IMAGINATION MAKES A NEW WORLD
by Irene Edwards

These are challenging times for children’s writers. Should they go bytes blazing for today’s ‘must have’ genres– the fantasy that made JK Rowling a household name, and Harry Potter an icon, with his magic wand, and ticket for platform nine and three-quarters from Kings Cross Station. or the tough, gritty, realism of Jacqueline Wilson’s Tracy Beaker, gutsy, stroppy and spirited.

The pages these characters inhabit are as far apart, and as close, as the demands of today’s young readers. Their take on the world comes from surfing the internet, playing computer games and cheering the exploits of Dr.Who. And unlike their parents before them, they face the threatening menace of drugs at the school gates.
All this makes even the youngest the most eclectic readers ever, and while it may be tempting to follow the trend, these kids are forever pushing the boundaries in their search for new, exciting genres.

In her latest book, Ideas For Children’s Writers, best selling author Pamela Cleaver neatly sums this up by urging writers to lead a trend, not follow it.
She calls up more than thirty years in publishing, and teaching writing for children at the London School of Journalism, and the University of East Anglia, to reveal a feast of tips, including the ‘Hots’ and ‘Nots’ dropping at this very minute on publishers’ desks.
It’s no secret that JK Rowling raised the bar on the fantasy genre when she brought Harry Potter and his magic wand romping into the lives of gobsmacked kids. But, according to Pamela Cleaver, the clamour by children’s writers to chase the trend is turning into a headache for publishers. In fact, they are so bogged down with the genre it’s becoming an editorial turn-off.

Conversely, not wishing to be the perpetrator of a mass shredding binge, she has words of comfort for those determined to write a fantasy best-seller: ’If you must, you must, but make it different, fresh and unusual. Bored children stop reading.’
The author’s detailed research makes it clear that children’s reading tastes are veering away from fantasy. They’re now into science, horror, ghost stories and spy books, with the young super spy as the hero. These genres are still fairly thin on publishers’ lists - a hint here from Pamela Cleaver, a expert on market research, that these could be next year’s trend setters, and a golden opportunity to head a bandwagon.

Kids are tougher than we like to think, and they love a good thriller. Horror author Darren Shan takes the view that a kid reading a scary book is looking to be scared, but this is fun terror, not like terror in real life.
For ten-and-unders, though, there should be a comforting, happy ending, and the author remembers one small boy who always finished his school essays …’and they all went home safe.’
Jacqueline Wilson said recently she loves her young readers to finish her books with a smile on their faces.
Something else they love is humour and Terry Pratchett’s amazing collection, with his Awf’ly Wee Billie in A Hat Full of Sky has them laughing out loud all the way to the last page.
Science topped with humour is a dead cert for young readers and Horrible Science by Nick Arnold and Tony De Saulles caters for the grotesque tastes of children everywhere, with its murderous medicine, fearsome physics, barmy biology and deadly dinosaurs.
One genre, says Pamela Cleaver, that never goes out of fashion, is animals. Whoever heard of a dip in sales for Paddington Bear, Mog the Cat, or Harry the Dirty Dog.
Not so long ago kids found history books a total turn-off, confined as they were to school desks, with their head-banging demands for lists of beheaded Kings and Queens, and dates of bloody battles on muddy fields.
But the old saying…every picture tells a story…has brought history alive in this television age, and publishers see this as an opportunity to market books on historical characters and centenary events, that will appeal directly to children.

Another genre presently grabbing the interest of publishers is crossover books. These have plots that can be enjoyed by the 11 plus age group and their parents, and are a target market for publishers. The storylines are darker and more complex than the children’s books we have known and loved, and there seems no limit to the subject matter, apart from the young protagonist.

Writers leafing through this book may be expecting, from the title, that ideas for stories will fall into their lap…the children ran off together when his father moved in with her mother….
They may even find the book heavy going, dull in parts, with too many how to bullets, until they discover the author’s steadfast, passionate, purpose.
This is a source manual, a glorious compendium of lists, plots, themes and genres, so wide in its remit, in fact, that authors of adult fiction could happily use it as a reference book.
In truth, this is a writer who loves lists, and uses them unsparingly: names, personality, emotions, hair colour, hobbies, travel, education clothes, even down to bad habits.
All the trappings of life are here, crying out to put flesh on your characters and make them come alive for your readers.
And skimming through, with a hope that this valuable source material might help to get your own work published, you fall upon such gems as: Wake up your senses. Open your ears, wider than usual; open your eyes, then open your eyes; trust your nose, your finest memory bank. As Terry Pratchett tells it in A Hat Fullof Sky, a smell can take you back in memory, so hard it hurts. And touch everything, from a doormat to a velvet cushion.
We are always told to write about what we know, but the sticking point for plenty of writers is…’Alright, I’ve done that. What’s next?’ The author uses a quote from Ursula K. LeGuin to put you straight: ‘The imagination makes a new world, makes the world new.’
Pamela Cleaver’s long career in publishing, from her first job with a literary agent, to advertising and finally as a best selling writer of children’s books and latterly adult fiction, gives her an instinct for laying out the ground rules for writers of all genres. Her advice is simple and direct.

You may think being told to start your story on the first line, not halfway through the chapter, is hardly news breaking, but it could be, for someone. And when she tells you to create dynamic characters and vivid settings, with dialogue on every page, and always, always, be a magpie, with a ready notepad, you’d better pay heed. This is a lady who knows her craft from A to Z. And how could you ignore her urging to be bold: ‘exaggerate, extrapolate, and expand, to create something fresh.’
She even poses the intriguing question – Are you a pantster or a plotter, when outlining your story?
If you’re a pantster it seems you fly by the seat of your pants, driven along by your characters’ actions and dialogue, with little notion of how the whole thing will turn out.
Conversely, plotters are likely to surround themselves with spread sheets and scene cards, and will know the final denouement before they write the first chapter, as Margaret Mitchell did with Gone With the Wind. Either way, the author assures us, is right, so long as it is right for you.

Pamela Cleaver’s Ideas for Children’s Ideas, covers the whole gamut of writing for children. From picture books for beginning readers, full of ghosts, witches and dragons, to the more sophisticated needs of 7 plus readers, with a fascination for adventures in space, the author has more than fulfilled her promise to guide writers through the maelstrom of getting a children’s book published.

Plotting, characters, genres, are all laid out in intricate detail, culminating in a valuable How To resource book, rich in tips on hooking the reader, to handling the stress of acceptance – all those book signings - and the crash bang wallop of rejection. And topping it all, a beanfeast of anecdotes and straight talking common sense.
This is a book that deserves to be on every writer’s shelf, by a best selling author hugely generous in her guidance and support to thousands of readers over the years, and to her creative writing students of all ages who were inspired by her teaching.

Pamela Cleaver sadly died on November 23, 2005, a few weeks before her book was published.

HE Bates – A story is like a horse race. It is the start and finish that count most.

http://www.eidolonstudios.com/pamelacleaver/

http://www.howtobooks.co.uk

Irene Edwards (c) 2006