Learning Craft From Children’s Authors
When researching and writing my first MA Writing for Young People essay, I made two observations: my peers and I were overwhelmed with how to go about it and, through the process, I learned more specific and applicable techniques for the craft of children’s writing than I had from craft manuals. To...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elen Caldecott & Lucy Cuthew
2023-12-01
|
| Series: | Leaf Journal |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://ojs.library.lancs.ac.uk/lj/article/view/102 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | When researching and writing my first MA Writing for Young People essay, I made two observations: my peers and I were overwhelmed with how to go about it and, through the process, I learned more specific and applicable techniques for the craft of children’s writing than I had from craft manuals. To write my essay, I utilised my knowledge of teaching essay structure to teens. I share the process I took to create my Writing for Young People essay in order to illustrate how a scholar can apply the same steps to their own interests. Steps that I discuss include developing a focus question, reading and researching, collating observations and making conclusions, and outlining, drafting, and polishing. Though some of the steps I offer seem obvious, I collect them to support new scholars in efficiently writing an essay and to support them in unlocking a way to learn from children’s authors. Throughout I model from my own essay, sharing the strategies I learned about using animal companions to develop the protagonist in Middle Grade novels. I end with one example of how I have applied what I learned to my current manuscript.
|
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 2753-6920 |