First, thanks to Willie for last week’s post. It’s interesting to hear him say that he thought writing for children would be easier than writing for adults. Lots of people phone up for a chat about enrolling on our Writing For Children Course and they often seem to think that this will be the case – unfortunately, as Willie found out, it’s not!

If anything, it’s harder because you have to know what age group you are targeting; you then have to be able to use words and ideas that are appropriate to this particular age group. You have to convince a publisher that you know what you’re doing in this respect and you also have to steer clear of overworked and old-fashioned concepts. What was popular when you were a child – or when your children were young – might not be top of the publishers pops these days. Finally, you’ve always to keep parents and teachers in mind. Because these are the people who have the money and will buy the books you write. If you’re writing books for young children, parents want them to look attractive and be fun to read aloud. If you’re writing for older children they want to be sure that if you do touch on a difficult topic it is done with tact and, let’s be honest, there is always the issue of ‘political correctness’. Read the rest of this entry »