Children's Novel Writing for Beginners

We are all storytellers, and through children’s novel writing you can dive into your own memories and explore your senses to create a captivating narrative. Lisa Thompson is a professional children’s author and writer of the best-selling book The Goldfish Boy, among others. She has been nominated for numerous awards including the Carnegie Medal and the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize. She also gives talks and workshops at book festivals and schools.

In this course, Lisa teaches you how to tap in your surroundings, and evoke memories in order to make your stories realistic and vivid for your readers. Learn how to gather ideas and inspiration, establish your main character, connect to your audience, and share your work with the world. Are you ready to spark the imagination of young readers?

Begin by getting to know author Lisa Thompson. She discusses how she became a full-time professional writer, what she loves about writing, and the books and films that have influenced her writing career..

Explore your writing materials and begin gathering ideas. Lisa walks you through the equipment she uses at different stages of the writing process, such as a notebook, a timer, Microsoft Word, coloured pens and a phonebook. She explains how she comes up with the concepts for her books and how to put together your own ‘treasure box’ of ideas. Learn how to use your own memories and surroundings to form a realistic and vibrant story. Then, begin planning the structure of your story by outlining key moments and character details.

Understand how to connect with an audience of young readers by observing how children speak and act. Then learn which elements to avoid to make your story relevant in the future. Create your main character and write a dialogue between them and another individual to establish personality. Learn to ‘show not tell’ in your writing, allowing your reader to fill in the gaps. Then, Lisa shares her best practices for creating the best writing environment, making a mood board, and advice on completing your first draft.

Hear Lisa’s tips on editing your work, and how to share it with the right readers, including finding an editing partner or a writing group. End the course by delving into how and where to take your work forward, from self-publishing to finding an agent.

Write a short fiction story for a young audience using your own memories to make the narrative more realistic and vibrant.

This course is for anyone who wants to try writing a story for young readers.

No previous experience is required.

In terms of materials, all you need is something to write with, this can be pen and paper or if you want to write digitally you’ll need access to word processing software.