How did you decide WHAT to write?

[KinkyDorito]

I have so many starts, so many ideas, but I'm not sure what to work on.

I've got several half-finished children's novels, literary fiction, chick-lit type fiction, Gothic, fantasy... I like all of my stories, but don't know what my strength is and I never finish anything!

I read very widely, including children's books, so I don't feel particularly drawn to any specific genre.

Did people on here just have that one big idea?

How did you decide who your audience was and what your particular writing niche is?

I agree - you have to enjoy it. If you struggle to enjoy it, people will struggle to enjoy reading it.

Keep going, Kinky, and let us read it after you've done the first draft.

That's really kind Imperial.

I do love it. It's just justifying it when so pushed for time. But I am carrying on. If I never finish anything, I'm going to really regret it.

A writer I met had two pieces of advice given to her by her agent. One was "Just finish the bloody book" and the other was, "When in doubt, go darker."

She said she'd written her first novel with those written on post-it notes stuck on her computer monitor. I was writing my first book at that point and did the same and they really helped.

(Obviously 'go darker' only works with adult books!)

If you don't finish a book, you can't edit it and you can't send it off. Finish the bloody book!!!

My latest book for the 3-8 age range is a little dark. Might scrap it altogether.

What about YA, Imperial? D'you reckon 'go darker' works for that? (Quite a few recent Carnegie Medal winners would suggest it does...)

I don't know enough about YA, Countess. It wasn't around when I was young! I went from Enid Blyton to Agatha Christie and Mary Stewart. I do know that my tendency is to go lighter and more into women's fiction, whereas I have to remember my genre and go darker!

I think the very much younger market likes happy and funny, doesn't it, Tiggy?

I absolutely think go darker for YA...

9-12 and YA can be very dark IME and the kids love it. It's far more gripping for them. Morbid, but true. If we teach dark, I do a lot of warnings and know my class well enough to judge if it will be okay. Some of my favourites are very controversial; I've always loved teaching Melvin Burgess because he doesn't hide away from dark things and older teenagers are fascinated by that. Darren Shan can be really gory and the students think it's great.

Thanks again .

I also like happy and funny though and always welcome comedy.

Holes endures as one of the best written stories for children; realistically 9-12, though was probably intended for YA originally. The stories within the story in that always impresses me. It doesn't age.

There is definitely a slip downwards. Things like Alex Rider have been a go-to in Year 7 for years (11-12), but we're finding students have read them in Year 5. Private Peaceful was a YA book for Year 9 and I've read it being recommended in Year 6.

Students are always asking for gripping recommends.

The younger market like happy and funny?

I once looked after a child who's nanny, for a treat, would take him to a particular road to look at the road-killed animals. On one occasion he told me with great glee about a rabbit he had seen where it's eyes had popped out. Some 4 year olds can do dark. Just not sure publishers or agents do.

Actually Roald Dahl was very dark indeed. Some of his stuff had beheadings and guts and gore.

I think mankind have always used story to make sense of the world. And death/pain/violence/loss/desire will always be an integral part of our story telling.

Kinky, yes, agree re the slippage.
At dd's old primary I ran a sewing club which was mostly year 5 & 6 girls. They used to sit there and chat about the Hunger Games. I was .
At dd's new primary the classes are named after contemporary kids' writers (yay!) and it is so accepted that primary kids read the Hunger Games that her year 6 class is Class Collins.

Tiggy, I was just trying to think of books my children read at that age. I know there's a gory fascination amongst them, too!

The ones my kids made up at preschool age were definitely dark and mostly involving being eaten by animals. DD's masterpiece was about a little girl who wanted to go to a play area next to a forest and a wolf came out and ate her 'so she couldn't go to the play area'. DS2's was about a fish who was friends with a shark, but the shark ate him.

I used to wish that would happen to me so that I didn't have to go to work!

Being eaten? Was work that bad?

Oh believe me, Countess, there were a number of us who dreamed of having accidents on the way to work just so that we could have some time off. It was an appalling place to work for the last couple of years I was there.

Were you teaching Imperial? I hear a lot of teachers saying similar.