Writing Excuses 8.25: Middle Grade with E.J. Patten

Eric Patten joins us for a cast on Middle Grade fiction. His series, The Hunter Chronicles (Return to Exile and The Legend Thief have both been released) is delightful. As Dan points out, there's no faster way to start an argument among publishers, editors, and authors than to ask them to define "middle grade." That said, Brandon's definition is pretty helpful. Paraphrasing: Middle Grade books are those which a school librarian gives to a child, rather than the child buying it for him or herself. Nevertheless, we argue a bit about the fuzzy line between YA and Middle Grade, and we recount where we were getting our books at that age. Eric talks to us about how he writes Middle Grade, and how it differs from writing YA, specifically with regard to the process of change. We cover some of the escapist elements, and how they differ between the age groups. We also talk about simplifying things without "dumbing them down." Eric's Return to Exile comes in at 115,000 words, which is more than twice what most Middle Grade books weigh in at. Production Trivia: While this was not the last one recorded, this episode is the last one to air from our 2012 mega-session. Back in May of 2012 we recorded forty-plus episodes in the course of five days. Our hope is to never, never do that again... Episode What Now? (Yes, yes... the number that Mary says at the beginning of this episode is not the one that this episode actually uses. Producer Jordo and byline-writer Howard disagreed on the episode order, and Howard neglected to tell Jordo that he'd made a snap decision while wielding admin access...)