Happy Monday, Everyone! Today, I am absolutely thrilled to welcome National Book Award-winning middle grade author Shifa Saltagi Safadi to the blog to share her experience crafting a middle grade story and breaking the rules. She will also discuss how she used this in writing her wonderful new adventure story, Sisters Alone.
Shifta’s publisher is also generously offering a free book giveaway to one lucky winner! Read on to see Shifa’s wonderful tips, and leave a comment below to enter the giveaway.
Here’s a
blurb of Sisters Alone from Goodreads:
From the National Book Award–winning author of Kareem Between comes a powerful novel in
verse about two sisters trapped in a blizzard in a heart-wrenching story of
sisterhood and survival.
Two sisters. One storm. A
fight for their lives.
Rama is all fire—fierce, quick to anger, and
trying to hold her family together while battling the monster of intrusive
thoughts. Leena is all ice—quiet, numbed to the vibrancy of the world, as she
silently blames herself for their mother’s death.
When their father must travel for work, a sudden
blizzard traps the sisters alone at their rural home. As the storm tears
through their house, they’re left without power, without food, without
shelter—and with no one to rely on but each other.
Told in powerful, poetic verse, Sisters Alone is a heart-stopping story of sisterhood,
survival, and the quiet strength it takes to keep going, even when the world
feels like it's falling apart.
Now here’s Shifa!
Learn How to Craft, then BREAK all the Rules
When I first started writing with the intention of getting published, I sat in front of my computer, opened a word document…and began.
I had graduated with an English literature degree, analyzed so many poems and novels that I could immediately understand Shakespearean plays, had a solid basic understanding of grammar and vocabulary. I was ready to be a novelist, just like all those writers I saw on television who wrote from their heart and got their super awesome book deals. I had an idea, a character, and a shiny story spark in my mind. That was all I needed, right?
Wrong.
I wrote about 20,000 words of a young adult novel before I got to the middle, and stopped. I had no clue what to write anymore, no clue how to progress in the story, no clue how to make more words on the page until I got to my ideal word count and finished the book. I stared at the screen, convinced I had writer’s block. And if I pushed through enough, the words would come and eventually I would be able to make it to the end.
What was really happening to me was that I had lost my motivation for this project. Once that initial spark got out of me and onto the page, I was unable to continue. And this happened to me about two more times with two different middle grade ideas before I realized that there must be more to this writing thing than just sitting in front of a computer and typing whatever flows through my mind.
And so I decided to change gears.
I googled “how to write a book”, and a whole world opened up for me. I discovered craft books, plotting methods, writing courses, beat sheets— so many resources to learn from. I was ECSTATIC! I love learning, I love formulas and to-do lists, and I immediately threw myself into as many writing courses as I could afford. I plotted the beats of a new idea into the traditional three-act structure model, fleshed out a whole character arc from beginning to end, and actually finished a draft successfully.
And, the process WORKED!
I got a literary agent, got multiple book deals with my dream editor and publisher, and my debut middle grade novel in verse KAREEM BETWEEN won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature in 2024. I had made it! I cracked the code on writing books using craft rules, and so it was going to be so easy for me to write another book…or so I thought.
For my second novel in verse, SISTERS ALONE, I plotted out a story and a character based on the idea of a girl left home alone in a blizzard— and ended up feeling like the story was missing something. So I added another character, her sister.
But that ended up messing with my plot. So I replotted.
But then I ended up feeling like the voices and emotional arcs of the two sisters were two similar, and so then I went ahead and redid those too.
But then the characters were so different, the original plot wasn’t convincing anymore. And nothing can be more horrifying for an author writing a survival story and then feeling like the survival part is off! The very axis on which my story revolved felt wrong, and I couldn’t figure out how to fix it.
It took many long revision hours, and many long edit letters from my editor to finally get to a final manuscript of SISTERS ALONE that I felt proud of. I questioned myself constantly on if I could do this again, if I had only one good story in me after all, if I was meant to be a writer of multiple middle grade books, and yet, I learned so much along this difficult way!
I learned that my rigidness in trying to follow the three-act structure was hindering my writing. My obsession with specific beats was making the story feel too plotted and machinated. My editor suggested a five-act structure instead of my original three to allow for more flexibility in the events, and the plot finally landed into place.
I also learned to stop stressing so much about following the “synopsis”. My characters had a mind of their own when I started writing their story, and the outline of the scenes was not always implemented how I originally plotted when I began typing. I learned to be okay with veering from the original plan. I learned to follow the characters to where they wanted to go, and let them appear authentically on the page. I learned that a plot is only meant to be a guide for me to finish the draft, and is not meant to be the LAW that I base my whole story around.
Most importantly, I learned that I can BREAK the rules of grammar and literature.
In SISTERS
ALONE, this breaking of rules became a tool in my storytelling. Leena is the
younger sister, a swimmer, feeling small compared to her older sister, her
“failings” causing her to dwell on the past, unable to look forward with her
mother gone, obsessed with creating a beautiful scrapbook of vivid pictures to
try and keep her mother’s memory alive. Her poems show up in non-capitalized
sentences, lyrical sensory based poetry, and short lines that trickle into each
other without much proper punctuation, like the flow of water on a page.
Rama, the older sister, is the opposite. She struggles with anxiety and loud intrusive thoughts since their mother’s death, and her anger bubbles inside of her like a volcano at all the changes in her life that she wants to control, and the past that she just wants to forget. Her poetry shows up in longer lines, repetitive sentences, and LARGE CAPITAL words that signify her boiling panic and loud negative thoughts.
The sisters’ story breaks the rules of grammar and English literature in intentional ways, to highlight character voice. This deep dive into characterization rewarding, and it challenged me to really dive deep into what would have a distinct character stand out on a page.
This process of breaking the rules of grammar also empowered me to realize the importance of trusting my own instincts in the writing process. As a person who struggles a lot with imposter syndrome, it is absolutely terrifying to think of people possibly not liking the words I struggle to write. I spend way more time than I should worrying about whether my books are going to do well when they are published or not.
But I
realized much later, after sending my SISTERS ALONE manuscript off to my editor
for the final time, that having confidence in crafting my stories IS THE KEY to
me being a better author. Because nothing kills good writing like fear. And
freeing myself from the rules of “a three act structure” and/or the fear of
perception allowed me to take risks that actually made my stories stronger.
Made my story better.
In the age of AI dominating discourse about writing, where young people and new writers might be wondering if it is just easier to use artificial intelligence to write FOR them, plugging their ideas into some machine that might have “perfect” grammar and sentence structure, I think nothing could be more important than showing readers English rules being broken in published books. Because in this intentional choice of creativity is a reminder to readers that what matters most in writing isn’t perfection.
It is
writing from your heart.
Thanks for sharing all your advice, Shifa! You can find Shifa at https://shifasafadi.com/
🎉 ENTER THE LITERARY RAMBLES SISTERS ALONE BOOK GIVEAWAY! 🎉
Want to win Sisters
Alone? Thanks to the publisher for supplying a book for this book
giveaway contest.
How to Enter:
- Leave a Comment: Drop a comment below by October
24th with your email address. To protect your privacy from spam bots,
please write your email address using the "name [at] gmail [dot]
com" format.
- Bluesky Bonus: If you follow me on Bluesky,
mention your handle in your comment for an extra entry!
- Sharing Bonus: If you share about this contest
on your own social media sites or blog, let me know in the comments for an
extra entry.
- Author Bonus: If you follow Shifa on social media, let me know
in your comment for an extra entry!
- Blog Follower Bonus: If you follow Literary Rambles
via Blogger or email subscription, let me know in the comments for an
extra entry.
🌍 Eligibility: The book giveaway is U.S. only.
Upcoming Interviews, Guest Posts, and Blog Hops
- Wednesday, October 14th: Agent spotlight interview with Jenny
Lewis and a query critique giveaway
- Friday, October 16th: Participating in the Silly
Pumpkins Giveaway Hop
- Monday, October 19th: Interview with Kate
O’Shaughnessy and a giveaway of her MG Brittle Magic
- Wednesday, October 21st: Agent spotlight interview with Cate Hart and a query
critique giveaway
- Monday, October 25th: Interview with Jackie Garcia Morales and a giveaway of her MG Pesky Rules
I hope to see you on
Wednesday!
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