Writers' & Artists' Guide to Writing for Children and YA

To the Flatcaps: Sue, Penny, Karen, Emma, Joan and Sue.

For your friendship and support.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Linda Strachan is the author of over 70 books. She writes for a wide range of ages from picture books to Young Adult novels. These include the bestselling Hamish McHaggis series and award-winning Spider (Strident, 2008), Dead Boy Talking (Strident, 2010) and Don’t Judge Me (Strident, 2012). Her educational books are used in schools worldwide. Linda is a former Chair of the Society of Authors in Scotland and an experienced creative writing tutor. Her website is www.lindastrachan.com.

OTHER UPCOMING WRITERS & ARTISTS TITLES INCLUDE

Writers’ & Artists’ Guide to Getting Published by Alysoun Owen

Writers’ & Artists’ Guide to How to Hook an Agent by James Rennoldson

Writers’ & Artists’ Guide to Self-publishing

Writers’ & Artists’ Guide to How to Write by William Ryan

The Organised Writer by Antony Johnston

The Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook and the Children’s Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook are published annually in July

You can buy copies of all these titles at your local bookseller or online at www.writersandartists.co.uk

Contents

INTRODUCTION

PART I

Different kinds of writing for children

CHAPTER 1

Different ages, different markets

Genre | Writing with sensitivity

CHAPTER 2

Writing a picture book

What is a picture book? | What to write about | Thinking in pictures: Visualisation | Where do you start? | To rhyme or not to rhyme? | Themes in picture books | Working with an illustrator | International sales

CHAPTER 3

Writing for younger readers (5–7) and chapter books

Boys vs girls? | Do your research

CHAPTER 4

Middle grade

What is middle grade? | Early middle grade: seven to nine years | A few questions about your story | Older middle grade (9–12)

CHAPTER 5

Writing for young adults (YA)

Thought-provoking subjects | Keep them guessing | Fantasy in YA | Formats | Point of view (POV) | Architect or gardener, planner or pantser? | The beginning … and the end

CHAPTER 6

Writing a series

Why write a series? | Series fantasy | Packagers and series with multiple authors | Creating your own series | Approaching a publisher

CHAPTER 7

Non-fiction

Research for non-fiction | Markets and opportunities | What should I write? | Writing historical fact/fiction | Approach and subject matter | How does the process work? | Royalty or flat fee?

CHAPTER 8

Writing for the primary school educational market

Educational versus trade publishing | Ideas for the educational market | Approaching an educational publisher | Your cover letter | Understanding the process | Writing to a brief | Trialling | Agents and educational publishing | Contractual matters

CHAPTER 9

Writing for reluctant readers

What is a ‘reluctant’ reader?

CHAPTER 10

Technology and children’s books

Apps

PART II

A writer’s toolkit

CHAPTER 11

What’s in your toolkit?

CHAPTER 12

Ideas

Generating fresh ideas

CHAPTER 13

Plot

Planning | Pace

CHAPTER 14

Characters

How to create a character

CHAPTER 15

Dialogue

CHAPTER 16

Point of view (POV)

Third-person POV | First-person POV | Multiple POVs

CHPATER 17

Beginnings and endings

Beginnings | Endings

CHAPTER 18

Settings and visualisation

CHAPTER 19

Revision

Emotion | Plot | Characters | Dialogue | Beginnings and endings | Point of view (POV) | Setting | Rhyme/rhythm (picture books) | Punctuation

CHAPTER 20

Wellbeing for writers

Strength in numbers: writers’ groups | Rejection and how to cope with it | Social media: pros and cons | Procrastination: what stops you writing? | Writer’s block

PART III

PREPARING YOUR WORK FOR PUBLICATION

CHAPTER 21

Submissions to a publisher or agent

Do I need an agent? | What do agents look for in a writer? | What to look for in an agent | How to land an agent | Preparing your manuscript Open submissions and pitch sessions | Vanity publishing | Checklist and general summary | You’ve been accepted! What happens next? | Contracts What to reasonably expect of your agent/publisher | Self-publishing

PART IV

After publication: what next?

CHAPTER 22

Getting to publication day – and beyond

Fact vs fiction | What happens next? | What does it mean to be a children’s writer? | Writing full-time | The book launch | Be nice | Marketing, publicity and self-promotion | School visits and other author events | Money matters | PLR and ALCS: additional income for authors

GLOSSARY

INDEX

Introduction

Writing for children and young adults (often referred to as YA) has its own set of criteria a writer needs to be aware of, from understanding what kind of books are suited to the age or ability level you are writing for, to the different formats publishers expect in some areas, such as picture books or educational publishing. There are also guidelines that you need to understand before you can decide to use or ignore them.

When you say ‘I’m a children’s writer’ people often assume that you write for tiny tots, as if children weren’t of all ages. They seldom ask, ‘What age of children?’ Cathy MacPhail

I wrote about this initially in the first version of this book (Writing for Children) published in 2008. In this much revised and expanded edition, I’ve looked at all aspects of writing and getting published from the very latest perspective and incorporated examples of books published across all age ranges. There are new chapters devoted to writing for young adults and middle grade, both huge areas of expansion in children’s publishing. To reflect the increase in self-publishing, there is a new section on this in Part III, as well as a new chapter (20) on motivation for writers, because we all need encouragement to keep going when things are tough.

Getting published is not easier than it has ever been – nor is it that much more difficult – but understanding the publishing industry and keeping up to date will help you in your quest to find the right publisher or to move into a new area of writing for children. As research for this edition, I have been reading and enjoying a huge cornucopia of books and have rediscovered why writing for children and young adults is my passion. It is exciting and challenging and this is truly a golden age for children’s publishing.

I would urge you to do the same and read widely, by which I mean as many books for children of all ages as you can. It will give you a huge insight into the breadth of subject matter – some so intense they will make you weep, others that will make you laugh out loud – but you will also gain a sense of age categories, interest levels and format. Read critically, looking at how the writers have handled some difficult subjects with sensitivity and great skill, and dealt with complex ideas but still made them accessible and interesting to younger children. In the Recommended Reads at the end of Chapters 2 to 9 in Part I, I have suggested some books to get you started, but don’t stop there. I hope you will go on to discover many more wonderful books and writers for yourself.

Read, read, read; write, write, write. Julia Jarman

Writing for children and young adults can and should be enormous fun, but don’t let that fool you: children’s books are often more challenging and more complex than they seem. Writing is hard work, and it’s not any easier because the readers are children; in fact it can be even more challenging. It can also be extremely rewarding, although not necessarily in monetary terms.

For the first five years of our lives, our brain develops faster than at any other time and between six and fourteen years of age we make important advances in development to establish our sense of identity. As we progress through our teenage years, we build on our knowledge of the world and relationships and can embrace more challenging and complex ideas. It is during these critical years, when children are learning how to make sense of the world around them, that books play a significant part. As children’s writers, we must produce the very best books for these enquiring minds, but they also need to be produced within certain parameters so that they meet a child or young person’s needs. They must be engaging and accessible but also aimed at the reader’s level of comprehension, and most of all they must be entertaining. Our responsibility is to create books that children love to read, so that they not only acquire the necessary practical skills but also carry the joy of reading throughout their lives. Writing for children and young adults requires a love of books, particularly children’s books; stamina and determination; and a fairly thick skin to enable you to withstand the knocks and rejections that may come your way. Despite all the hard work and difficulties, it is a highly rewarding area to work in and most children’s writers wouldn’t want to do anything else.

Much has changed in the eleven years since I wrote the first edition. In addition to shifts in publishing, there have been broader changes in society that have naturally influenced the lives of the children we write for and the books that are being written for them. It is an ever-changing landscape and no doubt, in another ten years, other developments and trends will emerge that need to be embraced by children’s authors writing at that time. These changes (some of which I refer to below) can be exciting but there’s no sugar-coating the fact that they’re sometimes challenging too.

Libraries and qualified librarians are vanishing from our towns and cities, mainly due to cost-cutting measures, and society will be all the poorer if we allow this to be our legacy. A knowledgeable children’s librarian either in a public library or in a school can put the right book into a child’s hand that will turn disinterest into a love of books that can last a lifetime. My experience of school librarians has been almost invariably of dedicated people who go far beyond their job remit and take a great interest in their pupils. Their love of books informs everything they do.

With only a few big bookshop chains remaining on the UK high street, choice can be pretty limited. However, despite this smaller independent bookshops are making a bit of a comeback and many are delighted to host events or book launches for writers. Thanks to their enthusiastic hand-selling and recommendations, they are great champions of books, and as writers and consumers it is important to support them.

Inclusivity in children’s books and in the publishing industry is currently being discussed widely and passionately. A willingness to engage in (much overdue) change across all areas of publishing is evident; we need to make diversity in publishing the norm, and mainstream. If we want a future society that encourages and celebrates our differences as well as our similarities, writers need to actively think about becoming much more inclusive but also to be very aware of not falling into repeating stereotypes. If we feature a broader range of characters in our books and in the voices of our writers, we celebrate the variety in our society, by offering children a broader choice and opening up more widely the discussion about what makes us human. By giving all children the opportunity to see themselves and their lives in the books they read, regardless of their situation, we encourage empathy for those whose lives are different to their own. Writing for children is more than simply telling stories that children will enjoy: it allows us to explore our world – past, present and future – as we encourage these young and fertile minds to immerse themselves in possibilities. We take them with us on this journey of discovery so that they can find out who they are and all that they can be.

For more than twenty years I have been visiting schools and festivals, speaking at a wide range of book-related events and workshops. Children are inquisitive, honest and challenging and it has been an amazing privilege to hear their stories and concerns and to answer their questions. I love running writing workshops and residencies for children and adults, and most of all I love helping people discover their own ability to write well. I would like to thank all the lovely children’s authors and other industry professionals who have been generous with their time and expertise and supplied the excellent quotes. One book cannot encompass everything about writing for children and YA, but I hope this will give you a sense of what is expected in each area and encourage you to experiment. Writers need a community of like-minded people and I am so much richer for the support of fellow SAS (Scattered Author Society) members. Their friendship and knowledgeable advice is invaluable. I hope that in sharing some of the things I’ve learned about writing I can help you find your writing voice and discover the challenges and the joys of writing for children and young adults.

PART 1

Different kinds of

writing for children

Chapter 1

Different ages, different markets

I have never forgotten the books I loved as a child. They are trapped in my head on continuous loop along with all the other stuff of childhood: the smell of bonfire night, damp sheds and dressing up clothes, papier-mâché, paint, glue and glitter. Nicola Browne

One of the most exciting things about writing for children is the sheer variety; authors have the opportunity to write for different ages and in different styles. You might want to write picture books; easy readers, for those starting to learn the skill of reading; short books for less confident readers; novels, for younger (middle grade) readers who want engaging or adventurous reads or Young Adult (YA) novels for the teenagers who are starting to spread their wings – testing the boundaries, and challenging in every way. If fiction is not your passion, there are non-fiction books for all of the readers mentioned above. These books are all quite different in length, style and content and thus require different skills.

There are other possibilities to consider. When you know what you want to write about, it is important to consider what market you are aiming at, but perhaps even more important is understanding what format best suits that market, and your story. Do you want to write for the educational market, that is, books written for use directly in schools? Or would you rather write poetry or plays? A series or a ‘stand-alone’? A board book for the very young, or a novelty book?

Many children’s writers always write for the same genre or age while others write across a wide range. Either is acceptable and it’s another reason why it’s an advantage to write for children – there is so much choice. If you write for adults in a particular genre, it is more likely that you will be expected to stay within that genre. Writing for children, by contrast, gives you the opportunity to stretch your writing abilities in many different directions.

It is always a challenge to try something different; you never know what skills you might have if you don’t experiment, but you should always write about things that fascinate or interest you because that’s the way to a reader’s heart. If your subject matter doesn’t touch you, the writer, how can you expect it to appeal to others?

A good children’s book is accessible and thought-provoking, and sometimes a good children’s book is just a lot of fun. Catherine Johnson

Genre

Whether you’re writing a ghost story, adventure, crime, realism, humour, science fiction, fantasy or a mixture of any of these, choose a genre that excites you, not because you have heard it’s the current fad in publishing or the bestsellers that are making their authors a fortune. Such considerations are pointless because by the time you have written your book and submitted it to a publisher, the fashion will probably have changed, the publishers will be looking for something else and the press will have latched on to another ‘phenomenon’. Some series appear to be written by one author but are in fact by multiple authors under a pseudonym. If there is a particular series you would like to contribute to, these are often commissioned by book packagers and are written to very specific requirements.

The most important thing is to write well and to be true to your story. If you love fantasy, then try to find a way to write fantasy that stands out from all the rest. Make it your own and original but don’t make it so obscure that no one can understand it. If you prefer to write humorous, or exciting, or spooky, serious or realistic stories, if your writing and your story is good enough, your book will be signed up regardless of whatever the press suggests the latest trend might be. Or perhaps you may start a trend of your own!

The genre you write in depends on your own taste, but you must make it fascinating, convincing, interesting and full of page-turning action. Be sure to keep children at the heart of the story, but don’t be tempted to cheat the reader with an easy or illogical ending. These days children are more sophisticated than many adults appreciate.

Writing with sensitivity

Being sensitive as a writer and understanding the need not to offend either deliberately or inadvertently is paramount when writing for young people. To be clear, this does not mean avoiding offensive issues or events, but being more sensitive in our writing is a contemporary necessity.

It is important to remember that all children need to see themselves represented in the books they read, or in the stories they are told. So be inclusive with a balanced approach, and at the very least recognise the variety of experiences and cultures that children have to understand and cope with in their lives. This is incredibly important for a children’s writer. The books children read can shape the way they look at the world and promote understanding of other cultures and other children’s situations. Most children believe from a young age that their experience of life, and especially family life, is the norm even when it may be anything but normal, but what if they have nothing else to compare it with? Children’s books can open a door to the other ways of life that might be possible and they can encourage empathy in those whose lives have not been troubled or difficult.

If you want your work to be accepted for publication, you have to be aware that there are some things you cannot do and still expect a publisher to take your book. Taking into account the age of your reader, whether your book will be used in schools as a class reader and therefore ‘required’ reading matter, or if it’s a matter of the parent or child’s choice to buy your book to read at home – different rules may apply. There are some things publishers will not publish; often this is not because they are making a moral judgement, but a commercial one. Why would they publish something that no one will buy?

A common-sense approach is probably best. If something is likely to be particularly contentious but you are very keen to write it, speak to an editor or approach an agent first and ask whether it’s something that is likely to be acceptable or if it will cause a problem. At that point you have to decide whether you feel it’s worth pursuing. Sensitivity readers are being used by some publishers to advise authors where they might be inadvertently using language or ideas that might be an issue to some readers or reinforcing stereotypes or tropes. As with anything in a sensitive area, this can work better at some times than others, and would always depend on how receptive a writer is to suggested changes, but also how open they are to hearing how others might feel about delicate issues. I believe that when writing for children it is even more important to be aware of any area where we can present a fairer view of the world for everyone.

No one is going to want to publish a children’s book that glorifies or encourages dangerous behaviour or anything that promotes bullying or any other anti-social behaviour. That is not to say you can’t tackle these subjects within the context of a story; in fact, they are welcomed as long as they are skilfully handled. If your characters are seen to be benefiting from crime or bad behaviour, however, or your readers are thought likely to want to copy it because it is portrayed as aspirational, this can be problematic.

This is where the way you end your story is so important. Make sure there is some kind of resolution and some consequence to anti-social, stupid or dangerous behaviour, so that the reader is left in no doubt that it is not without penalty. That said, avoid preaching or being dictatorial, as that’s the surest way to put off a young reader.

There are certain subjects in educational publishing that publishers will not be keen on at all and these are discussed in Chapter 8. If your book is to be published in other countries, publishers may know that certain subject matter will cause it to be rejected in specific locations and may ask for some passages to be changed for that reason. Don’t take this kind of rejection personally or feel that the publisher is being unreasonable. Their reasons will be almost universally to the benefit of sales, so complaining that they don’t see your point of view is irrelevant and pointless; you are unlikely to change their opinion.

Finally – and I know this should go without saying – never be boring. Children have a built-in tedium-detector and not only will they not put up with it, they will tell all their friends. On the flip side, if they enjoy a book they will be happy to tell the world. Like adults, children enjoy different types of books at different times and for different reasons, and so much of the difference between ‘great’ and ‘boring’ lies in the way you tell the story; the freshness and immediacy of the writing.

Let’s look at some of the different areas of writing for children that you might want to try.

Chapter 2

Writing a picture book

What is a picture book?

Picture books are like poetry. Tell the story with as few words as possible. Every word needs to be perfect. Every word needs to earn its keep. Malachy Doyle

A common misconception is that a picture book is the easiest to write because it has so few words and a lot of lovely images. It can look so very simple. Some adults assume that because picture books are aimed at very young children they don’t have to be sophisticated. In fact, the very opposite is true: the appearance of simplicity is deceiving and the most successful examples of this genre are often quite complex when you analyse the content. Picture books are not only for the very young, either. Some authors use picture books to help interpret difficult or scary subjects for older children and adults; for example, Debi Gliori’s Night Shift (Hot Key Books) uses the format particularly well to talk about depression, but is not aimed at young children. There are also illustrated versions of longer novels, such as the Harry Potter books; although these are not quite the same thing as a picture book, in that these are books with pictures inserted alongside the text, rather than the images being created to tell part of the story.

Below is a brief overview of some popular picture book formats.

board books

These can vary in style and size, but are typically made of solid board or very thick pages and aimed at very young children and babies. It might also have flaps made of paper, board or even felt, to hide fun things for the child to find. Children, especially the very youngest children, love surprises or being asked to find things. They might have textures so the child can feel the difference between a creature’s soft furry tail or scratchy tongue, and some have a mirror at the end for the child to see themselves. Board books can vary in length from three to four pages to slightly longer, and either have very few words or none at all. It may be strange to think you can be the author of a book that has no words, but you still have to create the story. Some novelty books have pull-out features or folded pages such as Alphabet Street by