Writing Fiction for Children: STORIES ONLY YOU CAN TELL

Writing Fiction for Children: STORIES ONLY YOU CAN TELL





Whether you're nurturing your first idea for a children's book or have a published book or two under your belt, Judy K. Morris will delight you, guide and inspire you, challenge and encourage you, and improve your chances of reaching the ultimate goal of every children's book author: your reader inside your story and your story inside your reader.

A published author of both fiction and nonfiction for children, Morris draws on extensive experience teaching children how to write and teaching adults how to write for children. Here she combines concrete methods and step-by-step techniques with succinct rules of thumb: work at making your novel whole from the start; never underestimate the power of the plain truth; personality quirks are no substitute for character; doing a good job of writing usually means doing a good job of rewriting.

Using judiciously chosen examples from successful children's literature, Writing Fiction for Children covers the building blocks of plot, characters, and setting and addresses common problems such as awkward plotting, oversimplifying, and taking a preachy or self-conscious tone. Pragmatic exercises stimulate writers to scour their experiences, sharpen their powers of observation, and capture the details, voice, and narrative energy that can bring stories vividly to life and keep readers submerged in make-believe. Loaded with practical advice and helpful exercises, Writing Fiction for Children is especially useful for anyone who aspires to write for children in the "middle ages" of eight to twelve.

Children's books should be hopeful, thrilling, funny, interesting, touching, and a pleasure to read, Morris says. Above all, they must have something at stake that matters. While conceding that only the author can provide the spark of a story to tell, Morris offers invaluable guidance on the daily work of crafting, shaping, refining, revising, and publishing a children's novel."Writing for children," says Judy K. Morris in Writing Fiction for Children, "means, above all, having a lively story to tell and an active central character to help tell it." Preachy tales are deadly, Morris says. That's why "some of the best-told stories grow out of parents' entertainment for their own children." Though Morris's book is geared toward the writing of fiction for 8- to 12-year-olds, her sensible, intelligent advice applies to the writing of books for younger and older readers as well. As children's lives become more circumscribed, Morris considers it increasingly important for children's authors "to help children imagine moving out of their constricted lives to make real choices and take effective actions." Morris helps by offering longer discussions about good children's fiction, shorter tidbits ("in writing, as in life, it's often necessary to shore up one's sagging middle"), and stimulating exercises. And if you get bogged down along the way, remember your goal: "A child, comfy in a chair, curled around your book and sinking into your story." --Jane Steinberg









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