Writers & Illustrators For Young Readers: Blog Tour

Since I am presenting at Writers & Illustrators For Young Readers this summer (WIFYR), the organizers asked me to participate in their blog tour. If you haven't been to the conference, it's quite the experience. Writers get to meet and be mentored by a published author, and throughout the week receive feedback on their manuscript. There are also afternoon classes on a variety of subjects. I hear it is one of the best investments many authors have made in Utah.

So without further ado, I hand the time over to Stephanie Moore, an assistant for the conference this year: 

Thanks so much Natalie for welcoming me on your blog today. A little bit about myself, I’m a writer of YA fiction, working hard to be published one day. This summer I have an opportunity to be an assistant at the Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers (WIFYR) conference held in Sandy, Utah. I’m looking forward to learning from some great authors including the great Miss Natalie. 

This blog tour and WIFYR have the same goal: help writers be the best they can be. On today’s stop we’ll be talking about one of the key ingredients all novels need, the elusive voice. How many times have you read that an agent/editor loved a manuscript because of its voice?

At WIFYR last year the agents and editor were asked in a Q&A session how they would define voice and even they struggled to come up with an answer. Elusive, I say! One of the answers they gave, was they recognized good voice when it was able to evoke emotion in them.

I liked that answer because for the first time voice wasn’t so obscure anymore, it was about getting my readers to connect with the characters. It’s about making your character walk off the page, and have the readers care about my main characters.

Here are some ideas of questions to ask about your main character(s) because if you don’t know them then your readers won’t either:
What does he/she look like?
What are his/her pet peeves?
What motivates him/her?
What are his/her strengths and weaknesses?
What are his/her relationships like? Family? Romantic? Friendships?

The more you know about your character, the better you can write them, the better your voice will be. Voice is one topic you really can’t learn enough about and is so important to a manuscript. Want more help and even better information from authors that know, check out www.wifyr.com and sign up for a workshop, mini-workshop or afternoon sessions.

Thanks again Natalie for letting me drop by!