32: Planning A Series with J. Scott Savage

For this episode, we welcome back Middle Grade and YA author, J. Scott Savage to discuss his approach to the process of planning a novel series. We talk a little bit about Scott's approach to going from the initial idea that inspired you to write your book to the ins and outs, from Scott's perspective, on series planning. For a detailed discussion of how to go from your "Cool Idea" to finished series, press "Play" below.

28: J. Scott Savage on Middle Grade Voice

Our guest tonight writes as J. Scott Savage, mainly because "Jeff Savage" was already taken (by another Middle Grade author who writes about sports--not fantasy). He goes by Jeff, but answers to just about anything now. He is friends with James Dashner and Nathan Bransford. They have a podcast together, called WordPlay Podcast.

Jeff is amazingly knowledgeable about the Middle Grade genre, and shared with us his tricks of the trade. Among these are:

• Middle Grade spans from about 3rd grade to 7th grade, and the protagonist should be at the upper end of those ages
• Short chapters equals happy kids who might get mom to read "just one more" (1500 words or less)
• Each chapter should be a complete story
• Kids are fanatical about the rules of the worlds they play in, so you better get it right ALL THE TIME or they'll call you on it
• You have only a few paragraphs to catch a kid's interest... and you can lose it just as fast
• Girls and boys are much more similar at that age... but girls still like a bit of romance
• Kids like scary stuff, but make it safe scary

He has a new series coming out in 2013: CASE FILE 13, starting with ZOMBIE KID.

For about an hour and a half, Jeff shared his wisdom with us. You can download the MP3 here, listen to it below, or subscribe to the Authors' Advisory podcast here.