My apologies for the long delay returning to this workshop. I did not expect to be absent from the blog for a whole year. Hope your writing has been forging ahead. For those who are just joining the conversation--welcome!
Workshop: An Introduction to Writing for Children and Young Adults
“Anwara doted on the baby, and until the onset of the child’s
strange persistent tantrums, had bloomed with joy.” The Moorchild by
Eloise McGraw
Tone is expressed throughout the story in
several ways that need to be a consistent thread in order to wrap the reader
into its ambience. It includes the writer’s voice in that it will be consistent
with his/her work worldview. It affects the narrator’s personality. Tone
includes attitudes among the characters’ voices, the world at large, the genre,
the age group, and the physical setting. Basically it affects all atmospheres,
whether spoken or silent, direct or implied.
To be effective tone grows organically in
response to the motivation stimulus of your character’s background, attitudes,
dynamics, and insights as well as purpose.
Tone blends internal and external motivation
with action and setting. We’ll discuss tone in setting more thoroughly in a
later segment but for now think of some catch phrases from stories or movies
that capture the combined ambience of words and location. “It was a dark and
stormy night.” “May the force be with you.” “Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.” The
level of dark, light, serious, frivolous, happy, sad, will edge the tone into
the genre and its story question.
For example, in a dialogue; an adult
approaches a young child and says, “Did you eat all the cookies?” The tone of
voice in the question will set up not only the reply but also the mood of the
relationship. Is the question asked with a teasing voice, an angry voice, a
confused voice or a disappointed voice? Does either character in the dialogue
speak loud or soft or neutral? Whatever combination the author chooses will
impact the overall tone of the situation and character both internally and
externally.
Use of time boundaries impacts tone. Is the
character’s journey in a brief moment, a few hours, a week, month, or century?
Is it a calm conversation exploring life’s curiosities or a life or death race?
The tone reaction a character makes can also
affect plot links and build tension. Put your young child hero in a campsite
where suddenly a skunk walks into the site where he is sitting. Does he try to
run or hide or search for his camera? The danger is objective but fear or
curiosity is subjective. Both produce insight into the story and a tone to
match.
Action Steps:
1.
Recall a time when you felt
vulnerable, either as a pre-teen, or teenager, or young adult. Describe that
time without using any words that explain how you felt. Convince your reader
you were lonely or frightened, sad etc. without mentioning any abstract terms.
2. Write a one-page story that begins, “Nothing of real importance
happened that day,” and then reveal through the thoughts or actions of a
character during a day’s sequence of unimportant events that something
important did happen internally.
3. Practice writing motivation sentences. Write a sentence about an
action. (The car screeched around the corner.) Follow it with a sentence about
your character. (Bill looked up, saw who the driver was and began to run)
Share: One of your motivation sentences.
Read deep, marcy
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