ONLINE COURSE IN CHILDREN'S WRITING - SHORT COURSE - DISTANCE LEARNING
Writing for children is one of the most challenging disciplines an author can choose. Learn to write for the most imaginative and creative audience that you will ever face.
Gain skills in writing fiction and non fiction for children, improve your understanding of children and their development, improve your writing skills and learn from an experienced author.
Learn with our award winning tutor Robert N Stephenson,
Be supported by us as you learn
Have access to your course 24/7
Upload your assignments online
Study at your own pace
Become the writer you've always dreamed about!!
Read a sample from Lesson 1 here
Attractive discounts apply for multiple course pathways [see our 'discounts and payment plan' page] Please feel free to contact a consultant for advice on the best combination of courses to achieve your goals: info@careerlinecourses.com or phone +61755368783 or within Australia 1300 172882
"Yes definitely. I had no idea how to go about writing a story before the course, now I have a better idea of what is involved, and a bit more experience." - Lana Piercy, Careerline Student
Lessons
There are 10 lessons in this course:
- Introduction
- Understanding Children
- Children's thoughts
- Children's needs
- Child development.
- Overview of Children’s Writing
- Categories (fiction & non fiction)
- Understanding the market place
- Analyse and understand what is needed for the different categories, etc.
- Conceptualisation: Conceiving a concept
- Where & how to find inspiration/influence.
- Developing a concept
- How to plan.
- Children’s Writing for Periodicals
- Children’s pages in magazines
- Newspapers, etc.
- Short Stories
- Non-Fiction
- Texts (writing to satisfy curriculum).
- Other (eg. nature, history, biography, hobbies).
- Fiction
- Settings
- Characterisation
- Fantasy
- Science fiction
- Adventure.
- Picture Books and Story Books
- Editing your work
- Grammar
- Spelling & punctuation
- Improving clarity
- Cleaning out clutter
- Expansions.
- Project
- Write a short story, picture book or kids page for a (hypothetical) periodical.
Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.
Aims
- Describe children’s cognitive development and target writing to be appropriate to various developmental stages.
- Explain the nature and scope of writing for children.
- Describe the process of planning a written manuscript of children’s writing.
- Describe the planning and processes involved in writing articles for children’s magazines.
- Develop a short story for children to read.
- Discuss the specific requirements associated with writing children’s non-fiction
- Describe the various categories of children’s fiction and the writing processes involved.
- Explain the scope and nature of literature aimed at young children.
- Explain the scope and significance of editing skills and processes for children’s writing.
- Plan, evaluate, edit and present a piece of writing for children
What is Writing for Children...?
Children’s writing is a specialised craft. It is a rewarding, inspirational and often demanding branch of writing and it seems that there is a growing market for children’s books. Because we have all been children, and because children’s books often appear so simple, many would-be writers believe that writing for children is easier than writing for adults. This is not the case, for children are as choosy as what they read as any adult, maybe even more so, and will quickly put down a book that does not immediately hold their interest. Adult readers, on the contrary, are often more willing to wade through a couple of unexciting chapters before they decide that a story is not worth reading. Another point is that while many of us recall our childhoods and enjoy reminiscing about them, not many of us can write in ways that are relevant or appealing to children.
The fact is that there is no golden rule for children’s writing. Many successful writers of children’s stories and books succeed because they have developed sensitivity to children’s needs and developed their ability to write well. Others succeed because they write well, even though they are not particularly sensitive to children or their needs. In other words, you do not have to have or even like children to write good books or stories that children will want to read. But you do have to write well, and that can take a lot of hard work.
If one can be a successful children’s writer without understanding children, why bother trying to understand them. There are two main reasons: the most obvious reason is that it can’t hurt and it might help; the second is that in some situations, understanding children’s abilities and requirements is important. Let’s say that you are a fairly good writer, but not exceptional. In that case, your understanding of children’s abilities and needs can help you tailor your writing to a specific target audience (say, pre-school children). On the other hand, if you want to write a text book or children’s information column for a newspaper, your understanding of children’s needs, abilities and concerns can help you choose and present information appropriate to the targeted audience. An understanding of child psychology can also help you create more believable, interesting, unique child characters and a more credible, realistic context for their motivations: in other words, create characters whose motives and behaviours are credible and not stereotypic or shallow.
