Writing Middle Grade and YA Fiction is an eight-week course for authors starting out with a novel for young readers. If you have a strong idea for a children’s or young adults’ novel but no words on the page, or you’re halfway through a draft and you can’t seem to keep up momentum, this course is designed to get you writing. Each session will focus on a different aspect of craft, such as character, setting, world-building, structure, and form, through a young reader’s sensibility. Participants will write from prompts, workshop their material and discuss ideas. Each week there will be readings that explore aspects of YA or MG fiction, in literary theory and in the current marketplace. Good writing is good writing no matter what the category, but if you’re writing for a young audience, it helps to know what else is out there.
The main challenge for adult writers of YA and MG fiction lies in finding an authentic voice, writing from a place of astonishment, and meeting the young reader where they are. Writers for children and young adults understand that their work is for developing selves – that it has the potential to be formative.
Your course includes:
- 8 weeks of 2 hour evening tutorials;
- Whole-class workshopping on the first 2000 words of your novels, including personalised feedback from your tutor;
- A complimentary copy of a recent YA or middle grade A&U publication;
- On completion of the course, alumni discount of 15% on future Faber Writing Academy courses and books from the Allen & Unwin website.
