Monique Polak

Well, at least I need to be a little in love wih my narrator. Most YA (young adult) novels are written in the first person (of all of mine, only one, On the Game, is told from the third person point of view).

During my phone meeting last week with Orca editor Sarah Harvey (she's out in Victoria, B.C., so it's not as if we can meet in person!), Sarah suggested I might reconsider who the narrator of my story should be. In my first "stab" at the story, the narrator was the troublemaking younger sister. That got Sarah and I talking about how there seems to be a trend in contemporary YA -- most narrators are a mouthy disgruntled lot. Sarah thought there might be "room" for a kinder, gentler narrator... perhaps the older sister in my story. So now I've been working at telling the same story through the older sister's eyes. And I have to admit I'm a little in love with this narrator -- by "in love" I mean I really like her and I can't get her out of my mind! And here's another admission while I'm at it: this narrator is just a little bit like me. Okay then, that's enough admissions for one day. Hope your own projects are going well! Now wouldn't it be swell if one of you blog readers posted a comment like Jayda did last week -- just to make me feel I've got real live readers out there in cyberspace!!!