fiction. She writes about tough issues but always ends her stories on a note of hope. Her novels are about common struggles and finding the faith to carry on through those battles.

The first book in Donna Jo’s young adult series is scheduled for publication in 2025.

Her short romance, A Wedding to Remember, releases Feb1st, and her adult 1960s inspy romance, JOANN: Apron Strings Books 5, releases May 15th. Both are available for pre-order on Amazon.

Find out more about upcoming releases and events by signing up for her newsletter at  donnajostone.com.

Categories
Uncategorized Writing for YA

Interruption of Plans or Ordained Opportunity

It’s the end of December, and for me, that means it’s time to pull out a fresh, ginormous, old-fashioned office calendar for the new year and start planning. I have gleefully begun to fill in the calendar’s little boxes.

I love to dream up a plan.

I love shiny new calendars with pristine white blocks waiting for to-do lists. I love highlighters and color-coding. In other words, I am a true believer in organization. The funny thing about plans is, a lot of times it doesn’t matter how carefully I lay out goals, something always happens to delay progress or completely derail me. Or send me off in a new direction.

That’s what happened this past year. I’d been praying for direction for some time. The time-consuming process of querying, getting requests for fulls, then getting the eventual rejections, had left me discouraged. This, combined with the state of the publishing industry, had me seriously considering self-publishing. I asked my writer friends to pray with me about what direction I should take.

After much prayer and research, I stopped querying and got busy amassing all the information I could about self-publishing, started formulating a plan, and even took a few baby steps, such as lining up an editor for the first book in my YA Contemporary series, but none of my methods were really helping me move forward in a substantial way.

Then an interruption came, or was it an opportunity?

I got a message from Jenny Knipfer, an author I’d met through reading her book and posting a review, (which I think is a pretty neat way to meet someone.) She wanted to know if I was interested in a multi-author collaboration. My immediate response was “Yes!” even though it wasn’t a YA project. I felt confident in accepting because the timing was perfect. It was an answer to prayers. A divine assignment. I’m still writing my young adult fiction and will publish at least one young adult novel in 2024, but I’d also been thinking of writing more in the time period of the book she requested. (1960s)

I can get so focused on my self-designated goals that I have trouble discerning the difference between an interruption and an opportunity, but this was a flashing neon sign.

Taking advantage of this offer was the push I needed to learn the things I needed to learn to independently publish. Signing on to the Apron Strings project forced me to prioritize what must be done and let go of what wasn’t absolutely necessary. Left to my own devices, I likely would have continued to research and weigh options. At the time Jenny contacted me, I had over-organized my plans to the point that I had a huge file on all things self-publishing, but had become overwhelmed and had stagnated. Perhaps the Apron Strings project was a heavenly kick in the pants, a get a move on, already.

It seemed like a situation tailored just for me, with a built-in support group, a few directions, and a shorter to-do list than my massive file.

I desperately needed that shove.

I’m not saying I’ll ever throw all planning out the door and just wait for favorable circumstances to appear. If I had done such a thing, I wouldn’t have been able to jump in when the opportunity presented itself. All of my previous research and attempts at organizing a publishing and marketing plan served me well.

I knew in my gut this was a gift, and God meant for me to step out. It still took faith. I didn’t feel ready. And I don’t feel ready now, but I finished writing book five for the Apron Strings series in plenty of time, and have hit all the required deadlines so far. Even so, it’s a daily faith walk, because there is so much I don’t know, and there is always more to learn. I suspect it will always be this way. I’ll never have a plan solid enough to account for all contingencies or keep me in my comfort zone, but that’s okay.

One of my new writing goals for 2024 is to be ready to hear, recognize, and respond. The next time a side project comes up, I hope I’ll remember to stay open and pray about it, not immediately discount an opportunity as an interruption.

What about you? How do you discern the difference between interruptions and opportunities?

The Apron Strings Book Series is a collection of heartfelt inspirational stories connected by one cookbook, featuring different women throughout the decades from 1920 to 2020. A new book will be released every month in 2024. Donna Jo’s book, Joann, is book five in the series and releases May 15th, 2024.

Donna Jo Stone is an award-winning author of young adult contemporary and adult historical fiction. She writes about tough issues but always ends her stories on a note of hope. Her novels are about common struggles and finding the faith to carry on through those battles. The first book in Donna Jo’s young adult series is scheduled for publication in 2024.

To find out more, sign up for her newsletter at donnajostone.com.