December always means special meetings with friends who are writers. Writers from the past as well as the present. And those who write for adults as well as for children.
I recently had lunch with some friends from the very first critique group that I belonged to, back before my first picture book ONE OF THE FAMILY was published. It was a group for writers of all genres, and not many in the group wrote for children.
Eventually a few of us decided to branch off and start a separate critique group for children's writers. It was good to have someone critique our work who understood the difference between writing for children and writing for adults. Adding more description, flashbacks, and detailed background are good in books for adults or older readers, but not for children's picture books. Rich details in fewer words work best in picture books. We learned together about writing for children in our group. Many writers came and went. My friend Karen and I stuck with it all the way, and now belong to two grops for children's writers.
Over the years we still keep close ties with some of those who write for adults, and I'm so glad that we do. It's nice when we can get a group together again, like we did last week.
I recently had lunch with some friends from the very first critique group that I belonged to, back before my first picture book ONE OF THE FAMILY was published. It was a group for writers of all genres, and not many in the group wrote for children.
Eventually a few of us decided to branch off and start a separate critique group for children's writers. It was good to have someone critique our work who understood the difference between writing for children and writing for adults. Adding more description, flashbacks, and detailed background are good in books for adults or older readers, but not for children's picture books. Rich details in fewer words work best in picture books. We learned together about writing for children in our group. Many writers came and went. My friend Karen and I stuck with it all the way, and now belong to two grops for children's writers.
Over the years we still keep close ties with some of those who write for adults, and I'm so glad that we do. It's nice when we can get a group together again, like we did last week.