Q&A: Have you experienced any challenges in writing for different age groups?

Have you experienced any challenges in writing for different age groups?

Ooh. Yes. YES.

I won’t even say it’s confined to age groups. Different genres have different pros and cons, highs and lows, ups and downs, chunkies and creamies.

Writing chapter books can be challenging because the intended readers aren’t seasoned readers (obviously, since they’re like 7). They haven’t yet learned a lot of what is essentially shorthand. So lots of dialogue tags, adverbs and adjectives, short snappy sentences and paragraphs, exclamation points, other explainy things.

I had a similar learning curve with category romance. I tend to be a very plot-driven writer, and I had to go back to basics and learn how to come at a story from a character-driven perspective. So scary for me, since I look at outlines as security blankets, and it’s hard to map out feels beforehand and have them still be authentic.