Writing 2: Writing For Children

Co ur s es a mpl e

Writing 2: Writing for Children Written and illustrated by: Beth Webb

Somewhere in our heads, somehow, there is retained the strange, intuitive immediacy that the creative imagination shares with the alert, unjaded mind of a reading child. Susan Cooper – Dreams and Wishes

Open College of the Arts Michael Young Arts Centre Redbrook Business Park Wilthorpe Road Barnsley S75 1JN Telephone: 0800 731 2116 E-mail: [email protected] www.oca-uk.com Registered charity number: 327446 ISBN 872147 97 6 Copyright OCA 2009 Document Control Number: Document5 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means - electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise - without prior permission of the publisher (Open College of the Arts). OCA is a company limited by guarantee and registered in England under number 2125674. Registered Office, Open College of the Arts, Michael Young Arts Centre, Unit 1B, Redbrook Business Park, Wilthorpe Road, Barnsley, S75 1JN, United Kingdom The author would like to thank all those who have kindly given permission for their work to be included. Every effort has been made to correctly credit each extract. The publishers apologise for any error or omission, and would be grateful to be notified of any correction that should be incorporated into the next edition of this course.

Contents 1 Introduction Creating Wonders Course Content Aims and Objectives of the Course Tutorial Procedures Assessment Problems with the Course Getting Started

2 Going on a Bear Hunt How to Research Here’s Looking at You Commonplace Gems In-your-pocket-notebooks Library Notebooks ‘Playground’ Notebooks Assignment 1

3 Dragons Before Breakfast The Art of Storytelling

4 ‘Spell-ing’ for Beginners How to Enthral a Listener Assignment 2

5 Pinning the Fairy to the Page The Difference Between Being a Storyteller and a Writer

6 Making Me Tick (Tock) The Psychology of Children’s Stories Assignment 3

7 The Keys to the Castle of Terror Being Careful and Making Sure that Stories are ‘Safe’

8 Castles in the Air Consistency and Structure Building your Castle Assignment 4

9 Ogres and Heroes (and Heroines, of course) Character Development Within the Plot Assignment 5

10 Creative Responses to the Exercises Writing your Assignments Is my Idea a Story or a Poem? Picture Books

11 Drafting, Texture and Form Drafting Texture Form

12 Into the Great Blue Yonder Where Next? Home Books Self-Publishing Vanity Publishing Commercial Publishing Radio and Newspapers Publishing ‘on the Net’ Copyright Other Ideas

13 Treasure Chests Suggested Reading and Useful Contacts

14 Contributions Tom Finger by Gillian McClure Desmond goes to the Vet by Althea The Three Bears by Sue Atkinson The Rich Man and the Poor Man by Suzi Lewis-Barned Jungle Jive by Anna Nilsen Dracula’s Daughter by Irene Rawnsley The Creepicle’s Tale by Irene Rawnsley Bee Among the Flowers by Irene Rawnsley The Outdoors-Indoors Room by Pippa Goodhart Desperate Measures by Jenny Alexander The Queen’s Cat by Beth Webb Deaf City by Jana Novotny Hunter The Little Cattle by Hugh Lupton BeMovie by Philip Gross Kit’s Wilderness by David Almond

15 Contributors’ Biographies Appendix A: if you plan to submit your work for formal assessment

1 Introduction Writing 2: Writing for Children has been devised as a specialist second-level course in writing for children, focusing on understanding how a children’s story works, what it is for and the art of storytelling. Writing for Children is designed to be very closely linked to OCA’s foundation-level course, Starting to Write. As an intermediate-level course, Writing for Children also parallels OCA’s Storylines, I-Lines and The Experience of Poetry. For all of these courses, the academic levels, assessment criteria and proposed outcomes are similar, and the theoretical foundations are identical: that creative writing flows out of personal experience which has been transformed through the imagination, reflected on and edited from drafts and that these skills can be taught and learned. As with the other courses, Writing for Children is made up of 5 postal assignments drawn from ideas in the course and from the experience of our specialist tutors. These assignments will require the same levels of time and commitment and have the same accreditation as the other intermediate level courses. Writing for Children has been set up to introduce students to the fascinating world of writing for children – a world which has its own rules, traditions and customs. It is an art form that is at last being taken seriously as an academic subject, but it is also a source of enjoyment and communication for the adults who choose to write for young readers. Perhaps most importantly, as this course will show, well written children’s stories provide great delight and vital literary foundations for children.

Creating Wonders Writing for children is about creating magical wonders – bringing whole worlds into existence right in front of the child’s ‘eyes of the imagination’. The

Collins Dictionary defines ‘magic’ as ‘unaccountably enchanting – wonderful, marvellous – any mysterious or extraordinary quality’. This sums up everything a children’s book should be. A children’s writer needs to be a gentle, safe and genuine ‘wonder maker’, someone who can create a world that is marvellous, mysterious and unaccountably enchanting, yet always providing an underlying sense of security, however scary or ‘on the edge’ the story may be. Story magic is important whether writing a social realism story, or the wonders of finding unicorns in space. A children’s story must be so riveting and amazing the reader longs to crawl right inside it, like Alice going down the rabbit hole. Writing for children demands something much more subtle and wise than the so-called popular perception of ‘magic’ with wand-waving and spell-chanting without responsibility being taken for actions. Story magic never offers instant, painless solutions to difficult situations. Children thrive on a kind of writing that is honest about the world and its struggles, but at the same time able to bring both the possible and the impossible to life in a way that ‘enchants’. A children’s writer needs to enable a child to discover castles in the air, talking animals and wind-flying dragons, tigers who come to tea and a postman who can fix anything, but whether there is a crocodile under the bed or Mum has left Dad, the reader must always feel that somehow, everything will be all right in the end. The stories need to create a context that is both appropriate and reliable, a world where children can discover meaningful patterns within the whirling kaleidoscope of the new and ever changing experience of being alive.

Course Content Writing for children usually falls into 3 main age groups: the pre-literate child / the early reader (age 5 – 7 years) who is interested enough in stories to sit and listen, or maybe begin to read for him or herself; the confident reader (age 8 – 11), as the reader develops confidence in his or her reading ability and imaginative powers and the older reader / young adult (12 – 16) years

when the competent and sophisticated reader looks for stories that relate to the transition between childhood and the adult world. This course does not cover books for very young children, which do not use the concept of a ‘story’ in the same way as will be used here. Books for very young children rely heavily on design, layout and specialist illustration and are their own genre. However, because illustration is an important aspect of children’s stories, there is a short section on the relationship between the written text of a story and the accompanying illustrations, and how to present text designed for a picture book. An appreciation of this is especially important when writing stories for younger children, whether the writer is doing his/her own illustrations or not. Part of the course looks at these three broad bands of developmental child psychology. This is essential because as they develop, children’s story-needs change radically. It is therefore essential that a student appreciates these basic stages to enable him/her to understand what he/she needs to do to ‘target’ the work effectively, creating an approach which will communicate without falling into the trap of ‘talking down’ to or ‘over the heads’ of their readers. There will also be a consideration of the ethics and dangers of children’s writing. Another major section examines what a storyteller is, how stories work, and the difference between story telling and story writing. There is also an appreciation of what stories are for and the different ways of communicating ideas. The course also contains a research component to give the reader an idea of how to appreciate the world as a child sees it, alongside simple proposals for structure, character and plot and an examination of what makes a child connect with or disconnect from a story. This is followed by guidance on assignments and some thoughts on where to go next with your writing. The contributions section at the end of this course is a series of wide-ranging examples of writing from modern published authors, with an essay from each

of them on how and why they have approached their work in the way they have. This is designed to give the student first-hand insights into the thinking and work of respected children’s writers. The best writers of children’s fiction are those who also read it and enjoy it for themselves, so the final sections of the course includes references and a suggested reading list that will be comprehensive, but by no means exhaustive. The course aims to give some clues as to how to understand the world of a child reader and how to write in a way that relates to that world.

2 Going on a Bear Hunt

How to Research Getting started on writing for children is like preparing to go on a ‘bear hunt’ – you will need to be prepared to capture fearsome grizzlies, cuddly teddies and teacherguzzlers! In your rucksack you will need a large pot of honey, a tin of condensed milk and a packet of coloured balloons – just in case you meet a heffalump or two… Oh, and you’ll also need to read the following.

Here’s Looking at You Before starting on your first assignment, it is often helpful to research something about yourself. Take a little time to write between 200 – 500 words on why you want to write for children, what children’s books you enjoy and why. At the end of the course, you might like to repeat the exercise, and see if your thoughts and opinions have changed. This is primarily for you, so only send these notes to your tutor if you wish to do so.

Commonplace Gems Under my bed I have a deep drawer for odds and ends, intriguing objects, picture postcards etc. Some people call this a ‘commonplace book’ (or drawer). You could fill any sort of large box with flotsam and jetsam you collect during this course. Children’s comics, old, discarded books – the tattiest ones are the most loved and read ones – chewed teddies (unwanted ones, of course), photos, book reviews, letters from children. Sketchbooks (both yours and children’s) are important too. Although this course does not cover illustration, sketchbooks are very helpful to a writer, capturing an image or a visual idea, or if it is a child’s drawing book, enabling you to see through that artist’s eyes. A ‘commonplace’ drawer or box is also a good place to store your old notebooks.

In-your-pocket-notebooks During this course, your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to ‘become’ a child of the age group you would like to write for, understanding their feelings, fascinations and the way they speak, learn and relate to the world. Here are some suggestions to help you take on this role. Try to spend all the time you can with children of the age group you are most interested in (preferably not only your own children if you have any – you know them too well and they probably think in a similar way to yourself). Ask to become a volunteer in the local school, or visit friends and relatives with children, take them out to the park, watch and listen to them in lessons, at home, watching television, walking down the street, at the shops, in the doctor’s surgery – everywhere possible. Allow yourself to ‘become’ a child of that age. See things through a child’s eyes, ask yourself what the world looks and feels like. Take a notebook and pen everywhere you go. Your notebook must be small enough to slip easily into your pocket so you don’t have to fuss about pulling

it out, or putting it away. Make sure it’s not too small, so your thoughts don’t become cut off mid-flow. Personally, I used a hard-backed, spiral bound A6 notebook. If you forget your notebook, make sure the bus ticket or till receipt you have just smothered in tiny writing gets fastened into your notebook as soon as possible (or even better, copied in). •

The best ideas come at the most inconvenient times!

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Whenever you get the chance, make notes about what the children are doing, what makes them laugh, cry, smile, whine, yawn, miserable, happy, feel lost etc, the list is endless.

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I sometimes write down headings on certain pages, like ‘happy’, ‘sad’, etc, so if I’m looking for a ‘happy’ observation I can flick straight to it.

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Pay particular attention to what surprises and gives pleasure to a child of your chosen age group. This includes food, drinks, games, stories, jokes, what’s on the telly, what makes a child laugh.

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Then observe what frightens, upsets or disturbs a child, and how parents, teachers and friends soothe and calm those fears.

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Never throw these notebooks away, always keep them for they are your raw material from which you will work for many years to come.

Library Notebooks Ask the local library if you can sit in the children’s section and observe the children reading. (Better to tell the librarians what you’re doing in case you’re thought to be a suspicious character!) What do children pick up? How long do they read it? What rivets them? What do they put down quickly? Look at the dates inside the front covers. Which books are taken out most? Borrow these and ask children you know what they like best in these stories. •

Make notes of their replies.

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Read these books yourself. What do you like about them? (Be honest, do you enjoy them? Or are you reading them because you’ve got to?)

Consider the books’ simplicity or complexity, both in terms of words used and ideas expressed. Think about the rhymes and rhythms they have used.

How do they incorporate surprise and familiarity? What is special, what is ‘capturing’ and endearing? What is each book’s essential ‘magic’? What makes them work, or don’t you think they do? Why? How have the authors ended their books? As you research you will need to digest every children’s book you can lay your hands on, the lesser known as well as the great writers on the library shelves (see ‘Treasure Chests’ at the end of this course). •

Make notes about your thoughts.

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When you write, ask yourself if you have used the techniques that really worked…

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…and if you have avoided the pitfalls you have discovered.

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If you are considering writing for the younger age group, ask at your local primary school for a list of sounds and words with which very young children should be familiar. These are often linked to a reading scheme.

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If you like, you could incorporate these sounds into your assignment.

‘Playground’ Notebooks As your notebooks and sketchbooks become full of observations and ideas, feelings and ideas, you will find it also becomes a ‘playground’ – a space for ‘writing games’ and experiments. You will begin to ‘see’ how you can turn an incident or a question into a story or a poem. For this you will also need large notebooks – I use spiral bound A4 or A5 for working up ideas I’ve collected in my small notebooks. I transfer my ideas into the bigger books so I can spread them out and see what each of them can become. If you keep your notes cramped up your thoughts will remain cramped up too. Just to start you off actually using the material collected in your notebooks, try some of these exercises making up rough stories or poems of about 500 words, as if told by one child to another.

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Describe an object or event as if you had never seen or experienced it before.

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Try writing a story that explains something not easily understood. If writing for the younger age groups, you might try something like why chicken pox is so-called, or why there are hills instead of all the ground being flat. For older children and teenagers, you might want to tackle boredom, or a difficult life-issue such as fear of being unattractive.

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Then try and do another, purely silly story or poem for fun, with no teaching or interpretation.

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Write a story or a poem about feeling a strong negative or positive emotion.

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Write an experience from your own childhood, but written as you might have told it at the time, you can change it or embellish it, but try and keep it having a ‘real’ basis.