Writing for children

Of course it's premature for me to have too much to say on this subject just yet, but I've made so much use myself of children's authors' advice over the past year that I would like to offer what I have learned so far.

Reading

One of the best pieces of advice I've ever received is that to be a children's writer, you need to read children's literature every day. For me there are two main categories: your-own-childhood-favourites and whatever-is-on-the-just-released-shelf. Being (and staying) familiar with these is useful in so many ways. It ensconces you in the kinds of vocabulary and ideas children can manage, it helps you to build up an idea of the 'shape' of a story and the pace at which it should move for your age group, it keeps you constantly inspired and excited at the the thought of the words on your screen ending up on pages in books and it also keeps you stocked up with all kinds of interesting ideas, which mingle and interact and create new stories in the back of your mind. Balancing those two categories of children's literature also means that you can keep yourself up-to-date with what's going on in the publishing world without losing sight of the ideas that stay with children forever.

Submitting

While I was preparing to submit my manuscript I bought every book and read every website I could find on how-to-write-for-children-and-be-published and ended up feeling quite muddled by all the conflicting advice I found. In retrospect, I think all that time and money would have been much better spent on the complete works of Roald Dahl. If your manuscript is as good as you can make it, if you submit it to credible places, and if you follow their submission guidelines to the letter, I suspect you're giving yourself the best chance there is.

Agents

Unless you're extremely well connected in the world of publishing, have a solid background in its legal aspects, a sound understanding of the workings of the industry and a particular fondness for piles of incredibly complicated paperwork, I don't know how you'll manage without one of these. I'm lucky enough to have one who I secretly suspect is a little bit magic. Her name is Pippa Masson and she works for Curtis Brown in Sydney.

Waiting

I'm not sure anything could have prepared me for this! The world of children's writing moves at the pace of a s...n...a...i...l....but when the call/email eventually comes, it is absolutely worth it. Until then, I think the best advice is given in the serenity prayer, for the serenity to accept the things we cannot change (e.g. whether or not our work is a good fit for where its been sent), the courage to change the things we can (e.g. the decision to use the time to get started on a brand new manuscript) and the wisdom to know the difference (to be called upon when assessing the wisdom of sending emails to 'check on the status' of a manuscript!)