HELLO!

Welcome to Chapter Seven of The Happy Book. In this chapter, I'll be chatting to friend and author Dee White all about those nutritious story seeds, how we can find them, and how we can grow them. We'll also talk about researching your ideas to provide depth and authenticity, travelling for research and expanding upon ideas.

We'll also cover real life stories that inspire fiction-or 'faction'-and how we can honour these story ideas with authenticity and depth. Dee has been writing across several children's book genres-from early childhood to YA-for several decades now. She has a stack of wisdom and experience to share-you're going to need a notebook to take notes!

Fire up your device, cram in those earbuds and enjoy this foray into the magical world of kids' book creation. If you have any questions or comments, you can say hello at [email protected].

I'm Tania McCartney and I'm an author, illustrator and editor of children's books. I've always wanted to live inside a book, and now I practically do. Welcome to The Happy Book.

GUEST - DEE WHITE

Dee is the author of 18 books for children and young adults. Her picture book, Reena's Rainbow, illustrated by the amazing Tracie Grimwood, has been released internationally and is currently being translated into Auslan to make it more accessible to deaf children.

Dee has received many writing awards including a May Gibbs Creative time residency, a SCBWI Nevada Mentorship and first prizes in the Nairda Lyne and CYA writing competitions. Her current work in progress, Beyond Belief, received a VicArts research grant, allowing Dee to spend a month in Paris researching.

She has presented at conferences and writer's festivals throughout Australia and overseas, and will be a key presenter at the 2018 Sharjah International book fair. Dee blogs about writing and books at DeeScribe writing, and runs online classes for writers from all over the world through Writing Classes for Kids.

SHOW NOTES

00:35 Introduction

01:36 About Dee

02:34 A note on the sound quality

03:00 A nice flat white + a water

03:36 A typical writing day for Dee

04:34 The importance of thinking time

05:45 Writing in the dark

07:34 Dee's writing genres

09:40 Not restricting yourself to genre

11:37 Dee's preferred genre

12:19 All fiction is based on real life

13:15 Story seeds-ideas-Letters to Leonardo

15:45 Ideas from personal experiences-Reena's Rainbow

18:00 The remarkable unfolding of Paris Hunting

19:50 The discovery of the story for Beyond Belief

20:26 Dee's astonishing research month in Paris

21:26 Serendipity when writing stories

23:47 Combining fact and fiction to make 'faction'

25:40 Golden rules for writing faction

26:26 Travelling for research and fine detail

26:39 Using photos to discover your characters

27:15 Interviewing your own character

28:03 Creating authentic fictional characters alongside real life characters

30:48 The power of travel for story development

31:41 Researching on the internet-pros and cons

33:19 Do try to travel, if possible

34:24 Inaccuracy when researching online

35:14 Advice on researching facts-K9 Heroes

37:48 Authenticating research

38:41 How facts can change over time

40:40 How far can we stretch the truth?

41:53 The popularity of faction books

43:09 We cannot dumb things down for kids

43:59 Diversity and multiculturalism

45:48 Confronting details for this age group

47:26 Advice on applying for grants for travelling

49:52...