Writing for Children

Are you interested in writing for children? This article offers some tips for getting started in this field.

1) Buy 2008 Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market. This is an indispensible addition to your library if you want to write for children. In it you'll find a wealth of tips for getting started, along with a comprehensive list of places to submit your work.

2) Study published children’s' writing. Whether you are interested in writing for children's magazines or children's books, spend time studying what is being published today. As you study what is being published, you'll be able to narrow down whether your interest is in fiction or non-fiction, as well as what age range most appeals to you.

3) Write every day. More than likely, you will not sit down and write a bestseller. In fact, probably a lot of garbage needs to flow through your pen or keyboard before you start to get to the good stuff. No one expects to play at Carnegie Hall the first time they sit down at the piano. Why do people think they can perfect writing without practicing?

4) Submit your best work. There's a good chance your early efforts will meet with rejection. But you have to get in the habit of completing a manuscript, polishing it and sending it out. If it comes back, send it out again. In the mean time, keep writing.

5) Don't give up. Most writers can wallpaper their walls with the rejection slips they've received, including people like Dr. Seuss and J.K. Rowling. A rejection slip isn't a rejection of you personally, or even of your work in general. It means a particular human being (capable of errors in judgment) chose not to accept a particular work on a particular day.You also have to maintain a thick skin in the face of well-meaning friends and relatives telling you that you are not going to make it. I say life is too short not to pursue your dreams.

Phyllis A. Whitney, best-selling author of more than thirty juvenile novels said in the book Writing Juvenile Stories and Novels: How to Write and Sell Fiction for Young Peoplethat when she was asked what was the secret to being a successful writer, here was her response:

"You must want to enough...that is the only secret there is."

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