Writing for Children

Posted by Helen Brain

I've just reread Margaret Craven's novel, 'I heard the Owl call my name.' I last read it 25 years ago, where I read it in one sitting. I finished this reading yesterday and turned the book over and started again.

It has particular meaning for me right now, as my husband who is an Anglican priest, has just been diagnosed with cancer. But it's more than that.

Craven wanted to write a novel all her life, but stuck to short stories for magazines for almost all her career until, in her sixties, she heard about the plight of the village of Kingcome and wrote the novel in response to the dying of the village and traditional way of life of the indigenous people.

The book is flawed; it's sentimental and would have been improved if the editor had put a red pen through every use of the word 'lovely'. It's too short too, at around 45 000 words. If she'd taken another 15 000 words to develop the characters as well as she has described the surroundings it would have been meatier. But as a treatise on the art of dying gracefully it's unbeatable.

Because of the length and writing style I'm inclined to classify it as a teen novel.

Her next novel was not nearly as successful. It's interesting that she was a one book writer. But she waited to write her novel until she really had something to say to her readers, and although its not great technically, it touched hearts, and because of that made it to the top of the bestseller lists.

Posted by Helen Brain

I've been watching American Idols with great enthusiasm. Here in South Africa we're a bit behind the rest of the world, so on Tuesday Amanda the rock chick went home.

The teenagers I teach all like Ramiele, and it must be the teenage vote that's keeping her in the system. But what is clear is that you have to have a strong personality that grips people, and even if technically you're not as adept as other contestants, you can still make it because viewers feel drawn to you.

I'll be posting an article later this week on finding your voice in writing. It's just as important in writing if you want to be successful as it is in the music world.

Meanwhile, I looked on the website and saw that MY BOY, Michael Johns is going to leave the show. Now there is a huge star in the making. He's got personality and he can sing. His version of Bohemian Rhapsody was fabulous.

So like writing, when you are eliminated, or your book doesn't win a competition, its not the end of the road. Just a little setback in a long long career.

Posted by Helen Brain

Last September a friend wrote that her husband had brought in a bulldozer to remove a huge clump of bamboo from their garden. It left behind a swimming pool sized hole and the seven year old twins were playing pirates in it.

In my head I saw a plank balanced across it, and the twins 'walking the plank.'

I started a story about them, and sent a chapter a day. It starred the family - Will and Joe, the intrepid pirate lads, Saucy Sal, their mother, and their dad, Richard, became Cap'n Dick.

Every day they begged for the next chapter, and 27 chapters later the wild fantasy adventure story was done.

My publisher liked it, and added it to her list for the year, so it was back to the computer to do the rewrite. She saw it as the first in a series, so I had to make sure that I'd laid the foundations for more stories and created very clear characters with long term motivations.

Rewriting wasn't nearly as much fun. There were no eager little boys hanging on every word. I had to examine the fantasy world from every angle, making sure the ends tied up and that it made 'sense.' I had to cut my 'darlings,' which is always horrible.

But last night the fourth draft was finished. It's gone now, to the editor, translator and illustrator and I won't see it again until the first page proofs.

But what a lovely feeling... to wave it goodbye.

Posted by Helen Brain

I love Margaret Mahy. Her picture book, 'The Man whose Mother Was a Pirate' is my second favourite of all time. She's written more about pirates in 'The Great Pirate Rumbustification'.

Not only does she have a completely whacky imagination, she also plays with words, inventing new ones, putting the most unexpected ones together, creating a second layer of story. She's particularly clever because young children love to play with language, and her touch is light and witty.

The biography by Tessa Duder (Margaret Mahy: A Writer's Life; Harper Collins 2005) is a great book if you want to know more about this engaging and unconventional New Zealand writer.

My latest article looks at how she found her inspiration for one of her picture books. You can also read about what writers can learn from her.

Posted by Helen Brain

I'm about a fifth of the way through the rewrite of my new book, The Fabulous Phibeas Finn. I've found it incredibly hard to get into this rewrite, partly because I had so much fun writing the first draft that I'm afraid of spoiling the magic.

But the editor is gnashing her teeth and growling, the illustrator is about to start work, and I have to finish by mid April so it can go to the Afrikaans translator.

The rewrite involves cutting the superfluous material, and expanding what has been understated. And 'decorating' the story.

I needed a title for a recipe book. When I was a kid my mother cooked from a book called 366 Cakes Puddings and Desserts. (Those were the days when mothers made a dessert every night).

I thought of using that, but then I found Donna Diegel's Delicious recipes in Baking.

Her name is so delectable and Donna Diegel's Delicious Desserts has a lovely ring to it, so its gone in, with her permission of course. And as she says, when the book comes out there'll be cupcakes all round.

Posted by Helen Brain

So when do you know if you are a writer?

When can you truly call yourself a writer without worrying that people will think you're a pretentious upstart?

A wise nun witch woman once told me, when I was first starting out, that I was a writer because she told me I was. That she was passing the baton on to me.

I didn't really buy that, although it was a flattering and comforting concept.

Purists would say you're a writer when you've been published.

But the world is full of fantastic writers who have never been published, who scribble away in notebooks and on computers, piling up manuscripts or fragments of manuscripts written in a voice that is uniquely their's. In my book they're writers. A person who has published a book is an Author.

I think a writer is a person whose primary way of expressing themselves is through words.

Personally, I know I'm a writer because I am addicted to the process of capturing the journeys of my imagination on paper. I feel most alive, and most engaged with myself when I am writing.

I also enjoy other creative processes, like making handmade books, mosaic and cooking. But it is writing that I turn to first when I have something to express. And that's why I call myself a writer.