MY WRITING SELF-IMPROVEMENT COURSE
Recently – Friday night at 1.30am to be exact – I decided it was time to kick it up a writing gear. So I looked around for a course and good advice. The courses were very expensive and my budget shook its head sadly. My friends and colleagues all said the same thing. There is no quick solution. You have to write more. You have to read more.
Here is my text book list. All these books were recent prize winners in the YA and Children’s arena so I figure they all contain something I need to know:
- The Ghost’s Child – Sonya Harnett. Winner of the 2008 Children’s Book Council of Australia Older Readers Book of the Year
- Dragon Moon – Carole Wilkinson. Winner of the 2008 Children’s Book Council of Australia Younger Readers Book of the Year
- The Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman. Winner of the 2009 Newbery Medal. A friend is lending it to me tomorrow so this will be my first lesson
- On the Jellicoe Road – Melina Marchetta. Winner of the 2009 Michael L Printz Award . I’m looking forward to this as I recently read Finnikin of the Rock and loved it. I heard Melina speak at the Lady Cutler Award dinner and she signed my book for me! And the book itself was a gift from special friends.
- The Knife of Letting Go: Chaos Walking – Patrick Ness. Winner of the 2008 Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize This is a Walker Book and I’m a Walker Books author so I think this has
to be excellent! - Here Lies Arthur – Philip Reeve – Winner of the 2008 Carnegie Medal
- Snake and Lizard – Joy Cowley – Winner of the 2008 New Zealand Post Junior fiction (It’s on my desk!)
- Salt – Maurice Gee Winner of the 2008 New Zealand Post Young Adult Fiction (I’ve already read this one! Brownie points! Read my review here
More suggestions are welcome!
The Book Chook
It seems a little dopey to suggest something I haven’t read, but I really want to read The Underneath, by Kathi Appelt. From all the reviews I’ve read, it is intriguing and well-written, plus kids in classrooms have really responded to it.
Jeffery E Doherty
Hi Sandy,
Another book I’d suggest – though you have probably read it already is “The Naming of Tishkin Silk” by Glenda Millard Honour Book CBCA and shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary award 2004. Plus it is brilliant.
The other thing is Sally Odgers has a children’s writing course that she has posted on Suite 101 FREE at http://www.suite101.com/lesson.cfm/18507/1761
I found it after I signed up for the Australia College Professional Children’s Writing course. You don’t get tutor feedback but the information is all there.
Jeff
SANDY
Thanks for the pointers Jeff. I had a few ms asessed with Sally and she was really helpful. But as for the book, no, I haven’t read it but it’s now on my Books Found on Blogs reading list!