Children's Book Writing I is a comprehensive ten-week workshop incorporating instructional lectures, practical writing exercises, and thoughtful feedback on student manuscripts. The course serves beginning writers and those interested in strengthening their foundational knowledge and abilities.
The quiet enchantment of "Goodnight Moon" evolves into the exuberance of Dr. Seuss and expands into the wonder of Harry Potter, maturing into Judy Blume's direct voice and the unflinching realism of "The Hate U Give." This represents the remarkable literary journey children experience. These narratives become cherished components of childhood, leaving lasting impressions throughout life.
Engaging young readers requires balancing youthful imagination with mature artistic professionalism. This course introduces the variety of children's literature formats and their distinct requirements, as well as narrative craft and marketing strategies for your work.
Whether you seek to create picture books, beginning readers, chapter books, middle-grade novels, or young adult narratives, we will teach you methods for crafting stories that captivate and hold young readers.
Important Course Information:
Our Children's Book workshops survey the complete spectrum of children's literature, from picture books through young adult novels. Many children's authors create works across multiple age levels. The primary focus remains fiction, though nonfiction children's projects are welcome.
Young adult novel writers may pursue our Children's Book workshops, our Fiction and Novel courses, or specialized genre workshops in Science Fiction & Fantasy or Mystery writing. The distinction is that Children's Book courses examine literature for various age levels; other courses examine literature designed for adult readers. This distinction remains appropriate because young adult novels share substantial similarities with adult literary fiction.
This course establishes comprehensive knowledge of children's book composition and positions you to develop a complete manuscript. Course components include:
- Instructional lectures and core concepts
- Practical writing exercises and assignments
- Peer critique and feedback sessions (each participant shares work twice)
Online workshop modules:
- Week 1
- Children's Literature Overview: Categories and genres of children's books. Consistent elements and variable aspects throughout children's literature. Vocabulary considerations, darker elements, comedic approaches, series storytelling, and animal characters. Specialized requirements for picture books. Finding inspiration and original ideas. Importance of craft and literary technique.
- Week 2
- Narrative Construction: Finding the central dramatic question. Creating compelling picture book narratives. Structuring longer narrative works. Outlining strategies and their effectiveness.
- Week 3
- Character Development: Identifying compelling characters. Making characters complex through competing desires and distinctive qualities. Creating thorough character descriptions. Showing versus telling character. Methods for revealing character. Developing non-human characters.
- Week 4
- Point of View and Voice Considerations: Understanding narrative perspective. Examining varied point-of-view approaches. Voice definition and characteristics. Exploring voice varieties. Techniques for developing a distinctive voice.
- Week 5
- Descriptive Language and Detail: Incorporating sensory information. Achieving specificity and particularity. Imaginative approaches to language. Finding precise vocabulary. Conciseness and efficiency. Uniting description with narrative perspective.
- Week 6
- Dialogue and Speech: Understanding scenes. Creating authentic dialogue. Punctuation and dialogue formatting. Action and accompanying stage directions. Summarized dialogue. Character revelation through dialogue. Subtle meaning and subtext.
- Week 7
- Setting and Imaginative Worlds: Creating fictional locations and environments through time, space, and climate. Describing settings effectively. Settings as major elements. Constructing fantasy logic and details. Developing original fantastical settings.
- Week 8
- Nonfiction Children's Books: Advantages of nonfiction children's works. Scope and variety of nonfiction approaches. Shaping factual information into compelling narratives. Topic selection and development. Nonfiction publishing and proposal development.
- Week 9
- Thematic Development and Revision: Understanding theme and thematic material. Theme categories. Integrating theme throughout narrative. Examining revision techniques and approaches.
- Week 10
- Publishing Industry and Career Development: Proper manuscript presentation. Targeting publishers and literary agents. Submission procedures and strategies. Crafting effective query letters and pitches.
Note: Individual classes may vary in specific content.
About Online Instruction:
- Online workshops bring together students from around the world to access Gotham's renowned writing instruction.
- Asynchronous course structure allows flexibility rather than real-time participation requirements. You can complete assignments at convenient times, though content advances weekly with expected accomplishments within each week.
- Online participation is available from any location with internet connectivity. The student population is predominantly United States-based, with additional learners from countries worldwide.
- Dedicated technical support staff are available throughout the course.
- A significant advantage of online learning is permanent access to all course materials for ongoing reference and professional development. You can save and consult all written and visual materials throughout your career. (Course materials are provided as text and images rather than video.)
