Writing a Children's Book

Lesson 5: Beginning your Book.

Supplement. Anatomy of a Specific YA Novel.

“Trinity Street” is 301 pages long, and clocks in at around 84,000 words.

It has no chapters, but is broken into four parts, “Kismet” (Page 1),

“Wild Zone” (Page 75),

“Plateau”, (Page 149)

and “Trinity Street”, (Page 218).

These four parts trace different stages in the stories of the three protagonists, Tell, Gerhardt and Camena.

“Kismet” is the name of the yacht that explodes, throwing the three into the water and sending Tell and Camena into a one-way trip to the future. The name also reflects the fate that Gerhardt alone knows (or thinks he knows) is waiting for them.

The Wild Zone is the place where Gerhardt must persuade Tell that she is really in the future, and where he explains what is happening (or what he thinks is happening).

The Plateau is a place they visit, but it is also a balancing point where matters could go either way. If Gerhardt is right in what he believes, Camena and Tell have lost nothing. If he is wrong, then he has lost everything. His meeting with Jens finally gives him the truth about the past, present and future.

Trinity Street is a street where Tell and Camena were to have met with a fatal accident. It also represents the end of Gerhardt’s belief in Moss and in Hub HI-Q, and a giant step in his relationship with Tell.

At the end of the novel, Camena is apparently lost, but her fate seems no worse than it would have been if she had never been Recovered. Camena’s story might be over, but Tell and Gerhardt fight to survive.

Behind the three young protagonists lies the struggle between two factions of the future. HI-Q is a movement determined to “recover” lost genes from geniuses of the past who died without having children. Camena is one of these subjects. To this end, Hub HI-Q breeds genetic constructs like Gerhardt and trains them to move back in time, and to locate the subjects just before their deaths. Gerhardt is the Recovery Agent on Camena’s case, and he believes she will be offered the chance to live on in his time. This is not true.

The second faction, RI-P., believes in letting the human race determine its own destiny, and rejects the idea of “recovering” elite genes. It is to mollify RI-P. that HI-Q has agreed to return the subjects to their fated deaths after removing the genetic material.

Against these opposing philosophies the stories play out. Tell is a pawn in the game because she should never have been Recovered at all. Her strong friendship with Camena is not enough to save them both, but her growing telepathic link with Gerhardt might save her. In the end of the book, Gerhardt, faced with disaster, makes a desperate decision which puts him and Tell forever beyond the reach of HUB HI-Q and RI-P, of Tell’s time and his own. He and Tell are not even together, but they are confident of finding one another.

No JCB would ever end on an uncertain note like this, with one protagonist presumed dead and two more exiled in time. A few SCBs might, but there are several things that mark “Trinity Street” as YA rather than SCB.

The protagonists are older – 15 and 18. There is a definite physical attraction between two of them, and they are likely to act on that very soon. The emotions are stronger, and the stakes are higher.

Few SCBs would suggest lingering death and the possibility that one protagonist might kill the other to save her months of suffering. The philosophies of genetic engineering, selective breeding, abortion and genetic obligation are unlikely to be discussed in a SCB.

Finally, although villainous adults are far from unknown in SCBs, it would be unlikely that the only “good” adult would be unable to help the protagonists much in the end. If Tell and Gerhardt had been 9 and 12 instead of 15 and 18, they would probably not have been mature enough to forge the link they need and would not have survived exile. Therefore, if this had been a SCB, Jens, the “good” adult character, would have had to play a much more active role. Below is the cover of the German edition. Note that this one has figures on the cover, while the original Australian edition has none.

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