Writing for Children
Do you want to learn how to write for children? The Institute of Children's Literature has taught hundreds of thousands of aspiring writers, and the director of ICL is the host of Writing for Children. Bestselling children's author Katie Davis focuses on the craft of writing for children: how to write a children’s book, how to write for children’s magazines, how to get paid, and get published. There are listener questions, with answers from the experts at the Institute, plus hard-to-find resources and links included in every week's show notes. If you want to learn about how to get into children's publishing, Listen!
- Update frequency
- every 7 days
- Average duration
- 15 minutes
- Episodes
- 100
- Years Active
- 2019 - 2021
Guest Expert Pascale Duguay | Writing for Children 164
GUEST EXPERT PASCALE DUGUAY
Pascale Duguay is a freelance writer, French/English translator, and high school librarian. Her freelance writing includes articles on books, writing, personal essays, chi…
What to Expect From a Writing Conference Pt 2 | Writing for Children 163
WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU'RE EXPECTING TO GO TO A WRITING CONFERENCE PART 2
In last week's episode, we talked about how to choose the conference you want to go to. This week, we'll touch on what to exp…
What to Expect When You're Expecting to Go to a Writing Conference Pt 1 | Writing for Children 162
WHAT TO EXPECT FROM A WRITING CONFERENCE PART 1
Many people sign up for writing conferences hoping they’ll send a manuscript home with an editor, or even better, be offered a contract right there at …
Protecting Your Reputation on Social Media | Writing for Children 161
PROTECTING YOUR REPUTATION
Whether we like it or not, social media is a part of our current culture. Just like most things in life, social media can have amazing benefits for writers. There are autho…
Interview with David Katz | Writing for Children 160
GUEST EXPERT DAVID KATZ
The producer of the Kauai Writers Conference gives tips for attending conferences and the benefits writers get by involved in face-to-face sessions with authors, agents, and e…
34 Things Your Website Needs Part 2 | Writing for Children 159
34 THINGS YOU NEED FOR YOUR WEBSITE PART 2
In last week's episode, we talked about the first 17 things you need for your author websites. Part 2 brings us the next 17 things including social media, y…
34 Things Your Website Needs Part 1 | Writing for Children 158
34 THINGS YOU NEED FOR YOUR WEBSITE PART 1
Author websites are important in 21st century publishing. Consider your website your business card to the world. So, what should be on your website? Listen …
Create Your Author Platform | Writing for Children 157
CREATE YOUR AUTHOR PLATFORM
What IS a platform? It’s your visibility. The wider your reach, the more books you can sell. What you do with your platform is try to reach (in an authentic way) your targ…
Interview with Josh Funk | Writing for Children 156
INTERVIEW WITH JOSH FUNK
Josh Funk writes silly stories and somehow tricks people into publishing them as books—such as the Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast series and How to Code a Sandcastle. Josh i…
Is it a Memoir or Autobiography? | Writing for Children 155
MEMOIR OR BIOGRAPHY?
One of the most common ways to take real life experiences and turn them into stories or books is to tell the stories of our own life. In this episode, we talk about the differenc…
Being Inspired by Everyday Objects | Writing for Children 154
BEING INSPIRED BY EVERYDAY OBJECTS
It's human nature to become attached to things. We connect specific memories to objects: when we received it, who we received it from, how we've used it. Also, obje…
Creating Charaters Inspired by Real Life | Writing for Children 153
CREATING CHARACTERS INSPIRED BY REAL LIFE
One way to find great characters is to look in the world around you. This seems relatively simple but may actually be harder than it sounds. Why? Because the…
An Interview with Jerry Craft | Writing for Children 152
AN INTERVIEW WITH JERRY CRAFT
JERRY CRAFT is an author and illustrator who has worked on numerous picture books, graphic novels, and middle grade novels. His newest book, New Kid, is a middle grade g…
Sophisticated Show & Tell Part 2 | Writing for Children 151
POINT OF VIEW AS A TOOL
This and last week’s podcast is based on an article written by author and former ICL instructor Chris Eboch which touches on engaging your reader and gives some strong example…
Sophisticated Show & Tell Part 1 | Writing for Children 150
CONVEY THE WORLD OF YOUR STORY
An important part of setting the stage for your story is to convey the world of your story in a way that engages the reader and doesn’t just dump a bunch of facts in th…
Set Up Your Plot | Writing for Children 149
GIVE YOUR CHARACTERS SOMETHING TO DO
Summed up to its essential core, a plot is the result of applying pressure to a character to the degree that the character must act in reaction to the pressure. T…
What Goes Into Effective Description | Writing for Children 148
HOW TO EVOKE DETAIL IN YOUR WRITING
Today we’re talking about the art of description. This episode is inspired by Assignment 3 in the Writing for Children and Teens course. We’re going to focus on ev…
An Interview with Emma D. Dryden | Writing for Children 147
AN INTERVIEW WITH EMMA D. DRYDEN
Emma D. Dryden founded drydenbks LLC (www.drydenbks.com), a premiere children’s editorial & publishing consultancy firm, after 25 years experience as editor and publi…
9 Tips to Keep You Unstuck | Writing for Children 146
PROCRASTINATION IS A SELF-FULFILLING CYCLE
When we first took over the Institute for Writers, I wanted to help our community of writers—our students—so I polled them and asked, "What do you think the…
Try Something Scary | Writing for Children 145
WRITING OFF THE BEATEN PATH
Today, publishing is a massive world of opportunity with options far beyond what we tend to consider. Some writers maintain a narrow view of publishing throughout their ca…