Writing Lessons from Margaret Mahy
Four Tips from a World Famous Author of Books for Kids
2006 Hans Christian Anderson award winner, Margaret Mahy, has the following sound advice to aspiring writers: Be Persistent! Work Hard! Be Tough! And Read! Read! Read!
If anyone knows about hard work and persistence, it is New Zealand children's writer Margaret Mahy.
How did she go about learning the craft, and what advice does she have for new writers of children's books?
Learn the Craft of Writing
“Most authors teach themselves to write the sort of stories they want to write,’ she says in an interview with Christchurch City Libraries. “It can be useful to go on courses, or to weekend schools, but mostly writers learn by writing stories, making mistakes, recognising what the mistakes are and never making them again.”
Her first published story appeared in the School Journal, published by the New Zealand Education Department for free distribution in schools.
Work Hard
A single mother, she worked for many years for the Schools Library Service in New Zealand. Supremely disciplined, Mahy wrote relentlessly, late at night after her children were in bed. She was famous for being so tired that she fell asleep standing up, and more alarmingly, while driving home after work.
“I love being a writer,” she says, “but I do think I work very hard at what I do, so don't think of being a writer if you imagine it is an easy way of making a living.”
Be Tough
“You need to be tough, because most writers get stories turned down, particularly in the beginning, and you must not let yourself become too discouraged.”
Through these early years Mahy lived in a very simple house overlooking the sea, with very few mod cons. Part of her success can be put down to the fact that she did not try to publish too early, but wrote until she had developed her voice into something entirely unique.
Be Persistent
"Be persistent," advises Mahy. She wrote continuously for fifteen years before an American publishing house found one of her stories in the journal, and wrote to ask if she had any more. She had a trunk filled with over a hundred, and they bought every one. Her first commercially published book, ‘The Lion in the Meadow’ was an instant success, and is still selling today.
Read Read Read
“I do know writers who don't read much, partly because they are frightened of somehow copying stories they are currently reading. However, I think most true writers are so interested in their own ideas they can't be bothered copying anyone else's, so personally, I think reading lots and lots of books is always a good thing," she says.
Read more about Margaret Mahy in the excellent biography “Margaret Mahy a writer’s life” by Tessa Duder. (Harper Collins 2005)
