Characters, Arcs, and Plot Twists: A Q&A with MG author Janet Fox

Plotting a treasure hunt mystery

Michele Regenold: You’ve written a wide variety of middle grade and young adult novels, including historical fiction, contemporary fiction, and historical fantasy. When you were brainstorming ideas for a new book, were you consciously looking for a mystery?

Janet Fox: Not really. I mean, the way I feel about mystery is that it’s in everything. Everything I write has some element of mystery to it. It’s what engages me. It was what I read as a child, like from the very start, from Nancy Drew right on up to Agatha Christie, and so on. So I wasn’t consciously looking for a mystery, but I was looking for something entertaining.

It was right at the tail end of Covid. I just wanted to have fun. I wanted something set in Montana, and there are so many rich elements to play with in Montana, from that old dude ranch to a ghost town to hidden treasures to outlaws from the past, which is what I played with.

Michele: And you specifically chose a treasure hunt mystery.

Janet: I’m a real fan of the treasure hunt. I can’t remember his name now, but a guy hid a treasure somewhere in the Western US years ago [called the Fenn treasure after Forrest Fenn]. He buried this box filled with coins and jewels and money.

His treasure was found [in 2020] in a place in Yellowstone National Park that I have visited so many times. I know exactly where it is. It was close enough to me that I probably could have touched it.

Somebody undid his riddle, a poem in the form of a riddle or a riddle in the form of a poem.

Michele: The clues to your treasure hunt were really fun. Having the kids in the story find objects and solve riddles kept me reading. How did you go about creating those clues?

Janet: Oh, that was a real sweat, because you have to have everything that lines up. there were times when I actually had to put clues in different places, or I had to bring in a new clue, or I had to change the format of the clue while I was drafting.

***** SPOILER AHEAD *****

Janet: What I really had to do was find the idea for the twist at the end. I don’t want to give anything away for people who haven’t read it.

I’ll just say that the treasure is not what the kids think it is. It’s not silver, gold, and money and jewels. It’s something else altogether. And I needed to know that before I could really put the clues in the right places to make it logical and not just a complete coincidence, or completely unbelievable.

I wanted it to be completely believable.

So one of the things that I had to do was a really detailed timeline of past history. That really helped me to get everything straightened out.

I had a big spreadsheet of all the clues, what they did, where they were, and how they related to each other. But also I had to do a spreadsheet of a genealogical chart of [the characters].

It was very useful, because during copy edits, the copy editor wrote me a note and said, “I’m trying to figure [this] out. Are you sure that this timing works out?” All I had to do was send her the copies of my two spreadsheets.

Michele: How would you describe yourself in terms of plotting? Are you a by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of writer or more of an outliner or a hybrid?

Janet: I lean pretty heavily towards seat of the pants, but I do have to know certain things before I go too far in a book. I guess you could say I’m a hybrid, because I have to know what happens at the midpoint. I have to know what happens at the end, what the resolution is.

And I have to know a lot of stuff about my character, my main character, and the antagonist to some degree. But I really have to get to know my main character well, and what their internal desire and external goals are. That’s really important, because if I don’t get that right, I know it’s not going to work.

Character development and character arcs

Michele: Where did you start then? Did you start with character? With Pearlhandle Pete?

Janet: I was brainstorming with my son, who came up with the with the idea for Pearlhandle Pete’s name, and we just laughed ourselves silly over it. And then I thought, this name.

I first kind of envisioned his backstory and when I wrote the proposal*, I knew I needed to do something that was detailed enough that my editor could follow it and be enchanted by it. But also leave me a little latitude since I had a lot of things to work out.

* Note: Janet sold this novel on a proposal, which she says is unusual, but she’s published more than a dozen books by this point

So I wrote between 5 and 10 pages of a proposal, just narrative. This is the character. This is what I’m envisioning. This is the backstory.

And I didn’t even really come up with the antagonist until I started writing, and he just walked into the room.

That proposal helped guide me in a way that isn’t typical for the way I work. But it really was a help in this complicated narrative.

Michele: You mentioned in your acknowledgments that Pearlhandle Pete wouldn’t leave you alone, so I’m wondering how you got to know him better, and how his character evolved.

Janet: Oh, that was super fun. I kind of wrote his narrative separately. While I was developing Becca, my main character, and knowing what she was going through in her personal life, and what her problems and issues and questions were, I really wanted to play with the idea of this Robin Hood outlaw.

And I wanted it to be something truly heartfelt. It felt important to me to make him a rich character, to make him have these problems, to make him have this dual life. I worked on him a lot, but I kind of developed his narrative separately and then put it together inside the book as I was working.

Michele: So that leads me to Becca. How did you decide what her internal desire was going to be? Is it something that you frequently deal with in your books? Or was this something you wanted to explore in particular?

Janet: I always talk to my husband about my books. I started describing Becca to him, and how she was struggling with suddenly being invited into the in-crowd. He said, ‘It really sounds a lot like something you went through when you were 14.’ I said, ‘Yeah, this is something I really want to work with.’

I know that it complicated the story to a point where I think some some readers were like, why is that story in there? That story is in there because it’s part of me, that’s part of what I experienced as a teenager. The in-crowd, the mean girls, the being part of one gang, and then wanting to be part of another, and having friends that were true friends.

Fortunately, in my case I didn’t abandon them, but those were the choices that were placed before me as a teenager. And how do I choose? And what’s the right path for me, as well as for those around me, for my future? I really wanted to play with that.

And then, in addition, I felt that having this other story about Becca’s parents was important, that a lot of kids go through if their parents are struggling. And I wanted to give mama her own thing, another little mystery. What is Mom up to?

Michele: The story felt rich without being overloaded.

Janet: Thank you. I’m glad to hear that.

Point of view and deeper meanings

Michele: The story’s told in 3rd person from 2 different characters’ points of view. The girl Becca, who’s a guest at this dude ranch, where the story is set, and then a boy whose dad works there. How did those 2 characters come about? And how did you decide what POVs to use?

Janet: I knew I wanted her to have a cohort of friends at this place. That’s the only way to get her to really have some fun there, and to then make this new friend family that would make the story more interesting, and also show her what kind of person she is, and wants to be. So I knew I needed several other kids in there, and John, he was perfect because he could sort of represent Pearlhandle Pete in the present. Rather than having Pearlhandle Pete, this character who was long gone, just on his own, I wanted John to be the one to tell his story.

Michele: John does that by reading Pearlhandle Pete’s journal. Was that a strategic decision or a burst of inspiration?

Janet: It was sort of a strategic decision. I didn’t know how I was going to do it until I started writing John. Then I thought, Oh! This is going to work perfectly. I have to put [Pete’s journal] in someone’s hands, and I put it in John’s.

Michele: Both Becca and John have satisfying character arcs. Is that something you planned out in advance or found along the way?

Janet: That really developed along the way. I mean, I knew Becca’s character arc. I knew what she would do in the end. I knew what she had to go through in order to be her true self.

John, because he’s part of the twist, that actually developed as I was writing. As I was working through the whole notion of the treasure and what it would end up being and how they’d find it, that’s [how John’s arc] really developed. I knew that the treasure was going to be something different, but I didn’t know exactly what. I love the way it worked.

Michele: Did you ever think about doing alternating first person?

Janet: I always play with voice and point of view when I’m working in a first draft. Sometimes I change it out, but in this case, it just felt better in third person.

Michele: I think it works extremely well. How early in the story’s development did you know what your point or theme would be?

Janet: Oh, I always know that pretty much right away.

Michele: How do you find that? Or is it something you actively search for? Does it just kind of land on you?

Janet: No, it’s really important to me to know what this book will do in the world, because I’m very attached to what goes on in the world. And I think it’s really important for kids to have, whether subconsciously or consciously, an awareness of deeper meanings.

I know the deeper meanings, and I want to put them in my books. I’m really searching for the frame around the deeper meaning.

---

Want to hear when I publish more blogs like this one?

Sign up to receive my emails.