Emma Perry

I’ve always loved writing. But a writer of fiction? I swatted that idea away many, many times before I allowed it to settle. Before I stopped to listen to it. Until that point I had spent many years writing reviews of children’s book for My Book Corner. Set up on a whim, My Book Corner has been responsible for re-igniting a love for children’s literature and quickly became an absolute passion of mine. But any suggestion that I write fiction of my own was dismissed very quickly, until I could no longer ignore it. At that point we were approaching the end of a year and I decided (again, on a whim) that my New Year’s resolution would be to ‘have a go’ at writing fiction. (PS I NEVER set a New Year resolution, this was a first). I had no idea whether it would be Young Adult, Middle Grade or picture books - the plan was just to see where it took me.

I have very fond memories of Where The Wild Things Are, and yes I do still love to read that one now. I love the ending. I love the sparseness of the text, and its ability to take us on a journey filled with emotions. So clever.

Enjoy it. Seriously. You’ve got to love the writing itself. The submissions, the rejections are bumps along the road, they’ll always be there. Always. But, as long as you enjoy telling your stories, putting pen to paper, or hands on the keyboard – well, that’s got to be the most important thing, right?

I’d also say that you need to have patience. Heaps of it. Because there’s lots of waiting involved in publishing. SO much waiting! Urm, if anyone has any tips on that I’d love to hear them. Please!  

In a word, balance. I’m not a writer who writes every day, that doesn’t work for me. From a practical point of view, I’m a supply teacher and take on work whenever it’s offered. That has seen me with huge chunks of fulltime teaching, at which point most of my energy is with the children at school. This means that writing time, when inspiration hits, is snuck into evenings and weekends.

I also find that I need and crave natural breaks from writing. It’s good for my soul. A couple of weeks break over Christmas for example, leaves me raring to go at the end of it – new ideas start bubbling to the surface and I know I’m ready to jump back in.