For all that this blog is called ‘Sally Murphy’s Writing for Children Blog’, it has been a while since I said much about how to actually write for children. So, I figure it’s time to remedy that and, today, I am starting a new very casual feature called ‘Write for Kids 101’. This will a series of hopefully brief lessons aimed at beginning writers about the art and business of writing for children.

So, on to Lesson 1.

You would like to write for children. Maybe you can imagine your name on the front cover of a beautiful, full colour picture book. Or you’d like to be the next J. K Rowling, Jackie French or Enid Blyton. You might have less lofty aims and be happy just to see one of your children’s poems in a magazine one day. Whatever your desired end point, the starting point is the same. If you would like to write for children: read.

That’s right. Read. Far more important than writing every day is reading every day. Every day. Did I say every day? I cannot emphasise enough the importance of reading. Every day.

If you want to write for children and write well, you must read children’s books, and the majority of them should be new release children’s books. Sure, you can revisit the favourite books of your childhood, or of your children’s childhood, but is vital that you read what is being published right now.

Reading new release books gives you a wonderful insight into what does and doesn’t work in children’s books. Reading a good book can inspire you, and show you how a good story is structured, how the language is woven, how characters are developed, how the text and the illustration interplay. Reading a not-so-good book can also help – showing you what doesn’t work, and leading you to ponder why it doesn’t work.

Reading can also give you an insight into what kinds of books are being published, and by whom, so that when you are eventually ready to submit your own manuscripts, you have a good idea of which publishers may be interested in your work.

But, new writers say to me, I haven’t got time to read books. I’m a busy person.

Tough. If you haven’t got time to be a reader, then you don’t have time to be a writer. Read on the train to work. Read to your children or grandchildren. Give up the tired old soap opera/current affairs program/sportscast you watch every Wednesday night. You must make time to read.

Others tell me they don’t read because they are scared of absorbing the style or ideas of other writers. Don’t panic. Reading good writing will influence the way you write. But the more you read and the more you write the less of a problem that will be – your own style will begin to emerge.

In every profession, those who reach the top have had, at some point along the way, to observe how others practice their craft. Aspiring sportspeople watch and study the techniques of champions in their sport. Aspiring lawyers study notable examples of legal cases. Doctors watch fellow surgeons operate in order to see how it is done. Trainee teachers spend time in the classroom watching experienced teachers. So, if you want to be a writer, you need to watch how other writers do it, and the best way to do this is to read their books.

If you don’t have a children’s book on the go right now, you need to head off to your local library or bookstore NOW and get one.

Have fun.