Halli Gomez’ is the secret hand behind FITNESS FIASCO. (Watch out! She can probably break a brick!)

It’s easy to go to a writing conference and think that there is only one road to a published book: Agent–>Editor–>Publisher–>New York Times Bestselling Author. 🙂

Many children’s books are produced by a completely different path. With a Work-For-Hire project, the contract comes first and stories are developed afterwards.

How does that work? In today’s post, two Winged Pen authors give us the inside view.

1. Hi, Halli and Rebecca! What was your process for writing these stories? Did you develop characters first? Pick a setting? Figure out the ending?

Halli: To answer the first part of the next question first, I was given specific parameters. It had to be a mystery in a middle school with four different points of view. With that, the first thing I did was decide what the mystery would be. What the kids had to solve. That’s how fitness night was born and then came the four students who would participate.

Rebecca: I also started with the mystery since that was central to the story. One of my children is in every school play, so I decided to use that as my starting point. I brainstormed the worst things that might happen to the kids in the play and decided a major set malfunction just hours before the opening-night performance would provide some fun drama. After that, I just needed to figure out what set of characters would make the set problem really come alive.

2. How much leeway did you have with story and characters? (And how much had to be consistent with other books in the series?) I loved the little touches that made each character real, like the Hebrew lessons and the challenges with salsa and with bricks. Did you draw on any personal stories to hit just the right note?

Halli: The characters were mine to develop. I knew I wanted a martial artist, because I am one, and in all groups of kids there’s the shy one, the ones who hate physical activity, and the overachiever. From there, I tried to make each one unique and wrote a bit of backstory for each. I may have borrowed a characteristic or two from people I know, but I would never admit that out loud 🙂

I knew I wanted a martial artist, because I am one, and in all groups of kids there’s the shy one, the ones who hate physical activity, and the overachiever.

–Halli Gomez about writing FITNESS FIASCO

Rebecca: One of my kids came out as gay a couple years ago, so I thought it would be great to have a character in Showtime Sabotage that reflected that experience. The editor was supportive and my kid and Kate were willing to do sensitivity reads of that character’s chapters. That meant a lot because even though the concept was established ahead of time by the publisher, that flexibility to develop the characters made the book more special to me.

. . .even though the concept was established ahead of time by the publisher, that flexibility to develop the characters made the book more special to me.

–Rebecca J. Allen on writing SHOWTIME SABOTAGE

3. Did you do something special to keep track of the story from four different points of view [POV]? That seems challenging to keep straight!

Halli: I’d never written a book with four points of view before. It was extremely challenging, but such a great learning experience. And so much fun! Because of how I chose to write mine, each character going through the same points in time, I had to make a chart so I knew who was where and at what time. I couldn’t have two people in the gym at the same time and not acknowledging each other.

Rebecca: I’d written multiple POV books before but not one with 4 POVs. That was challenging. The thing that made it even more challenging was that the books are high-low, high action-low word count. So we needed to get 4 POV [point-of-view] characters established and the plot laid out in 20,000 words. That’s pretty tight, but it makes the pacing fast and the series great for reluctant readers.

4. This story feels like a puzzle for the reader, almost like a Choose Your Own Adventure kind of story. Was your process for writing this story different than for writing your other books?

Halli: Yes it was different. Typically in my stories, there’s a goal or an issue and the reader figures out how to attain it along with the main character. In this story, I wanted the reader to do more than follow. I wanted them to solve the mystery themselves.

Rebecca: Mysteries are tough because you don’t want the reader to figure out who did it too soon or they’ll be bored. As Halli said, you want them figuring it out right along with the characters. But you need clues so that when you get to the big reveal, the reader says, “Oh, that makes sense.” Figuring out how to get in the clues without them looking like clues was tricky.

5. What did you learn from doing this project?

Halli: The most useful skill I learned was that I can develop a story, write the book, and edit it under a tight deadline. I want to say from first concept to completed manuscript (minus an edit) it was six weeks.

The most useful skill I learned was that I can develop a story, write the book, and edit it under a tight deadline.

–Halli Gomez

Rebecca: Yes, the timeframe on these books was quick. In addition to gaining confidence that I could meet a deadline, I worked on doing more plotting up-front to save on revision time. The Jolly Fish editors also had great suggestions on bumping up the humor in Showtime Sabotage. That’s a skill I’ll take to other projects.

The Jolly Fish editors also had great suggestions on bumping up the humor in Showtime Sabotage. That’s a skill I’ll take to other projects.

–Rebecca J. Allen

6. I loved the theme of connecting the students’ home lives with their school lives. Was that a conscious choice for you from the beginning? Or did it develop as you wrote?

Halli: In real life, people are a mixture of experiences they have from different places. School, home, work, entertainment, etc. I tried to incorporate that into these characters, as I do in all my writing, and the more I thought about their home lives, the more interesting I found them. So I would say it grew over time.

Rebecca: Same. A character, even in short books like the What Happened? series, needs to have depth. What’s going on at home has an impact on how they think and feel about what happens at school. The home issues weren’t the first things I developed about the characters, but as I went deeper into how they’d react to events in the plot, their home lives felt important.

Thanks, Halli and Rebecca! This makes me want to test my writing process for efficiency, make a grid for my plot, and has already made me think more about my characters’ home lives.

It’s also so interesting to hear about new ways stories can get published. I appreciate you sharing your experiences!

Who’s ready to look into this more? Or have you had your own experience with Work-for-Hire? Do you have more resources to share? Feel free to comment below.

Resources & Books to Study

For more about Work-For-Hire from The Winged Pen, check out: Work-for-Hire Writing: Getting Your Foot in the Publishing Door

Rebecca recently presented on Work-for-hire writing at WriteOncon (paid access only).

Check out the WHAT HAPPENED? books by Halli and Rebecca to see how it’s done:

Indiebound
Jolly Fish Press
Barnes and Noble
Amazon

Laurel Decher’s books are about enjoying reading superpowers, imagining delightfully silly places, and discovering life’s possibilities. She lives on the outskirts of a mid-sized city in Germany, between a medieval chapel on the St. James’ Way and a boundary marker tree carved with a scary face. It’s a little surprising, since she expected to live in Vermont for the rest of her life. You just never know when adventure will call!