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AUTHOR WRITING TIPS – CLAIRE SAXBY

March 7, 2014 by

Claire100Today, another fabulous author friend is visiting this blog to share her writing tips.

Claire Saxby is an Australian author, and she has published many popular books for kids.

Claire has new book out called Meet the Anzacs. It’s part of a new picture book series about the extraordinary men and women who have shaped Australia’s history, including our brave Anzac soldiers.

Anzac stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. It is the name given to the Australian and New Zealand troops who landed at Gallipoli in World War I. The name is now a symbol of bravery and mateship. – See more at: http://www.randomhouse.com.au/books/claire-saxby/meet-the-anzacs-9780857981929.aspx#sthash.JOPnpvod.dpuf

Meet the Anzacs, a picture book for 7- 9 year olds tells the story of our Anzacs, and how the legend began.

It can be purchased at all good bookstores and online through Readings and Booktopia.

getimage - CopyCLAIRE’S WRITING TIPS

  1. I visited the Australian War Memorial website and borrowed lots of library books. This helped immerse me in the world of the time. It also helped me refine my idea and outline my story.
  2. I took lots of notes, pasted photos into a notebook. No order, just anything that seemed connected. Some get used over and over again, others very little. But they all help set the scene.
  3. Draft. I recently learnt about 0 draft. The draft that’s not even good enough to be a first draft. But it’s a start. Then redraft after redraft, adding, deleting, altering rearranging.
  4. Think carefully about the words. I saw a list that seemed to have hundreds of alternatives for ‘very’. In a picture book, the words have to work very hard, and deserve plenty of attention to get the right ones.
  5. Read it out loud. Have someone else read it out loud. Listen to how the words sound. If a reader stumbles, note that section and check again. Have another reader read it. If they also stumble in the same place, perhaps you need to make changes.

Thanks for the great tips, Claire.

You can find out more about Claire and her work here.

If you have a question for Claire, feel free to ask it in the comments section of this blog.

Happy writing:)

Dee

 

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Comments

  1. Claire says
    March 7, 2014 at 2:26 pm

    Thanks for having me to visit, Dee.
    Claire

  2. Kat Apel says
    March 10, 2014 at 8:27 am

    Getting someone to read your work to you is helpful, because you hear how it will be read naturally – without any of the prior knowledge you as author bring to the punctuation of the text. (Particularly important for rhyme, I find.). It’s also a wee-bit exciting, because it means you can hear the full potential of the story. And that’s… exciting!

    Congratulations, Claire. I look forward to meeting the ANZACS.

    • Dee White says
      March 10, 2014 at 8:45 am

      Thanks Kat,

      I totally agree with you. You pick up different things when you are absorbing your own writing from someone else’s perspective.

      Dee

  3. Lorraine Marwood says
    March 11, 2014 at 1:14 pm

    Claire, you are so talented but I know how much work you do- hope this book soars too. Thanks Dee for a great post- al last following you..