Tips for not giving up on your writing



Picture Book Character 'Olivia' by Ian Falconer

The most useful quality you can have as a writer (given a basic amount of talent) is stubbornness, pig-headedness, call it what you will-the insistence against all the evidence that you will produce something worth reading. I'm not sure you can teach that.

I came across this quote in an interview with Phillip Pullman in The Writer's Handbook Guide to Writing for Children  written by Editor Barry Turner.


I've read many books on how to write for children but these few lines resonate with me the most. I wonder how many great writers gave up during the process? Really you could have all the talent in the world but if you're not willing to give it a go, you won't ever know.

The overwhelming disappointment that I felt after receiving a rejection letter in December, made me doubt my ability. It's taken me until now to realise that yes I was eventually rejected after 12 months of waiting, but I made it to the acquisition meeting. I didn't even know what the acquisition meeting was. I've since learnt that the editor would have prepared considerable work to take to the meeting and gone out on a limb for me. That's huge!  So, I've changed my perception on the whole rejection letter thing and found gratitude in a frustrating moment. 

My 10 tips for not giving up are:

1. Look at how far you've come, not just how far you've got to go.
2. Pause and consider things from all points of view, (e.g timing, finances, etc). 
3. Make a step by step plan.
4. Celebrate your milestones (big or small) and give yourself a pat on the back. 
    Do something for you. 
5. Visualise what it is that you want.
6. Surround yourself with positives and re divert any negative energy/thoughts. 
7. Print out affirmations and stick them in your office, car, etc.
8. Remind yourself of why you even started in the first place.
9. Keep trying. What the worst that could happen?
10. Never give up on you.


Here's another inspirational quote for writers:


You must want to [write] enough. Enough to take all the rejections, enough to pay the price of disappointment and discouragement while you are learning. Like any other artist you must learn your craft—then you can add all the genius you like.

Phyllis A. Whitney

Time For A Change

Do you ever get bored with the look of your blog? Well, you might have noticed that I do. This time I've changed the look because I messed with the html with the last template and I couldn't get rid of an annoying grey line-note to oneself (don't mess with the html).

Sometimes change is forced upon us and although we don't want to change-change can be good. 


Why? Because it's easy to get stuck in a rut and think that we can only do this or that. I know that it's just a blog I'm talking about, but what's your take on change?


Do you like change? Do you hate change? 
Do you change your home furnishing often? Do you eat the same food every day? Do you walk the same path each day? How do you cope with change?


I love this quote:
You can't discover new oceans unless you have the courage to leave the shore. Anonymous

Why write picture books?

Like most writers I have a burning desire to express myself. It's like an itch that demands to be scratched. But why picture books? Why not novels, where I might have the chance to rub shoulders with rich and famous authors like Stephanie Meyer, J K Rowling, and Stephen King? I wish...

Well for me, there are many reasons why I want to write picture books.

I've always loved to write and have a drawer full of journals, poems, and half written picture books. Working as an Early Childhood Teacher, really opened my eyes to picture books and the whole process of sharing this special experience with children.

Writing for children requires a certain amount of delicacy. When you think about it, you are providing children with their first literary experience. For many people, they still remember their favourite picture books when they were growing up. You want to make sure you get it right, and allow children to view reading as a pleasurable experience.

I found reading picture books to a group of children, an amazingly powerful experience as they would watch wide eyed with their mouths gaping wide. They became so engrossed that they'd hang off my every word. I am naturally drawn to writing picture books with my background in education, but I am also very visual and have a great appreciation for art and how the text and illustrations compliment each other.

The picture books I have written nearly always begin with a concept. My main objective is what will the young reader get out of my story and what will make them want to read it again and again. When I'm looking for a concept, I research what hasn't been done before or how can I write a new way of looking at a subject.

Most importantly, I'm trying to write interesting and engaging stories for children whilst still pleasing parents, grandparents, teachers, librarians with a concept that they might be looking for. After all they are the one's buying the books. Children have a certain amount of power to influence their parents book purchases, but until children carry a wallet, purse, or a key card, you really have to look at who is buying the books and why would they choose your picture book over another?

There's no denying that I have chosen a very competitive market. There are so many talented picture book writers, and to make it even harder, some people can write and illustrate. That's an unfair advantage, so what am I going to do? Become better at writing, and know the children's book market inside and out. For me, this requires borrowing up to 40 picture books a week. My approach is even quite child like, if it doesn't grab me in the first few pages, then I put it back. Is the title easy to read? Is the front cover appealing? Is it age appropriate to the age group it is targeted at? Is it easy to follow? Are the situations familiar? Do I feel like turning the page to find out what happens?

It's important not to pick your favourite picture books when you were a child as a model, because times have changed and children are different from twenty or thirty years ago. Children today are exposed to classical music, computer programs, Ds games, educational television programs, big budget movies, and activities that require less attention span. I've even had my eight year old daughter comment on the graphics of a program.

It's not to say you can't use your childhood memories and your favourite books when you were a child for inspiration, but if you try and write about Georgie Porgie, learning manners, and start dictating good behaviour, then you'll find it very difficult to fit into today's children's market.

So, for me picture books are my favourite genre, and if you feel the same, then don't give up studying about writing for children and learning the craft. My best advice would be to find a mentor that has written picture books who can guide you in the process. Writing picture books isn't easy and you may have to redraft your manuscript ten or fifteen times. But it's incredibly rewarding and children will thank you for writing not just a good book, but a book that they will read with mum or dad, cuddle at night, and request until it's memorised word for word.