I just finished attending a course on Writing for Children taught by the excellent Lou Kuenzler. She mentioned that even after the success of Harry Potter some people still ask children’s authors whether they ever plan to write a ‘real book.’
Some people assume that writing for children is easy—the fact is, writing BADLY for children is easy, just as writing badly in any genre is easy. I’m with Tess Gerritsen on the issue of what’s easiest to write. She told the Wall Street Journal:
“Genre books are just as hard to write. I find romance hard, thriller writing hard, mystery writing hard. They all have their variations on a theme but the writing remains difficult. I think we’re just emphasizing different aspects of a story. In romance it’s the relationship. In mystery it’s the crime. But again, it’s all about character development, it’s all about plot. If you don’t have those two things, it doesn’t matter what you’re writing, whether it’s literary or not, it’s going to fail.”
Since all genres are challenging, I always advise people to write the kind of book they’d like to read. That will help you stay motivated during the long process of writing a book.
(for more tips on genre, plotting, characterization and even marketing your book, see my book, "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon and other online and offline booksellers.)
