The Journey To Publication-Hood - Part 1 - Writing

The Journey To Publication-Hood - Part 1 - Writing

It's every person's dream at some point to be a published writer. Whether it was a fleeting moment when you were a child, or a constant dream all the way through your adult life, there's always a time when you'd love people to read something that you've written and think, 'Wow, that's amazing.'

I'm no exception. I've been writing stories and attempted humour-based articles since I was young, all in the hope that someone will read them and praise them. I'm terrible at finishing them off, but I can come up with an idea for something new in the blink of an eye. Currently, I have ideas for one adult fantasy trilogy, two dystopian teenage thrillers, one teenage fantasy thriller, one teenage magic-based mystery thriller, three childrens adventure series, and several childrens picture books. Out of all those, I have about four chapters written for the adult fantasy trilogy, several pages of notes and attempted first pages for all the young adult and children's stories, and two complete childrens picture books that have been through at least two drafts each. As I said, I can come up with ideas but I don't exactly find it easy to finish them off.

You may have noticed, however, that I listed two complete childrens picture books in there. Yep, I've actually managed to complete a couple of stories. Although this may seem less of an achievement when you realise that a standard children's picture book is made up of 32 pages, and each of these pages only has two lines of rhyme each when I write them. Still, I'm damn proud that I've managed to stick with these through to the end, through a couple of drafts no less. So, what to do now? Well, there's only one step really, isn't there - of course, I'm going to try and get them published.

The picture books actually just started out as ideas for using at storytimes with the young kids at the library. As a challenge, I thought I'd try and write some stories myself so that I'm not just relying on the books we have in stock that week to deliver a storytime - hence we have a story about a giraffe looking for love for my next jungle/zoo-themed storytime, and a story about a monster who eats everyone for a monster-themed session. As you might expect, I've showed them to people now that they're written, and because people are polite, the response has been very positive. 'You should get them published!' I've heard several tiems. Does this make me think they're good enough to get them published? No, of course not. As I said, people are polite, and this is what you say to someone who gives you a story that they've written. What makes me think it's worth a shot is simply that they're written, and therefore there's nothing to lose. I might as well dream.

This is by no means the first blog that's ever been written that aims to share the journey towards getting a debut story published, but to keep my brain focused on improving at writing, I thought I might as well.

So, after the intro spiel, where am I up to?

Well, when looking into childrens picture books, I learned a few things:
1. The average page length of a picture book is 32 pages
2. The average word length is nearer to 500 but up to 1000 words
3. Get a literary agent

My strongest typing of writing in this field appears to be rhyming ever two lines, so I very dilligently went about ensuring that my first story, Clarence Giraffe Looks For Love, rhymed every two lines, and that it was split into 16 verses of four lines each (two lines per page, so four over a double spread). The word length ended up being something like 584, so I'm right where I need to be for word count. I sent the first draft off to friends and family, took on some comments (mainly about how the lines flowed) and edited it into a second draft. Deciding that I'd made it as good as I could after this second draft (there are, after all, only so many different terms for marriage and rhymes that go with them in the English lexicon), I moved onto Step 3, searching for a literary agent. I loaded up page after page that dealt with childrens picture books, only to discover that most of them recommend sending in three separate books if you want to write picture books. So, back to the drawing (writing?) board I went.

Having a couple of lines in my head about an old lady mistaking a monster for her husband due to very poor eyesight, this quickly became Ethel & The Monster. Again it ended up being 32 pages of 16 four-line verses, and again it went to friends and family, I received some feedback, and edited it to create a second draft. I'm still not entirely satisfied yet, so there's still some work to be done, but it's close.

And then to a third book, and my first major headache. A couple of years ago, my wife and I came up with a concept that we thought could span a whole series of books, about a time travelling dog called Little Ed Dog (named after a friend) who uses the cupboard in his owner's bedroom to visit all different historical eras, which would make the books both educational and fun. We even came up with about 8 different titles, none of which had anything to do with time travel - my favourite was Who's That In The Mirror Ed Dog? That's right, it's you!. 'Aha,' I thought to myself, 'the third book will surely write itself!'

Alas, it's never that simple. Try as I might, I just could not get historical facts about Rome to rhyme well enough to make it feasible. I'm sure this is something a much better-skilled writer could accomplish, but that's certainly not me at the moment. So, what's the next step? Do I write it as a general storybook (which would showcase a different, non-rhyming style to prospective agents)? Do I change the concept of Little Ed Dog altogether? Do I rack my brains for a new story entirely?

It helps sometimes to have someone to talk through these problems with. Yesterday, sitting on the swings with my wife and son, talking through how I'd gotten stuck, we struck on the idea of these adventures taking place in the library, rather than Little Ed Dog's owner's bedroom. From there, it seemed obvious that he should be reading books about a subject, and to try and get across the idea about how awesome libraries are (they are dear reader, as you know, awesome) we thought that the books themselves should magically transport Little Ed Dog to the era he was reading about. And then we suddenly came to the idea that I think could make this series stand out. I've no idea how we hit on this idea, but all of a sudden it seemed perfect that Little Ed Dog would read about fairy tales, be transported to the fairy tale world, and end up helping the hero. Thus, the first Little Ed Dog story was written in about 10 minutes, seeing our hero visit the library for the first time, spring into Little Red Riding Hood's world, and end up being the hero who gets the woodcutter to save the day. An initial attempt at rhyming this was unsuccessful, so I went back to trying a different style and writing it as a straight story.

One little snag - I just couldn't get the word count down to less than about 1300 words, which I've been assured is far too many for a picture book, no matter what age. So close, and yet so far?

Not neccessarily. As you know, there are plenty of fairy tales still to write about which Little Ed Dogg could enter to save the day, so I've set myself another task now - writing a compilation of short stories on this very theme, just like with Just William or My Naughty Little Sister. I've got ideas for other fairy tales, so there's plenty to work on there, and as far as I'm aware there haven't been stories on this theme widely published before, so hopefully this is a slightly new niche.

None of which is any use when it comes to my third picture book, because of course I'm right back at the beginning of needing a new topic.

So there you have it. I've got two pretty much complete childrens picture books, and the start of a compilation of stories for slightly older children. I need a third picture book before I submit to literary agents, and then the process of trying to become a published childrens author can begin.

I hope I haven't waffled too long in this article (I'm sure the next one will be shorter with less introduction to be made), but hopefully it might give an insight into the publishing process if you've never read about it before. I certainly don't know much, and I'm looking forward to finding out all the steps along the way.

Hopefully there'll be a positive end to all of it!