Monday 4 April 2011

WRITING FOR CHILDREN AND TEENAGERS

At the York Festival of Writing I promised to make a version of my notes for each talk available as a free download. Here's the one on Writing for Children and Teenagers. Please respect the copyright note on the document. In fact - *frowns severely* - it would be against the law not to.

Soon, I'll post the notes for my What's Wrong With your Manuscript? talk at the York Festival, too.

I have to say that you'll get a lot more detail and lots of examples of what I'm saying if you actually come to an event! Here are some opportunities:

How to Make a Publisher Say Yes  - Cambridge Wordfest. April 16th

The Secrets of Writing for Children and Teenagers - whole evening in Edinburgh, with opportunity for personal written feedback on your work. June 9th. Hurry - places filling fast! Masses of detail in this workshop and the feedback from my first evening-long one last week was excellent.

And two more June one-hour events are organised, one in London and one in Edinburgh - I am not allowed to give you details yet. Neither is aimed at writing for children, though - the only place you'll get that is the Edinburgh one on June 9th. Please tell anyone you know who might be interested, as I won't be doing many like this - possibly one a year.

I'm happy to tell you that today I signed off the text for Write to be Published. That means that the next time I see it will be when the advance copies arrive in early May. I plan to put some extracts up here and to announce a competition very soon, with the prize of a free critique of your first chapter...

So, go and polish it!

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations, sounds very useful information :O)

M Louise Kelly said...

As someone who attended the Edinburgh 'What's wrong with my manuscript' workshop, I can confirm that it did indeed deserve the wonderful feedback it got.

Nicola's advice on getting your MS ready for publication is invaluable - take any chance you can to get it!

To this end, i'm keen to read what's behind the link you put up and it's coming up as unavailable - Is it just me or is there something wrong with the link?

Cheers, Louise

Nicola Morgan said...

Louise - thank you! re the link, it's odd because someone else said she can't but others say they can get it. I've just reset the link so could you try again?

Shauna said...

Hi Nicola, I've tried the link, both before and after your reset, but it's still coming up unavailable.

Really looking forward to seeing the 'What's Wrong with your Manuscript' notes.

Keep up the great work.

Ian Skidmore said...

I'm also having problems accessing the document, so not just you, Louise...

Nicola, I'm trying this after your 11.01 reply, and I still can't get to see the document. Google seems to want only those of us with GMail accounts to get access, but then when I sign in with my details I'm told I don't have permission to view the document...

Ian

Nicola Morgan said...

Gah. Bloody technology. Could you try again, please? I've now set it as "available to anyone on the internet" whereas before it was "available to anyone with the link", though both said no need to sign in.

Hope it works now.

Ian Skidmore said...

Hi Nicola

All working now - thanks (very useful / informative)

Ian

Anonymous said...

I'm afraid the links still aren't working for me.

Nicola, will you be doing any events at the Edinburgh Book Festival this year?

Bitterroot Mama said...

Thanks for sharing your notes about writing for children. Very helpful. I'm looking forward to your full-length book about publishing as well.

Beth Kemp said...

Thank you for this - very generous! I'm looking forward to seeing you in Cambridge. "What's wrong with my manuscript" isn't a link for me; I can't click on it at all.

Nicola Morgan said...

beth - it's not a link because I haven't put those notes up yet! I look forward to seeing you in Cambridge - do spread the word, as I am trying to impress and please the Director by getting a good audience! Actually, she's told me she's delighted with ticket sales so far but a full house would be ace - she's shown faith by giving me one of the larger venues. ;)

Helen - I hope so. The EBF don't allow us to say, though. Grr. But i will definitely be doing something in Edinburgh, even if not for the EBF. I can't say any more!

Bitteroot Mama - thank you.

Ian - good!

M Louise Kelly said...

Thanks for getting the link working again. And the tips are spot on - as per usual.

Anonymous said...

Great! I've been to a couple of your events in the past and I'd recommend them to anyone. You pack a huge amount of information into a short space of time.

Inkpen said...

The bit about going easy on the descriptive passages always interests me - not that I disagree, but I wonder what it is that has changed in the past fifty years? Children such as me in the 1960s/70s read, for example, Rosemary Sutcliff - yet now when I read her books to my son, I find myself editing some of the descriptive passages to fit his pace. I remember enjoying those details, but is my memory at fault? Was I just skimming description as a child reader - or has reading style changed?

Nicola Morgan said...

Inkpen - that's something that I think/wonder/worry about, too. A few years ago, when i was writing the Highwayman's Footsteps, I went back to one of my favourite books from my youth - The Black Tulip by Dumas - and found the sentences far too unwieldy and stodgy and indirect. I do think we're more impatient nowadays, more hurried, and I do think writing style has changed, but whether that is cause or effect I don't know.