2 Easy Courses on Writing For Children Helped Me Publish

Learning to Write for Children

This pic gives a late summer view from University Avenue. I wanted to take a picture before the trees lose their leaves and the flowers get frosted. North of Toronto, the colors are already out. Time always rushes through fall, as if the sky is anxious to blanket us in snow.

For me fall is about energy. It’s time for new beginnings and exciting projects. I could start with the two canvas bags of books and magazines I brought home from Word on the Street! It may take a while. I feel so greedy, and so lucky.

On Thursday I begin Peter Carver’s class on writing for children. I adored his beginner class last year which was was inspiring, yet low key. This time it’s the advanced class: workshop format, writers who are more experienced.

Peter Carver is an editor with Red Deer Press. I was extremely impressed with his work on Mosh Pit, by Kristyn Dunion. (It’s a raw, teen book about coming of age and coming out of the closet with punk sensibilities). There wasn’t a wasted word in the whole manuscript. The character voices of Simone and Cherry are dead-on for dialogue and interior monologue.

Who, me n-n-n-nervous?

Update for 2023

There was no need for nervousness. Peter Carver was an inspiring and supportive teacher (who has since retired) but I learned a lot in his advanced class. There were rituals, such as the evening tea break, and it was a treat to learn at Mabel’s Fables, a fantastic children’s bookstore in Toronto. Fortunately, another talented instructor continues the tradition.

Ted Staunton, a veteran of over 40 kids’ books continues to teach Writing for Children through George Brown College. In some ways, the workshop format of this class is the same as writing courses for mainstream fiction. Writers bring copies of a story for critiquing by the group, with the instructor’s voice having a special weight in the process because of his expertise.

Since taking Writing for Children, I have gone on to publish two children’s chapter books, so I guess you could say it paid off.

For more information, visit Apricot Banks, the pen name for my children’s fiction.