Writing for children

Advice from local author Sue Mongredien

by Sue Mongredien

Children's books are big business these days. The Harry Potter stories have sold in their millions around the world, to adults as well as children. Jacqueline Wilson has trumped Catherine Cookson as the most borrowed author in British libraries during 2005. Roald Dahl, Dick King-Smith, Philip Pullman...they have all become household names.

So what is the secret? How do you go about writing for children, anyway? I've worked as an editor of children's books, as well as writing them myself now, and this is what I've learned so far:

Be original. Publishers have been swamped with fantasy stories in the last few years, and the market is saturated. Likewise talking animal stories. Editors are heartily sick of manuscripts about talking animals - it's almost always the kiss of death.

Do your research. It's worth spending time in the children's department of a book shop or library, to see what's already out there. What looks good? What doesn't? What are children pestering their parents to buy? (Do bear in mind though that it takes at least a year for a manuscript to become a book. What's in vogue right now may already be out of date in publisher's minds. Is there a gap in the market that you can fill?)

Talk to children. What are they into? What makes them angry/ afraid/ sad? What makes them laugh? A group of five-year-olds will give you very different answers to a far more sophisticated classroom of nine-year-olds! Tailor your plot and characters accordingly.

Start your story with a bang. You need to hook your reader from the first page. This is particularly important if you're writing for a younger child who might not have the patience or concentration skills to read a whole page of description at the start of a story, however brilliant and atmospheric it may be! Cut straight to your first exciting situation and take it from there. You can feed in the description as you go. And finish each chapter on a cliffhanger, too!

Keep your intended age group in mind. If you're writing a story aimed at children who are just learning to read, you need to keep your sentences short and your vocabulary simple. Older children will be able to cope with longer sentence constructions, more complex ideas and a meatier plot. Broadly speaking, most publishers break down their range of books into the following subsections: picture books (for 3-5-year-olds), younger fiction (6-8-year-olds), older fiction (9-12-year-olds), and Young Adult fiction (13+). Check publishers' websites for their guidelines on word counts and age ranges.

When you've finished your first draft, it really helps to read it to a child. It sounds obvious but reading work aloud is an excellent way to gauge its strengths and weaknesses. You can tell by a child's response if you've pitched the vocabulary too high or low. And if they start looking bored or distracted, it's a pretty good indication that your plot needs to be tighter. A child who has engaged with your story may also point out errors in the plot that you have overlooked - "But why didn't he just cast a spell to escape?" etc.

Have fun with it. Enjoy unleashing your imagination on the page. And good luck!

Sue's Frightful Families (Orchard Books) series will be published in July. You can read more about Sue's work in progress on her blog, Alias Lucy Diamond