Meet Children's Author, Suzanne Lieurance
and we read countless picture books every night before my boys went to bed. At first, I used to write stories with my own children as characters. The day came when I branched out a little. In fact, in one early story I suddenly realized I didn't need to have TWO children in the story. So, to this day, my younger son accuses me of "killing him off" in my writing. But, once I learned not to worry too much about sticking to only "the truth" (and wasn't afraid to kill off a kid or two) my writing got a lot better.
3.SR: Please describe a typical writing day for you.
SL: Since I freelance fulltime I have to get started early every morning - just like a job. First, I check my email (I often have mail from publishers or my agent). Then I start on whatever assignment has the closest deadline. Usually I'm working on several projects at once. I also teach for the Institute of Children's Literature, so I have to either save one day a week for student lessons or try to do a few lessons each day. I might spend the morning researching information for a book or article, then use the afternoon to write part of a chapter or make an outline.
I try to save the weekends for things besides writing. If I didn't, I'd be working 7 days a week and I think writers need time away from the computer to refresh and refuel. But, I'm always thinking of ideas for things to write about.
4.SR: How do you approach writing for beginning readers as opposed to writing for older children?
SL: Writing for beginning readers requires shorter sentences and simply vocabulary. It's also important to pick a subject that will appeal to the age child I'm writing for. With beginning readers I usually start out by making a list of topics that might appeal to children in K through 2nd grade. Then, I decide if I want to write in rhyme. If I do, then I create a few simple rhyming sentences to get started and try to construct a story from that.
SL: For nonfiction, I still try to use some of the elements of fiction to "engage" the reader. For my travel guide for kids (Kidding Around Kansas City) I picked places that would be fun for kids to visit, then I tried to
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