Writing for Children

Different age groups call for different writing styles and construction – you will study the difference as part of your course. You will explore the delicate business of distilling ideas and experience into potent stories for children. You will learn vocabulary and story construction for each age group; you will study the importance and skills of natural dialogue, and you will learn how to hold children’s interest, how to make them laugh, how to create images for them, and how to make them identify with your storytelling.

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Plotting, imagery, creating characters that are real to children – these are some of the other skills you will study. Your tutor will show you how to adapt your style from picture book for the very young to science fiction for the teenager.

Writing for children takes many forms and provides many with an enjoyable living and lucrative hobby. The range of markets varies widely from first readers to teenagers’ novels, from picture books to scripts, from pop-up book to plays.

You will be shown how to find the markets for all types of children’s writing.

The rewards in this wonderfully creative field of writing, besides financial, are the feelings that you will get when a young person tells you how much he or she really enjoyed reading your story, a sense of pride in the knowledge that you have created something that your young reader will never forget.

Entrance Requirements

Basic literacy skills and a passion for writing!

Program Duration

Recommended 12 months of study

Programme Outcomes

• Pre-Primary 5 to 6 who can’t read – Age ranges – Characters – Conflict – Style
• Children who can read, 7-9 – Know your readers – Theme, cause & effect – Characters – Plots – Problem, conflict, solution – Beginnings- How to hook readers
• Children 9-12 – Ideas – Characters – Chapters – The first chapter – Chapter endings – Language – Guideline questions – World of teens, 11-17 – Popular kinds of books – Real life problems – Horror – Teenage romance – Theme – Plot
• Non Fiction writing o Watching tenses – Clichés – Plot – Characters – Dialogue – Endings

For a Detailed Course Structure, please click here.

Assessment and Award

Once you have successfully completed the necessary assignments prescribed by the Learning Group, you will be awarded a Certificate in Writing for Children.

Accreditation

Please note that this programme is not registered on the NQF, and as such it is not a credit-bearing programme.

 

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