how to – Jude O'Reilly

When my two boys read a book these days, I quite often read the first one if it is part of a series. It got me thinking about how to write a children’s book, so I broke apart a few. As anyone with any sense who has tried to write anything longer than a shopping list knows – there is no formula for writing a great book. No way to replicate on the page sheer bleeding genius, inspiration, creativity and craft. Having said that …. I offer this back-of-an-envelope deconstruction as an aide to anyone out there thinking of writing children’s books. It comes with a skull and crossbones warning. Yes I have written a book – infact I have written three now (one is in print, one is in a drawer and the third I’ll tell you about some other time). But I have never, repeat never written a children’s book therefore I do not know what I am talking about. Still, that doesn’t usually stop me so for anyone with an interest in writing for children, here is a deconstruction of six great books/series. These are merely observations. This is not a recipe. Do not knock on my door and shout loudly at me if you follow it and your cake fails to rise.

I looked at the following books/series.(Apologies in advance to the brilliant authors involved – no disrespect is intended.)

Harry Potter by JK Rowling (because I don’t think you are allowed to write about children’s books without writing about Harry Potter)
Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan
Alex Ryder by Anthony Horowitz
Laura Marlin by Lauren St John
His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman
The Bible, more specifically the New Testament(bear with me on this.)

They have these features in common:

a central character who is an orphan, apparent orphan, or missing at least one parent
a natural mother, or if orphaned, they have a maternal-type figure in their lives (eg Mrs Weasley in the Potter books).
a mentor (eg Chiron in Percy Jackson)
an alternative parenting figure who sometimes doubles up as a mentor (Laura’s uncle, Joseph, Lee Scoresby)
best friends (eg the Apostles in the Bible)
special powers eg magic, spying, detective, miracles, cleverness
a training period (courtesy of the secret service, in school/half-blood camp, the Wilderness,)
a Saviour role (saving the world, saving other children, saving mankind)
a battle between good and evil (vs. Kronos and monsters, Scorpia, bad guys, Satan)
hero is percieved not to play by the rules – for which trait they are punished – (expelled from school, ostracised, crucified)
the hero is percieved to be in the wrong
the hero acquires equipment/weapons (wand, sword, techhy equipment, a golden compass)
half-and half mix somewhere (half-spy/half-boy, son of God and Man, good father – evil mother, child/daemon)
at least one parent has unusual powers (eg magic, father(figures)are gods/wizards/spies/detectives)
mystery surrounds at least one parent(there is also revelation) (eg how did parents die, exactly who is the father/mother figure)
very powerful villain (Mrs Coulter, the Devil, Voldemort, head of Scorpia)
adventures feature a world within a world (which ordinary people have no firsthand knowledge of)(eg a world of shadows, an alternative universe, Heaven/Hell, wizarding, gods/demi-gods)
in truth/in discovery there is goodness
the hero is on a quest (for a philospopher’s stone, salvation for humankind, to find the children taken by gobblers)
the hero is prepared to sacrifice their own life

Interesting how the New Testament fits the template, or perhaps the New Testament is the template and it has seeped into our culture to shape the minds of our children? Now there’s a thought. Anyway there you go. Be sure and let me know if it helps you write a book.

How to give good memoir (otherwise known as Top tips for memoir writing.)

*get a life. You cannot write a memoir unless you live an interesting life. Live it. Live it the best way you can. Try to fit the writing around it. If you spend all your time writing about your life, life will be dull and your writing will be duller.
*find yourself fascinating. This one is hard because – best will in the world – the kind of people who find themselves fascinating tend to be the kind of people you don’t want to be around. Nonetheless you have to overcome your scruples and find yourself interesting enough to write about, and talk about when someone asks you what you are writing about. And not mind when they sidle away really fast.
*find everyone else fascinating too. This is not as hard as finding yourself interesting because everybody has a story. The trick is to be interested enough to find out what it is. Don’t judge someone. Get to know what they have to say – it is very probably worth hearing.
*having said “get a life” sometimes it is all in the writing. Don’t presume because you are writing about something that has happened a gazillion times before that you can just knock it off without thinking about the words and how they fit together. Words count – who knew?
*it isn’t necessarily about the outside that is to say, what you do, it is also about what and how you think, and ofcourse – everytime – about how you feel. A memoir is not a book of events.
*remember a memoir is about Life, not just your life, real life.
*unless you are willing to be honest and reveal who you are, you might as well write a novel.(Obviously you can also be honest and reveal who you are in a novel, there is just an outside chance you won’t have to.)
*if you care too much about what people think, you might as well not write at all.

(I’ve lifted this from my Wife in the North blog, because I’ve written two memoirs now as well as teaching a course at Newcastle University and so many people talk to me about wanting to write their own stories but feel daunted. At some point, I’ll put up a list of good memoirs which I’d suggest you read if you want to go ahead and write your own.)