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.