The latest additions to The High Republic writing roster – Lydia Kang, Tessa Gratton, Zoraida Córdova, and George Mann – chat with the official site about their roles oin the creation and biuilding of this brave new era of Star Wars, and what we can expect to see from them as the new phase continues to roll out.
StarWars.com: George, Quest for the Hidden City is a middle grade book that has some scary monsters, but it’s not too scary. What do you think is the key to making monsters for readers of that age?
George Mann: There’s always a risk as an adult when you’re writing for kids that you talk down to them or you patronize them. That’s something I try not to do. When I was a kid, I was a big reader, and the books that I enjoyed the most were challenging reads. Sometimes I’d have to look up words or they would tackle real-world themes. They weren’t oversimplified for me.
So the approach that I took with Quest for the Hidden City was to plan the story like any other Star Wars story. The same sort of monsters, the same sort of adventures, the same sort of scary incidents. The trick in making it suitable for middle grade is to then write it from the perspective of the kids. For me, that’s the fundamental difference in writing for different age groups. I wanted to write a book that was kind of a monster story, creating these monsters that were kind of like spooky bat things, and then see that through the eyes of Rooper and Dass.
We recently caught up with Zoraida on Canon Fodder, which you can listen to below.
