Writing and Selling the YA Novel (13 page)

Imagine a setting as limited as a padded room in an institution. Your character will see the same thing day after day, but that monotony can allow the reader to experience part of what it means to be imprisoned. And when one sense is limited, you have
the possibility
of using another sense to a fuller degree. Perhaps the teen in the institution can hear things happening outside her room. Hushed conversations between doctors and nurses. An alarm that sounds. The crash of something metallic being overturned and clattering to the floor. By using sounds more than sights, you can create a sense of bewilderment or anxiety as they place the reader outside the comfort
zone of
what's familiar.

Smell is also an important part of location. There's nothing that brings memory back as powerfully as our sense of smell. When a character moves through different settings, this power can be harnessed to make the location vivid. As the reader remembers the smells you are describing, the emotions associated with
them
are apt to follow.

Here's a short passage from
Hush by
Jacqueline Woodson:

Later, with the coconut cake still resting in her stomach, the youngest rises from her bed and stares into the night—the moon is bright yellow, the sky is blue-black, the shadows that are the Rocky Mountains. She sniffs, inhaling the scent of pine and cedar and air that is warm still—but with winter at its edges.

Do you find this description of the air to be as evocative as I do? Instantly, I am transported to places and times when I have smelled the first hints of crisp winter cold on the breeze. I remember the mixed emotions that came with it: excitement and a growing tension associated with coming change. The addition of smell loads the scene with expectation.

How about texture? What does our sense of touch add to the description of a location? Places can be hot and cold. They can feel gritty or soft or smooth. Imagine the textures inherent in locations such as a beach, a grassy field, a high school biology room, or a swimming pool. There will be many different textures in every location, and it's the writer's job to choose which ones her characters interact with.

In fact, with every single aspect of setting, there are choices that need to be made. Benjamin N. Gardozo said, "There is an accuracy that defeats itself by the overemphasis of details." What he's referring to is the tendency to want to tell the reader everything so we can recreate the exact same picture in his head that exists in our own mind, but this is an impossibility. Every reader will bring his unique experiences to your book and will imagine things in different ways. By failing to make choices about which information to include, we can overwhelm our readers with a recitation of facts, and the story itself can get buried under plodding, though poetic, descriptions.

Details are important—every sense into our setting can bring a story to life—but making judgment calls about what to say and when is what being a writer is all about. Choose the information that best advances the plot, sheds light on your characters, or sets the tone.

USING SETTING TO CREATE TONE
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Creating tone and developing setting go hand-in-hand. Remember what I said earlier about giving your reader clues as to what kind of story you're telling? Well, one of the best ways to do that is by setting the tone of your book from page one. We've all heard the cliche opening line, "It was a dark and stormy night." Sometimes cliches exist for a reason. This first line has probably been overused in part because it works so well. From the very first sentence the mood is established.

Take a look at these other openings and see what kind of tone is established for each book. This one's from
Are You in the House Alone?,
by Richard Peck:

For that first warm night of spring until autumn, Steve and I would slip out to the Pastorinis' cottage on the lake, Powdermill Lake. How often? Ten times? Twelve? I don't remember now. I kept no diary. We left no clues.

Immediately we sense there is something elicit going on in this story. The image of warm summer nights predominates, and within these few lines I already have a picture of an empty cottage on a lake—someplace remote. The movement from the generic "lake" to the specific "Powdermill Lake" makes it seem as if perhaps we might have heard of this place. In the news, maybe? Combine that with the last line, "We left no clues," and a sense of trouble begins to creep up your spine. The mood is set.

How about this passage from Julia DeVillers's
How My Private, Personal Journal Became a Bestseller-.

"Thirty seconds! Thirty seconds until showtime, everyone!!"

I shifted around, trying to get comfortable. You'd think a TV talk show would have a comfortable chair for their guests. I mean, some of the hugest celebrities in the world had sat on this exact chair. And they were probably not comfortable, either.

Here we have an entirely different tone being set—excitement. There's urgency and a thrill to the opening dialogue, but then the uncomfortable chair sets the reader slightly on edge. Not the type of edge that a story about a murder would inspire, but enough that we're nervous for the main character though we've barely met her. We expect something

big to happen because she's on national TV, but we don't necessarily think things are going to go smoothly.

Here's the beautiful opening of An Na's poetic novel
A Step From Heaven-.

Just to the edge, Young Ju. Only your feet. Stay there.

Cold. Cold water. Oh. My toes are fish. Come here. Fast. Look.

What is it, Young Ju?

See my toes. See how they are swimming in the sea? Like fish.

Yes, they are little fat piggy fish.

Ahhh! Tickles.

Come on. Up. Keep your legs around me. Are you ready to go swim in the waves?

Hold me. Hold me.

I have you. Look over there, Young Ju. See how the waves dance. See? Hold on tight. We are going over there.

No. Stop. Deep water. Go back.

Shhh, Young Ju. Do not be afraid. You must learn how to be brave. See, I have you.

What a wonderful use of setting to create both a nostalgic tone and foreshadowing. Right away, as we look out over the ocean, there is a sense of a long journey about to be taken. The little girl's apprehension about the waves, along with the father's warning to be brave, suggest that the journey will be difficult. Details like the cold water tickling her feet make the scene vivid and real, and we have a sense that perhaps the narrator is looking back wistfully to an easier time when she felt safe and loved.

See how these authors' varied choices of location and the details they chose to provide lend themselves to fabulous setups? I chose those examples because each of them made me want to keep reading, hooking me with a mood of anticipation and using tone to suggest the future course of the book.

Tone is a powerful manipulator of the human spirit. Think how great an effect our tone of voice can have on a listener in real life. When you set a strong mood, you're accomplishing the same thing. When the tone is one the reader enjoys experiencing, even if that experience is fear or horror, she will seek out your book and return to it again and again.

Let's take a look at one last novel. Susan Cooper is one of the great masters of mood. She uses well-chosen details of sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste to draw readers in until they are so thoroughly enveloped in the world she's creating that they don't want to leave. I can still vividly recall reading this series aloud with my family when I was young. I remember curling up in the windowsill watching the dark shadows of the tree branches bending and weaving outside, shivering as my father's voice brought Cooper's world to life.

Here are just a few ways
The Dark Is Rising,
the first book in her award-winning series, sets the tension-filled mood that pervades the novel. The book opens with a crowded household where too many brothers and sisters jostle for position. We're on the Dawson's farm, and outside, "All the broad sky was gray, full of more snow that refused to fall. There was no colour anywhere." It's four days until Christmas. The loud bustle of activity in the household is punctuated by the screech of static as the main character passes by the radio on the kitchen table. Will and his brother go outside to the "farm-smelling barn" to feed their rabbits, and find them "restless and uneasy."

The rooks call relentlessly overhead. "Walking to a neighbor's house Will sees a strange-looking, hunched-over man who "scuttled, like a beetle." The clouds grow darker, "massing in ominous grey mounds with a yellowish tinge," and the wind "rises, stirring their hair."

Can you feel the heaviness of the impending action? Cooper uses every sense to create a tone that's ominous. She contrasts the warm images of hearth light, Christmas, and the taste of fresh-baked bread with the cold gray blanket smothering the outside world. Right from the start we sense something unnatural is happening. The static from the radio, the strange behavior of the weather and the animals, the odd sighting of the hunched man... Like the main character, Will, we become jumpy, anticipating what will come next.

Notice, as well, that it was impossible for me to quote her descriptions in block. Good writers disperse details throughout the text, allowing them to subtly work their magic even as the reader is distracted by the action and dialogue. Sometimes the setting is even revealed
through
the dialogue and action.

Here's part of the conversation the two boys have about the restless rabbits:

"Hey!" Will said, disturbed. "Hey, James, look at that. What's the matter with him? And all of them?"

"They seem all right to me."

"Well, they don't to me. They're all jumpy. Even Chelsea. ..."

Although we've never seen these particular rabbits, we get a sense of the strangeness of their behavior through Will's reaction. When Will catches a glimpse of the hunched-over man, he jumps, clutching his brother's arm. The details are everywhere, so well integrated into the action, that they're impossible to remove without destroying the story. This is a sure sign of setting done right.

You, too, can create a strong setting and use it to enhance your plot. Just imagine the world not only as your character sees it, but also as he smells it, touches it, hears it, and tastes it. Remember that teens are still discovering the world, so don't forget to include that sense of awe and newness that can pervade the teenage years. Let your character's worldview shape the way you portray your setting, and in turn, your setting will shape your reader's view of the world you've created.