Kirsty Applebaum

I realised I wanted to be a writer when my children were young and I was reading them all kinds of wonderful books. I particularly enjoyed rhyming stories like Hilaire Belloc’s Cautionary Tales and Roald Dahl’s Dirty Beasts, so the first story I wrote as an adult was a long rhyming poem about a girl who goes on a school trip to a tomato soup factory.

In 2014, I was lucky enough to gain a place on the excellent Bath Spa MA course in Writing for Young People. Two years later, at the end of the course, we produced an anthology of our work and sent it to children’s literary agents and publishers. My lovely agent, Nancy Miles, read the beginning of The Middler in the anthology. She got in contact and we hit it off immediately.

There have been many daunting moments! Here’s just one: I was told by a tutor (who I very much respected) that my writing was very beautiful, but there was absolutely nothing about it that made them want to turn the page. I went home and cried and ate a lot of chocolate for two weeks. Then I pulled myself together, bought several books on how to plot a story, went on some plotting workshops, and improved my writing! It turned out to be some of the most useful feedback I ever received.

My favourite book as a child was The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar by Roald Dahl. It’s actually a collection of short stories but the title story is the one that stood out for me. I completely believed in this amazing tale. Now, as an author myself, I strive to create utterly believable worlds for my own readers, driven by the memory of being 100% spellbound by Henry Sugar.

I still love The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, but as an adult I read Holes, by Louis Sachar, and I fell in love with it. It’s like a huge jigsaw puzzle, and all the seemingly unrelated pieces slide into place as the end approaches – an amazing feat. It is the perfect book.

Remember the books you loved as a child, what you loved about them, and how they made you feel. Then take some of that magic and put it into your own work. Also – read books on plotting!