Today I submitted my first assignment to The Academy of Children's Writers course – only 9 more to go! I eagerly await feedback from my tutor.
Meanwhile, my next step is to read Unit 2: Emotions, Themes & Plots.
For more info re: The Academy of Children’s Writers:
http://www.childrens-writers.co.uk/
For any would be children’s writers, here are a few useful websites worth checking out:
Writing for children distance learning course
www.learningcurve-uk.com/childrenswriting.htm
Writing for Children
www.wordpool.co.uk/wfc/wfc.htm
Writers Reign – Writing for Children
www.writersreign.co.uk/Writing_for_Children.html
Sunday, 29 March 2009
Wednesday, 25 March 2009
Understanding the young reader
In this month’s blog I am focusing on writing for children as I progress with my own Writing for Children Course Assignment 1. For Task 3, I have chosen to write the beginnings of a novel (1500 words) and so far have written about 1,000+ in the format of two chapters. The working title is called Lily’s Journey and includes social issues/themes of a twelve year old living in a single-parent family due to Lily’s father leaving when she was nine years old. Other themes include moving home, friendship, fashion, school, becoming a teenager, etc.
Writing the first draft of two chapters has been a real eye-opener for me as I realise that I love this kind of writing. However, I am struggling a bit with the third chapter. So I plan to edit the two chapters first and hopefully that process will inform the third chapter. I realise this is just the beginning as I am only on my first assignment, but I already feel pleasantly surprised that I am enjoying the writing process so much. The real challenge is to keep my virtual reader in mind when I edit (see previous posting) who struggles with her reading.
To help with the process, I have been reading children’s books; currently I am two-thirds the way through Scarlett by Cathy Cassidy, which is excellent writing and is about a young angry girl whose life is just one long run of trouble and she gets packed off to Ireland to live with her dad. I will write a review sometime soon. Next up for research/reading is Candyfloss by Jacqueline Wilson and Tell Me No Lies by Malorie Blackman.
I also read an article Writing for Children – Understanding the young reader and it was particularly helpful as it enhanced/confirmed how important the whole approach and writing process needs to be.
Here is a summary:
Understanding the young reader
Writing effectively for children means not only writing about what a child is doing and thinking, but also seeing the world through the child’s eyes. There is an important difference here. In the first case, you are writing about the child’s world through the adult eyes. This sometimes works but often it is too sentimental and appears unrealistic to the child reader. In the second case you are actually sharing the child’s world view and allowing the reader to share it too.
In order to write effectively for children you need a good awareness of the way children think and speak, and the way they live today. If you have regular contact with children – perhaps as a parent, grandparent, teacher or carer – this will be relatively easy. Otherwise, you will need to find some other way of learning about today’s children.
by Liz Johnson, Writing for Children Tutor – Learning Curve Home Study
http://www.learning-curve.org/
© Diana Kimpton
For the full article visit:
www.wordpool.co.uk/wfc/art/readers.htm
Writing the first draft of two chapters has been a real eye-opener for me as I realise that I love this kind of writing. However, I am struggling a bit with the third chapter. So I plan to edit the two chapters first and hopefully that process will inform the third chapter. I realise this is just the beginning as I am only on my first assignment, but I already feel pleasantly surprised that I am enjoying the writing process so much. The real challenge is to keep my virtual reader in mind when I edit (see previous posting) who struggles with her reading.
To help with the process, I have been reading children’s books; currently I am two-thirds the way through Scarlett by Cathy Cassidy, which is excellent writing and is about a young angry girl whose life is just one long run of trouble and she gets packed off to Ireland to live with her dad. I will write a review sometime soon. Next up for research/reading is Candyfloss by Jacqueline Wilson and Tell Me No Lies by Malorie Blackman.
I also read an article Writing for Children – Understanding the young reader and it was particularly helpful as it enhanced/confirmed how important the whole approach and writing process needs to be.
Here is a summary:
Understanding the young reader
Writing effectively for children means not only writing about what a child is doing and thinking, but also seeing the world through the child’s eyes. There is an important difference here. In the first case, you are writing about the child’s world through the adult eyes. This sometimes works but often it is too sentimental and appears unrealistic to the child reader. In the second case you are actually sharing the child’s world view and allowing the reader to share it too.
In order to write effectively for children you need a good awareness of the way children think and speak, and the way they live today. If you have regular contact with children – perhaps as a parent, grandparent, teacher or carer – this will be relatively easy. Otherwise, you will need to find some other way of learning about today’s children.
by Liz Johnson, Writing for Children Tutor – Learning Curve Home Study
http://www.learning-curve.org/
© Diana Kimpton
For the full article visit:
www.wordpool.co.uk/wfc/art/readers.htm
Friday, 13 March 2009
Writing for Children
Last year, I started the ball rolling and set about researching/reading a few children’s books and ended up writing a couple of book reviews and started writing a series of vignettes aimed at young adults (teenagers). However, I recently took a step further and signed up for a Writing for Children correspondence course run by The Academy of Children’s Writers and I am very pleased with the course content and am about to embark on my first assignment, which is headed ‘Recommended Reading’ and involves reading from a choice of four classics – I chose The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – and then writing a 500 word analysis using prescribed headings.
Then, I am to write an original piece of work of 1500 words max, which may be a short story, magazine article, or the opening of an intended novel. The challenge is to write the piece in a style which would be suitable for an eleven year old girl, at the moment in primary school, but shortly to go to the nearby comprehensive. She has difficulty with her reading and dreads those times when she has to stand up and read a page aloud in class. Although this scenario is challenging, I think that having her as a reader in mind will help enable me to stay aware of my reader’s needs and write an appropriate piece.
For more information about the course visit:
http://www.children-writers.co.uk/
Then, I am to write an original piece of work of 1500 words max, which may be a short story, magazine article, or the opening of an intended novel. The challenge is to write the piece in a style which would be suitable for an eleven year old girl, at the moment in primary school, but shortly to go to the nearby comprehensive. She has difficulty with her reading and dreads those times when she has to stand up and read a page aloud in class. Although this scenario is challenging, I think that having her as a reader in mind will help enable me to stay aware of my reader’s needs and write an appropriate piece.
For more information about the course visit:
http://www.children-writers.co.uk/
Saturday, 7 March 2009
Love Me
Love Me
Gemma Weekes
Gemma Weekes was born in the East End of London in 1978; she has lived in England and St Lucia. She had her first short story published when she was 17 and has made a name for herself as a poet, short story writer and musician.. Gemma has featured on BBC Radio 3’s the Verb, ITV, supported the Black Eyed Peas at the Jazz Café, and performed at venues all over London, including The Royal Festival Hall.
I came across Love Me in the New Books section of Aesthetica – The Cultural Arts Magazine Dec/Jan 2009, Issue 26, and as soon as I read the extract, I knew I had to purchase a copy of Gemma’s book and I have been hooked to the book, read from cover to cover, to find this is not only an engaging and modern love story but a joy to take part in and really feel such beautiful exquisite and poetic prose. It is obvious Gemma Weekes is a gifted writer to have put together such a debut novel.
The novel is set between London and New York one hot, sticky summer. Eden is locked in a state of mid-20’s adolescence – directionless, insecure and hopelessly obsessed with her first love. When Zed, the subject of her affection, swoops into town, ‘flash in every line of his body’, spitting gangster rap and the most beautiful boy she’s ever seen, she knows she must have him back. Paralysed by lust, Eden hangs out at Zed’s gigs, squeezes into mini-dresses and drops as many hints as a girl can without losing her dignity, but with no result.
Zed’s more interested in Max- a blonde with perfect bone structure and as white as toothpaste. But is Max the real reason these two can’t get it together? As the story unfolds, glimpses of their St Lucian relatives and parents reveal that Eden and Zed have some serious history they need to face if they’re ever to understand what real love is. Weekes brings to life a world of cross-cultural relationships, passion and pain that zings with life and reveals her to be a major new talent.
I know it’s only March, but this is my favourite book (so far). I found myself identifying with Eden’s obsession with her first love in so many ways; the story took me with it and I vividly remembered those awkward adolescent and insecure moments when it seemed as if time stood still until ‘he’ called; until you spoke to and saw ‘him’ again and how it never seemed enough. It was like you were left in limbo, waiting and wanting more. I remember those crazy times when love sometimes hurt so much; such agony and pain. Not the kind of love to fall into too often!
Questions & Answers with Gemma Weekes, (Aesthetica Magazine):
How did you find writing your first novel?
It consumed me. It began in a fury of inspiration, and then the process quickly became as trying as it was rewarding. Everything else became a distraction from the work, but the work itself was usually maddening. Every draft, you gain something and you lose something. I basically stuck a brick on the gas pedal and let the rest of my life crash into a wall! And then, standing amidst the debris of broken relationships, unexplored opportunities, no fixed address, debt and miscellaneous everyday destruction, you get to the point of realising that the damned book is still probably never going to do justice to your initial vision (luckily, a vision no reader is privy to).
What was the process like?
Love Me emerged out of certain fascinating dynamics I had with people in my life, romantic and otherwise, moments that filled me with a dark species of excitement and a sense of the intangible. What binds one person to another? What’s the fabric of obsession? What’s it made of and what are its colours? Love is a ubiquitous topic that has been almost completely drained of meaning, but still it moves us, robs us, rewards us, inspires us… I was really interested in capturing fresh, real moments, and writing a novel that was dense and that locked the reader into a sensory experience of London and Brooklyn.
Tell me about the characters in Love Me?
Well there’s Eden, the main character, a photographer, living in a mid-20s adolescent fog: afraid, disappointed, emotive, and self-absorbed. Marie her mysterious, beautiful mother. Zed, Eden’s first love, who she hasn’t seen for 10 years and reappears in her life a charismatic but very guarded man. Aunt K, a woman of great spiritual power who hopefully adds a bit of magic. Max, a friend to Eden and lover to Zed, an angelic-looking fashion model with a foul cockney mouth. Spanish, a pure-living, conflicted rocker that Eden meets in Brooklyn. Then there’s Eden’s Bible-bashing father and her hilariously pragmatic best friend Juliet, a talented single mother called Violet and a transsexual philosophy student called Brandy (when in panties) and Brandon (when in boxers).
What are your future plans?
To write my second novel, which is already underway. And short stories, poems. A musical. I’m also determined to finally release some tracks, start giggling again, raise the munchkin, and be happy (whatever that means).
Gemma Weekes
Gemma Weekes was born in the East End of London in 1978; she has lived in England and St Lucia. She had her first short story published when she was 17 and has made a name for herself as a poet, short story writer and musician.. Gemma has featured on BBC Radio 3’s the Verb, ITV, supported the Black Eyed Peas at the Jazz Café, and performed at venues all over London, including The Royal Festival Hall.
I came across Love Me in the New Books section of Aesthetica – The Cultural Arts Magazine Dec/Jan 2009, Issue 26, and as soon as I read the extract, I knew I had to purchase a copy of Gemma’s book and I have been hooked to the book, read from cover to cover, to find this is not only an engaging and modern love story but a joy to take part in and really feel such beautiful exquisite and poetic prose. It is obvious Gemma Weekes is a gifted writer to have put together such a debut novel.
The novel is set between London and New York one hot, sticky summer. Eden is locked in a state of mid-20’s adolescence – directionless, insecure and hopelessly obsessed with her first love. When Zed, the subject of her affection, swoops into town, ‘flash in every line of his body’, spitting gangster rap and the most beautiful boy she’s ever seen, she knows she must have him back. Paralysed by lust, Eden hangs out at Zed’s gigs, squeezes into mini-dresses and drops as many hints as a girl can without losing her dignity, but with no result.
Zed’s more interested in Max- a blonde with perfect bone structure and as white as toothpaste. But is Max the real reason these two can’t get it together? As the story unfolds, glimpses of their St Lucian relatives and parents reveal that Eden and Zed have some serious history they need to face if they’re ever to understand what real love is. Weekes brings to life a world of cross-cultural relationships, passion and pain that zings with life and reveals her to be a major new talent.
I know it’s only March, but this is my favourite book (so far). I found myself identifying with Eden’s obsession with her first love in so many ways; the story took me with it and I vividly remembered those awkward adolescent and insecure moments when it seemed as if time stood still until ‘he’ called; until you spoke to and saw ‘him’ again and how it never seemed enough. It was like you were left in limbo, waiting and wanting more. I remember those crazy times when love sometimes hurt so much; such agony and pain. Not the kind of love to fall into too often!
Questions & Answers with Gemma Weekes, (Aesthetica Magazine):
How did you find writing your first novel?
It consumed me. It began in a fury of inspiration, and then the process quickly became as trying as it was rewarding. Everything else became a distraction from the work, but the work itself was usually maddening. Every draft, you gain something and you lose something. I basically stuck a brick on the gas pedal and let the rest of my life crash into a wall! And then, standing amidst the debris of broken relationships, unexplored opportunities, no fixed address, debt and miscellaneous everyday destruction, you get to the point of realising that the damned book is still probably never going to do justice to your initial vision (luckily, a vision no reader is privy to).
What was the process like?
Love Me emerged out of certain fascinating dynamics I had with people in my life, romantic and otherwise, moments that filled me with a dark species of excitement and a sense of the intangible. What binds one person to another? What’s the fabric of obsession? What’s it made of and what are its colours? Love is a ubiquitous topic that has been almost completely drained of meaning, but still it moves us, robs us, rewards us, inspires us… I was really interested in capturing fresh, real moments, and writing a novel that was dense and that locked the reader into a sensory experience of London and Brooklyn.
Tell me about the characters in Love Me?
Well there’s Eden, the main character, a photographer, living in a mid-20s adolescent fog: afraid, disappointed, emotive, and self-absorbed. Marie her mysterious, beautiful mother. Zed, Eden’s first love, who she hasn’t seen for 10 years and reappears in her life a charismatic but very guarded man. Aunt K, a woman of great spiritual power who hopefully adds a bit of magic. Max, a friend to Eden and lover to Zed, an angelic-looking fashion model with a foul cockney mouth. Spanish, a pure-living, conflicted rocker that Eden meets in Brooklyn. Then there’s Eden’s Bible-bashing father and her hilariously pragmatic best friend Juliet, a talented single mother called Violet and a transsexual philosophy student called Brandy (when in panties) and Brandon (when in boxers).
What are your future plans?
To write my second novel, which is already underway. And short stories, poems. A musical. I’m also determined to finally release some tracks, start giggling again, raise the munchkin, and be happy (whatever that means).
Love Me is published by Chatto & Windus (2009)
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