Hello, writers. Write On! is being broadcast tonight from the American Cancer Society's Hope Lodge. If you and yours are ever in need of cancer treatment far from home, chances are a Hope Lodge will be in your travel plans. The ACS provides patient and caretaker (I'm the latter) with a room and various other amenities-- in the case of this lodge, a communal kitchen, a library, a limitless supply of Tom's of Maine* mouthwash, and wifi-- all for the very reasonable price of nothing at all. Not a cent.
It's a very generous deal. Nonetheless I hope you never have the opportunity to avail yourself of it.
*No, I don't know why. I assume it was donated by T of M.
The exigencies of the situation may keep me from sticking around this diary for long. We'll see.
Anyway. To writing.
In YA and middle grades fiction, it's terribly important that your character change over the course of the story. It's actually important in other fiction too. In kiddylit, at least, s/he should change for the better.
Often you think your character has quite clearly and obviously changed, and your beta readers, or your editor, will tell you he hasn't. So you have to be careful to show the character change pretty clearly. Spell it out.
In his Writing the Breakthrough Novel Workbook, Donald Maass recommends stating that before such-and-such happened, your character was so-and-so, but after it happened, she was so-and-so. (You can take that or leave it. Most of the examples he gives of "breakthrough novels" are fairly forgettable books.)
Tonight's challenge is to show a character's change moment.
Rework the passage below so that it contains a change moment.
Hortense came home from work precisely at six o'clock, and there were 26 cats in the kitchen. She pushed one off a high stool, sat down, and said, "What's for dinner?"
"Beets," said Alf.
"Beets and what?" said Hortense.
"Just beets," said Alf. "You need to eat more beets."
Hortense sighed and reached for the phone. "Pizza again, then?"
"You don't appreciate me," said Alf.
"Pepperoni or sausage?" said Hortense.
Alf had been a vegetarian for 30 years.
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