2006 Hans Christian Anderson award winner, Margaret Mahy, has the
following sound advice to aspiring writers:
Be Persistent! Work Hard! Be
Tough! And Read! Read! Read!
If anyone knows about hard work and persistence, it is New Zealand children's writer Margaret Mahy.
How did she go about learning the craft, and what advice does she have for new writers of children's books?
“Most authors teach themselves to write the sort of stories they want to write,’ she says in an interview with
Christchurch City Libraries.
“It can be useful to go on courses, or to weekend schools, but mostly
writers learn by writing stories, making mistakes, recognising what the
mistakes are and never making them again.”
Her first published story appeared in the
School Journal, published by the New Zealand Education Department for free distribution in schools.
Work Hard
A single mother, she worked for many years for the Schools Library
Service in New Zealand. Supremely disciplined, Mahy wrote relentlessly,
late at night after her children were in bed. She was famous for being
so tired that she fell asleep standing up, and more alarmingly, while
driving home after work.
“I love being a writer,” she says, “but I do think I work very hard
at what I do, so don't think of being a writer if you imagine it is an
easy way of making a living.”
Be Tough
“You need to be tough, because most writers get stories turned down,
particularly in the beginning, and you must not let yourself become too
discouraged.”
Through these early years Mahy lived in a very simple house
overlooking the sea, with very few mod cons. Part of her success can be
put down to the fact that she did not try to publish too early, but
wrote until she had developed her voice into something entirely unique.
Be Persistent
"Be persistent," advises Mahy. She wrote continuously for fifteen
years before an American publishing house found one of her stories in
the journal, and wrote to ask if she had any more. She had a trunk
filled with over a hundred, and they bought every one. Her first
commercially published book, ‘The Lion in the Meadow’ was an instant
success, and is still selling today.
Read Read Read
“I do know writers who don't read much, partly because they are
frightened of somehow copying stories they are currently reading.
However, I think most true writers are so interested in their own ideas
they can't be bothered copying anyone else's, so personally, I think
reading lots and lots of books is always a good thing," she says.
Read more about Margaret Mahy in the excellent biography “Margaret Mahy a writer’s life” by Tessa Duder.
