Golden Deer Pub Community Forums

;_____;

I have eaten beef jerkey and drank a ton of green tea and water, this now I feel much better. I'm sure my 6 hours of sleep + hang over will make my life miserable tonight...

Last night was the going-away party for two of my friends. I'm sad that I couldn't have arrived earlier and stayed longer.

Also sad I didn't have camera. The boys of honor had made themselves party top-hats out of cardboard... and decorated the tops with fake ivy and plastic dinosaurs. One friend had even constructed a tiny paper hat for his dinosaur to wear. It was brilliant. Utterly brilliant.

Well, I've finally sat down and started to write the story that's been bursting at the edges of my mind for the past year or so. I haven't written much as of yet, just the prologue and first chapter, about 3000 words worth in the past week. It feels so good to finally begin to write (or type)...

I say I write all the time and I'm never asked to share.

*looks over at Sampson* ..... *sniff* I'm so jealous.

You do realize, noodles, that no where in his post did he say that it was smut.

You can share...it would be interesting to read what you've written.

Um, were you being sarcastic with that last part?

Is it more Oprah smut?

^_^; Writing is my sugar-high, so you aren't far from it. Nothing gets me more excited.

Usually your readers are the same age as your characters - this is a good key to go by. As readers we want to identify with the characters and we want to be able to associate with the problems that they are having.

Your characters, at the time of the story/quest/whatever are 18, so usually the age group of about 16+ will be reading your books.

Most of the time when you are starting a story, figuring out the age group is the last and final thing on your mind (though there are stories that this is the first thing I figure out). However, as your story becomes more concrete and you start to actually set down and write on it in a serious manner, it should become the first thing on your mind. This way you can adjust your tone of voice in the story, you know the language and diction to use in the story, but more importantly you know what problems your characters should face. Let's be honest, most of the time a ten year old is NOT going to be interested, nor probably allowed to read, a book that probably has a sex scene in it (*looks at noodles as she says this* I SAID MOST OF THE TIME, there's always an exception!)

It can also have an impact, if you are writing fantasy, about what you can stick in. An eighteen year old is probably not going to find much interest in a story of a two-inch fairy who has lost the ability to grant wishes. While a werewolf who enjoys tearing out the throats of his victims might be a little too much for a nine year old to want to try to read. But both of these two creatures could interest the same age groups by tweaking their stories and actions.

It really can be quite hard to tell the age group of your books. Sometimes the character-age trick doesn't work. Sometimes it just comes down to your own personal tastes. Ask yourself the age group you want and there you will have the answer.

Also, staying within the guidelines of your age group can be hard. Just last month I started writing out a story that focused on a ten year old kid who was to become playmate to this princess who was going to grow up to be a powerful sorceress. It was going to be a light and fun book but by the time I got done typing it out, a lot of the subject matters I had stuck in, I realized, would go WAY over the head of a ten year old reader. So, I did a minor re-write and came up with the story of a fourteen year old who moved into the castle because of his dad's work, and while there the princess targetted him as her new minion (a sort of Kyon-Haruhi relationship).

Yeah, I'm probably not going to figure out the age group until I'm finished writing. Then I'll look over it and come up with a figure or something. I'm not a big fan of labeling books with certain age parameters, because, to me at least, it comes down to whether the reader is mature enough or not. Of course, maturity can only go so far, and there are age groups where the children aren't developed mentally enough to read certain things.

Producing an age group based off of the characters' ages may prove to be difficult, since I tend to change perspective a lot and the books take place throughout a span of over ten years, not counting flashbacks. Although 16+ does sound somewhat fitting to the story at the moment.

Flashbacks are just that, aren't they, Sampson? Flashbacks. Memories of the characters. Nothing more than their backstories. It still jumps back, no matter what, to their age of 18. And usually, because they are flashbacks, they are still being viewed in the light of the character being an 18 year old.

^_^ Either way, good luck on it. Every writer writes differently - and what's more, their style changes as they grow into their craft. So, do as you feel comfortable. There is no wrong nor right way to write. And it isn't a craft that you will ever master to perfection.

@Age of character = age of reader

I wouldn't use this as a guideline at all. Off the top of my head I can think of several adult fiction books with juvenile protagonists that would never be marketed toward children. (Life of Pi being a notable exception, but it was reprinted under a young adult publishing line only after years as a serious adult novel). Perhaps this may be true for children's fiction specifically, but generally these are overwhelmingly tempered by specific language, syntax, and content requirements.

One thing I would caution against with flashbacks is that tend to the weaken the impact of the story, especially if you're using them as exposition or an "info dump" on the reader. Just something to consider. The golden rule of proper narration is that you want to show the reader, not tell them.