✍🏼 WORKSHOP: How to Write for Children (When You’re No Longer One!) w/ Clare Povey
** This is a LIVE workshop. Attendees will be sent a video recording after the workshop. **
What are the key considerations when writing children’s fiction? How can we create memorable characters that stick with young readers for a lifetime?
In this workshop with children’s author Clare Povey, we’ll explore the craft of writing for children and what makes a story captivating for young readers. Writers will leave this workshop with renewed excitement for their projects and a stronger understanding of why well-crafted characters are at the core of timeless children's fiction.
We’ll explore:
How to build characters with depth and relatability, focusing on techniques for writing a close point of view to draw readers into your story
Tips on honing a voice that resonates with your target age group, whether writing for early readers, middle-grade, or young adult audiences
Advice on crafting a story arc that’s both narratively engaging and emotionally compelling, leaving a lasting impact on readers
Clare will also answer your questions about writing for children and offer insights into the submission and publishing processes. Writers will receive a resource sheet with the next steps and publishing tips to support your journey as a children’s writer.
Before the workshop, please reflect on your favorite characters from children's fiction. Why has their story stayed with you? This reflection will help set the stage for our collaborative writing exercises and discussions.
About Clare Povey
Clare Povey is a middle grade author. Her debut, The Unexpected Tale of Bastien Bonlivre (2021, Usborne) was selected as a Waterstones Children’s Book of the Month. The historical mystery, influenced by Clare’s passion for languages and her time studying French at university, went onto be a bestseller and its sequel, and The Bad Brothers, was published the following summer. Clare’s latest middle grade eco-adventure The Wanderdays: Journey to Fantome Island published in summer 2024 (Usborne) and she is currently working on another Wanderdays adventure due to be published in 2025.
She has visited hundreds of schools for creative writing workshops and has an in-depth, commercial knowledge of the middle grade market and the children's publishing landscape. She has a real passion for working with middle grade writers to create the best possible characters and stories for children.
In addition, Clare has worked in publishing for over eight years and created the W&A Working-Class Writers’ Prize in 2018 where she reads and offers feedback on every submission. She was also a judge for the 2023 and 2024 Sadie Massey Portico Prize and, most recently, wrote her first mystery play, The Book of Eternity, for the Northern Opera Group which toured venues across Yorkshire.
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