Aspiring Writers

I recently joined the group on LinkedIn called Aspiring Writers. The person who runs the group had the good idea of running a short story competition, with the deadline of Christmas Eve.

I submitted mine today, with one day to go. It's called 'The Diary of a Taffeta Dress'.

One step forward?

Nicholas got in touch to say he had received our email but couldn't read pdfs as he only has a Blackberry. And 'sorry for the delay but your email went into my spam folder and I've only just seen it'.

Sam emailed him a web link so he could view her illustrations online. Let's see what happens. Hopefully he can click on a link with his Blackberry...

'Provincial Lady' - the original Bridget Jones

Am reading 'The Diary of a Provincial Lady' for the first time. Huge fun. Who would have thought a 'journal' from the 1930s would have been so entertaining and 'laugh-out-loud' funny?

Hmmm. Seem to recall reading book from the 1990s written in similar format and style - which was also written as a weekly column in a publication.

Note to self: Knew Bridget Jones based on Pride and Prejudice but didn't realise was also styled on 'The Diary of a Provincial Lady'. Sheer coincidence or blatant copying?

London Writers' Club

I finally succeed in getting to a meeting of the London Writers' Club. The other two occasions that I'd booked to go, I had to cancel. Anyhow, this time I made it.

The speaker this month was Jessica Ruston who has just had her first novel published. It's a 170,000 word blockbuster called Luxury. What amazed me was that she said it was the first time she'd written anything since she was about 11! She seemed to have no problem in finding an agent or a publisher, so, if she can do it....

I should get my 2010 copy of the Children's Writers' and Illustrators' Yearbook and start to decide who I should send my three picture book texts to. OK, I know I only have two texts at the moment but....

Please sir, do you like what we've done?

It's amazing how the sheer fact of putting work aside for a while (ie several months) can make you very objective when reading it again. I was happy with my second story back in April or May but now I realised it needed a fair bit of work doing to it.

And I could see exactly where I needed to make changes. So I spent time improving it, perfecting it.

And yesterday I sent it off, along with my other story and Sam's two illustrations to our ex-teacher. (See previous post).

We wait with fingers crossed to see whether he will a) reply b) like what we've sent him c) show it to his publisher....

Taking up a one-year-old offer

Over a year ago, a would-be children's illustrator (Sam) and I decided to team up. I'd write the text and she would do some sample illustrations.

We had both been on a course teaching us how to illustrate for children's books. The difference was she could draw and I couldn't.... Anyhow, our teacher had kindly offered to show any illustrations that he thought were good to his publisher. We were hoping that this offer would stretch to text as well.

Time passes quickly, other issues become more pressing (like getting paid work in a recession) and we still hadn't done anything about sending our sample text and images off to our ex-teacher. Anyhow, the other day I received a great illustration from Sam for my Mr Grubble story. It was perfect.

However, I thought it might be an idea to send our ex-teacher two stories and two accompanying illustrations - just in case. Sam had already sent me the illustration for the second story but, not having read my text for about five months or so, it just wasn't ready to send off.

I need to hone it and perfect it and make sure I'm 100% happy with it. I shall make it my 'Task of the Week'....

Time to get writing....

Had supper with some friends the other night who asked: "How are your children's stories coming along?"

"Um, they're not. Well, that's to say I've written two that I think are quite good but all the others need work on them. "

So, it should be pretty easy, shouldn't it, to sit down and polish these picture book texts? I really need to class this as one of my client's copywriting projects and schedule in a set time each week. Otherwise, I know it will never happen.

Writing, what writing?

It's now September and over the summer I've been busy writing.

I've written posts for this blog, posts for my cat's blog and posts for a new business blog I intend to launch later this year. I've also written copy for my clients: websites, brochures, e-mail campaigns and the like. But I haven't written a single word of a children's story.

So I'd better print off the four stories that I thought had something going for them. I'll work on two of them over the weekend.

Can I pull it off?

The course finished at the beginning of July. What had I learned? Well, one thing was definite: I wanted to write picture books.

And there were three rather important things I had discovered about picture books.

1. A lot of picture books are pretty average and I really don't know how they manage to get published
2. A good picture book appears very simple but is deceptively difficult to pull off.
3. The best picture books are very clever, highly entertaining and extremely imaginative.

Mmm, could I turn my ideas into something truly excellent that would interest a publisher? I started the year thinking that this 'writing for children' lark was a piece of cake. I now know differently.

Still, I make a good living by writing marketing copy, so why can't I earn money from writing children's books, too?

Three terms completed

By Easter I felt I was making some headway, at last. So, not wishing to lose that momentum, I enrolled for the summer term. Most of my classmates enrolled again, too. It was great to see them, as we'd built up a real rapport over the course since September.

Listening them read their homework assignments out loud, I realised what a talented, creative group this was. Some of them were laugh-out-loud funny. Surely everyone here deserved to get published?

This term, some story ideas finally came into my head. Hooray! So, over the course of the ten weeks, I wrote several picture book texts. I made little dummies of each one, to ensure they adhered to the structure and format of a picture book. I knew they weren't quite right but, with helpful suggestions from Susie and Alison, I was confident I could produce something that would have potential.

After all, I had the whole summer to perfect them.

New term, new teacher

I decided that what I needed was more practise. So, I enrolled for the spring term. And the good news was, so did most of the others. This time, we had a different teacher who was called Susie.

We were effectively doing the same course again, since it was 10-week syllabus. However, since there were no newbies in the class, Susie was able to help us build on the knowledge we'd gained with Alison.

She was great at suggesting books we should read to see how they tackled the particular subject we were studying that week. She also came up with some really helpful suggestions on how we might improve the stories we had submitted for homework.

As a result, I completely rewrote the story I'd come up with two years previously. Same idea, same characters, but I came at it from a totally new angle. It was still two spreads too long for a picture book, but this was something I'd just have to resolve.

The autumn term

Usually these kind of adult education classes have a high drop-off rate and about half tend to stay the course. Every single one of us made it to the end of term. Now that's quite an achievement. I put it down to having an excellent teacher.

Our teacher, Alison, would introduce a different topic each week, such as point of view, developing a character, convincing dialogue, 'show don't tell' etc etc. She showed us how to write beginnings that would grab the reader's interest, how to sustain this interest, and how to write great endings - preferably with a twist.

But it wasn't just about Alison's teaching. My fellow classmates were important, too. If someone was stuck with a storyline, everyone would chip in with their ideas and suggestions. They were a fun group, too. That's where attending a class wins hands down over a self-study book.

At the end of term, I looked back over the exercises I'd done in class and the homework I'd handed in.

None of it was any good.

I'd learned so much, so how come I hadn't made any progress?

A writer is a person who writes

In September 08, I enrolled on the 'Writing for Children' class run by Hammersmith and Fulham. I suppose I could easily have continued with my various books on 'how to write children's books' and then ploughed my through all the exercises they suggested.

In fact, I did start to do this but it was all very ad hoc. I'd do a bit; I'd put it one side; I'd forget to do any more. No, what I needed was a weekly class and the discipline of a regular homework assignment. After all, a writer is a person who writes. Just like physical exercise, you have to keep your 'writing muscles' in trim if you want to imrpove.

So I bought myself a big A4 spiral bound pad, sharpened my pencils, and took myself off to the first class.

Where have all the bookworms gone?

Having attended the Society of Authors' conference for children's writers, it became all too apparent to me just how hard it is:

1. to find an agent
2. to get published
3. to earn any real money from writing children's books

But, to be honest, it's not the money I'm doing it for. A total bookworm as a child, I know how just much pleasure can be gained from reading. So, if my books can convert just one child to becoming hooked on reading, then I will have succeeded in my mission.

These days, there are too many children who don't give a monkey's about books. They're too intent on texting and on playing computer games. Thank goodness for JK Rowling.

CWIG

Enthused by my evening class, I decided it was time to take my children's writing project off the back burner. So, in August 2008 I headed to Cambridge to the Society of Authors' conference for children's writers and illustrators - CWIG.

This was a brilliant opportunity for me to immerse myself in the world of children's literature for an entire weekend. There was an excellent line up of talks, workshops and discussion panels. I listened to some high-profile children's authors - there were even three past/present children's laureates who had been invited to speak.

I took every opportunity to chat to people at mealtimes and coffee breaks to find out as much as I could from 'real' authors who earned their living by writing for children.

I came away both highly enthused and very dispirited....

An evening class in illustrating children's books

I chose four agents' names and sent off my package in turn to each one. They all rejected my text. By now, it was May 2007.

Somehow my picture book project got put on the back burner. I did nothing further with it until April 2008, when I chanced upon an evening class in Hammersmith: "Illustrating Children's Books". The teacher was the children's author and illustrator, Nicholas Allan.

Maybe this course would get me back on track with my book? And, even though I wasn't an artist, I could surely pick up some useful stuff about illustrated books? The first class of the term started the following evening, so I didn't have much time to enrol. Luckily there were two spaces left.

Everyone on the course - apart from two of us - were people who could draw. They wanted to learn how to apply their skills to illustrating children's books. I knew this class wasn't really for me but I stuck with it because it was fun. And I was learning a great deal about the whole subject of picture books. But, most importantly, Nicholas was a great teacher.

I even did the homework assignments - despite the fact they were pretty feeble compared with everyone else's more talented efforts.

The next step: finding an author's agent

A friend of a friend put me in touch with someone who used to work for a major children's publisher. I've been a marketing copywriter for many years but the publishing world was brand new to me, so she kindly spent an hour answering all my questions and helped me see things with a publisher's marketing and business hat on.

We discussed the possibility of turning my story into a series. "Publishers like series," she said.

This ex-children's publisher - and others - advised me to go down the agent route, because sending in unsolicited manuscripts direct to publishers would mean my work ending up (and unread) on a mountainous slush pile.

The Society of Authors was extremely helpful, as it sent me a list of children's agents. I also bought a copy of the Children's Writers' and Artists' Yearbook and drew up a list of possible agents who specialise in picture books.

My next step was to buy 'The Insider's Guide to Getting Your Book Published' which told me everything I needed to know about getting my submission just right.

I was ready to write my letter and post off my picture book text to the first agent on my list.

Hearing it from the horse's mouth

It was all very well having written something I was proud of, but what would children make of it? After all, my story obviously has to appeal to my target age group. So l asked several friends to read it to their kids.

Luckily, 'what you see is what you get' with children, so at least I knew I'd get an honest opinion. To my relief they all enjoyed it - and they even laughed out loud.

Success! It was time to find a publisher.....

How I embarked on my journey

It all started towards the end of 2006 when I took part in a project which was a collaboration between members of 26 (a writers' group I belong to) and art students from the London College of the Arts.

Each writer was to team up with a student to produce text and illustrations for a children's picture book. The idea was that there would be an exhibition of our work in spring 2007, to which publishers and agents would be invited.

Hooray!!

With great enthusiasm, I bought a number of 'how to write children's books' and pored over the picture books in Waterstone's in Piccadilly.

Then, a great idea came to me and I wrote my story.

But the student I was paired with wanted to focus her efforts on her final year course work, so we didn't really get to the stage of illustrated spreads. Undeterred, I could still find another student who wanted to come into the project slightly late. And, if the worst came to the worst, I could always exhibit the text by itself.

But, the project organisers couldn't find anyone willing to fund the exhibition and the launch party, so the event never happened.

But, I still had my story. There was no way I was going to let it gather dust on my desk or fester away at the back of a drawer.