Learn To Write For Children: Should You Do A Writing Course?
You have never needed a writing course to pen intelligent
, interesting stories that capture the imagination with bold creativity and unexpected twists. You know the difference between "there" and "their," and understand that "they're" is something else entirely. Your grammar is impeccable, and you know enough about the rules to know when to break them. That is, you have all these things on your side until you attempt writing children's books. The best thing you can do for your children's writing career is learn to write for this specific genre of writing!
There are many very successful authors who have written lots of books for adults in a variety of genres who find themselves stumbling when it comes to writing children's books. They have well honed writing skills that they never needed a writing course to gain and they sit down to apply those skills to writing books children will love. Yet, the story never seems quite right. Or, they send it out repeatedly and get nothing more than immediate rejection. Some editors ignore them altogether, not even humoring them with a reply.
What is happening here? How is it possible to be successful when writing for adults without any need for a writing course, but fall flat on your face when trying to write children's books? It's not OKay to water down an adult novel and produce a story for children.
Writing for children is a lot different than writing for adults. There is no such thing as just sitting down and writing a children's book without first learning a whole new set of skills. The rules are very different and if you do not understand them you will never get beyond the slush pile or will continue to collect those form letter, heartless rejection notes. But don't worry, you can learn to write for children.
What pleases an editor looking for adult fiction is not going to be the same thing that an editor looking for children's fiction wants. It's much easier to write for adults because you understand the adult mindset. You are writing for people who have wit and wisdom well beyond what the children you are now writing for may possess. In order to craft wonderful children's books, you need to tap into the mind of a child within the age group your story is intended for.
That means children's books are not all the same! There are many different sets of rules depending on the age group being dealt with.
Further, there is a lot of insider knowledge that you need to take your children's stories from the slush pile to the "published" pile. The industry is just not the same as the adult industry, even if you are dealing with the same publishing house you have been submitting to for years.
A great way to learn to write for children and find all of this insider information that you need and hone your skills so they are more suitable to a younger audience is to take a writing course aimed exclusively at writing children's books. Before you start to think a writing course would be a waste of your time, consider how much time you are willing to waste submitting children's books that completely miss the mark and never have a chance of being published from the moment you toss them out there.
You don't have to do a long course. There are plenty of short courses around that concentrate on writing for children. Finding one can be easily found through your local library or online. Take some time to find one that suits your needs and teaching you what you don't already know! Taking up a writing course will contribute to your success as a children's author.
If you want the highest chance possible of writing successfully for children you will take the writing skills that you already possess and apply them to the new rules of the children's book industry. You succeed with children's books by combining your current skill set with an entirely new skill set. Learn to write for children by attending a professional writing course.
by: Lisa Brunel
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