Saidisms, Adverbs, and Telling

Funaek

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So I know all the general advice about avoiding saidisms, adverbs, and telling. But whenever I check one of my favorite MG books, I see all of these throughout the books. Is the standard different for children's books because kids need a bit more to help set the picture?
 

thelittleprince

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This is why I hardly ever read writing advice anymore. The should and shouldn'ts get too confusing!
 

rwm4768

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The guidelines are a little more relaxed with middle grade, and it's for the reason you suggested.
 

CheG

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I think also that adverbs in particular really cover a lot of ground so to speak, so you can get a very brief but precise description which saves word count.
 

Debbie V

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Every book will have some telling. Telling takes fewer words than showing but conveys the important info.

The rules are not hard and fast. Do what your story needs.

Take a closer look at how they're used and see if you find a pattern or can discern the author's reason for writing that story that way.

One more thing, dialog is different from narration. Someone may speak in a lot of adverbs, but that doesn't count if the voice is true to the character.
 

Funaek

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Thanks everyone for the feedback! I think I'll continue to be cautious of these things as I write but maybe not be as strict as I was before. I can always cut during my editing process.
 

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Honestly, I think the basic writing rules are there for good reason at every market/age level. That being said, rules are made to be broken :) . I think you have a sound plan of action and as you say there's always the delightful editing process :p .

Good luck!
 

Australian River

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I think we shouldn't be using words like 'children need a bit of help' or 'these words are too difficult for children.' Years ago there was no MG and children devoured adult books. In my opinion, overuse of telling and adverbs is annoying at any age. With the current trend of adults reading MG as well, I also don't think it hurts to minimize on the above so it appeals to a larger market (I love the Harry Potter stories, but geeze I wanted to throw those books out of a window multiple times because of the writing)
 

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I would have to disagree with your point about there not being MG years ago and kids only read adult. Children's books have been around for as long as there have been books. It's YA that is relatively new, where teens suddenly now have their own market as opposed to just simply reading adult books. That being said, I think it behooves writers of MG to read the old stories, yes times were different and it's important to keep that all in mind, but I think they would notice a lack of condescension in many of the classic MG books. Re-read PETER PAN for example and I think folks would be quite surprised how grown up it is. I definitely agree that one oughtn't write down to kids. There are things to keep in mind, they aren't adult books after all, but kids like can handle a lot more than some people think.