At Writers & Artists our job is to bridge the gap between you – the as-yet unpublished author – and industry experts, providing the sort of knowledge, know-how and context you need in order to take your book to the next level. With these core principles in mind, Alysoun Owen, editor of the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook and the Children’s Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook, has curated a special set of practical evening sessions dedicated to one of the most exciting, competitive and rapidly evolving areas of the publishing landscape: writing fiction for children and young adults.
"In my role as editor, reader and parent, I am passionate that the very best writing for children gets published.
One of the greatest pleasures of editing the Children’s Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook is the contact I have with so many supremely talented writers and illustrators. Between them they offer advice and inspiring dedication to their craft. Being able to provide such expertise in even more direct ways too is something Writers & Artists is keen to do. For several years we have run sell-out one-day conferences dedicated to children’s writing. Our new six-week course is an extension of such events and is in direct response to feedback we have received over the years: our delegates, in short, are asking for more: more time with authors and experts, more feedback and more time spent with their peers in a creative environment.
In developing this short course, I was keen to focus on all forms of chapter-based narrative fiction for children of all ages – covering books for six-year-olds through to manuscripts for young adults – with the core ingredients being all that's needed to create a convincing and absorbing story that will make your plot and characters jump off the page.
Each week, I will be joined by award-winning authors and publishing insiders. Sections of your work will be critiqued, there'll be writing exercises and heaps of advice on how to improve and edit your manuscript. We will be looking at the key elements of any story: the three structural Ps: planning, pace, and plot PLUS considering how character and dialogue contribute to a convincing narrative.
We will help you to structure your brilliant ideas, themes and content into a story that keeps the reader hooked from start to finish.
I look forward to welcoming all writers able to attend to our Bedford Square offices for what promises to be a set of exciting, creative sessions. All I ask is you come armed with your ideas, scripts and a sharpened pencil!"
Find out more about the course structure and reserve your place here
Hi Dennis,
Excellent point. We've decided to focus this particular course on the writing process first and foremost, but I do know that other events scheduled for later this year/early this year will home in on the nuts and bolts of the publishing process and how authors can do what they can to reach a wider audience through blogs/social media. Our masterclass with Clare Mackintosh (Never Let You Go) that we held in January of this year, for example, was really warmly received and dedicated to how writers can begin to build an author platform before they get published. Hopefully we can host something like that again in the not-so-distant future, so keep your eyes on the newsletter/events page!
Alysoun, I attended one of these courses a while back and I have to say I would recommend them to a range of authors. If you are starting out and you need some advice or if you have already published and just need some revitalising, these courses are very well thought out and are inspirational. I would also add one aspect which does need tackling or at least mentioning. That is developing an author's social media profile and the marketing of it. I experienced the sudden withdrawal of my publisher's marketing effort which was devastating. Although in my case it prompted a change of tack to start up mybookchain, which links a writer's social media to readers, it would have been better to be told in stark terms that a writer needs to be aware that they must do their own marketing.The fun is creating, but the grind of getting it out there is, I am afraid, equally necessary.