WRITING FOR CHILDREN
Switch it up!
Don’t play it safe when it comes to writing for children! Make 2023 a year where your writing takes off with these ideas for pushing yourself out of your comfort zone from Amy Sparkes
Writing for children is brilliant fun, and incredibly varied. There are many opportunities to expand your creativity – but how many do we actually take? Do you stretch your creativity or drift back and write the same sort of thing time after time? Do you push your boundaries, or do you play it safe? Here are ten ideas for shaking things up in 2023.
1. Change age group
If you always write for a particular age group, why not try writing for a different one? Sometimes we genuinely love writing for a certain readership, like picture books, or middle-grade, but branching out can reap surprising rewards. Not only may you find you have a great voice and enjoy writing older or younger than you usually write, but it is also a brilliant career strategy. If you’re thinking of pursuing a career in writing for children, being able to write across different age ranges makes you an appealing candidate for an agent because it offers more opportunities. For example, if the picture book market is slow, your agent can send off a chapter book. And publishers like an author who can write across different age groups as their readers can follow the author as they age, which potentially boosts sales.