Joyce Dunbar has written 80 children's books, including several best-sellers that have been translated into many different languages. Joyce worked in the education sector before becoming a full-time writer in 1989. She now lives and works in Norwich. Here Joyce shares some writing tips, book recommendations and tells us how she got started.
How did you become a children's writer?
I started in my twenties doing bits of journalism and radio talks - not knowing what kind of writer I wanted to be. Then I met - and married within 6 weeks - a lawyer who wanted to be an illustrator. He used to draw himself as a jug with arms and a big pair of boots. I so loved this character that he became the hero of my first book - Jugg illustrated by my (now ex-) husband, published by Scolar Press in 1980.
A rapturous editor's report said that the book was 'a small classic'. It was to be the first of a new children's list. Ha! In the month that it was published, the publisher was bought up and the children's list axed. Our book never made it into the shops. They were going to pulp it - perish the thought - but we bought the lot. They still insulate my attic, the pages pristine white because of the high production quality.
This was a real initiation rite into the trials and tribulations of a writing career. After that I wrote 20 stories for Listening Corner, the radio programme that succeeded Listen with Mother. They had to be 500 words, with a strong central character, for five-year-olds, lasting five minutes. At first, I was rather scornful of this prescribed format, but it was where I learnt my craft.
How much do you draw on experiences from your own childhood when writing for children?
Consciously and directly, not at all. Though not unhappy, I was often terrorised as a child. I am glad to leave it behind. But of course, unconsciously, childhood informs all my work. The child that I was is still very much with me, and the adult I have become is always trying to reassure her, to create a happy ending, despite. That means reassuring my young readers.
How do you find inspiration?
By paying deep attention to small, seemingly insignificant things. By trying to find metaphor that combine satisying meaning with childlike joy and playful language. It's a bit like fishing: an idea will swim around, circle, and if you're still enough and patient, it will swim into the net of your brain and onto the page. Once you start noticing things, other things come to your notice.
How do you overcome writer's block?
I don't call it that. I need long periods of doing nothing. I liken it to a lavatory cistern. Once you've emptied it, you have to wait for it to fill up again. A picture book text can be very short, but is often a long time in the writing, anything from six hours to six years to get it right. Then there is the delightful process of working through the stages of illustration and production. So I don't worry too much about the lean periods. I do worry sometimes about all the books I have thought of but not written. Fear of failure is sometimes the reason. Sometimes it's another book that pops up though I haven't even thought about it.
What would be your three top writing tips for Bookbite readers?
1. Start, one word at a time. Don't try to conceive the whole thing beforehand. It is a path into the unknown (even if it is about your known life) and you make it word by word. 2. Spend a regular amount of time each day, but limit it to an hour or so at first. Stop when you want to go on. This gives your unconscious time to get to work. 3. Everyone's life is unique, but not everyone sees that. Choose small special moments that mean something to you. Write a patchwork of small moments, no matter how muddled. Gradually, a pattern will emerge.
You spent three months 'in residence' at Norwich Market. Did you meet many people who wanted to write 'their story' so they could share their life experiences with their grandchildren? If so, what was your advice to them?
A lot of people came and told me their stories, which I wrote down. The physical effort of writing is just too much for some people, and the fear that it won't be very good. But most people have a story to tell and are happy to tell it to an interested listener. I am really glad I recorded those stories as part of a millennium project. Just think if we had records of what ordinary people thought and said in Norwich market from 1000 years ago, when it began. It's still a bit of a battle between the Anglo-Saxons (the traders) and the Normans( the city council).
I also had a ruse to overcome my difficulties in 'overhearing' (I'm a lip reader). I explained this - the traders were a bit non-plussed at first - but I gave them each a little silver notebook and a pen and asked them to write down the things they overheard. This is a good habit. It puts you on the alert - and snippets can often become stories. Even a stolen snippet will connect with something in your own life.
More recently, one of the market traders - Gareth of Herbs and Spices - told me he'd written and illustrated a children's story. He asked if I'd take a look at it. He's a bit of a buccaneer - the scourge of the city council - and I thought he'd roast me in hot chillies if I didn't like it. Fortunately, I did like it, and I'm now trying to find ways of helping him to get it published. It is very difficult for an outsider to break into the children's book market. Even if Gareth's book isn't published, it will be a great joy to his grandson and any other child who comes across it. On one level it is about a small boy and his fear of crabs which turns to friendship. On another, of course, it is about Gareth's relationship with his grandson.
Can you tell us more about your new book for adults?
I never talk about work in progress. I think you can talk it away. Let's just say that it is autobiographical - and shows how the children's stories - though bearing no apparent relationship to my life - are a commentary on it. It means going back to that stormy childhood. I find that difficult. I am feeling my way with it - doing just as I suggest above - writing small episodes at a time and then trying to see the pattern. It is also because the emotional curve of my life has been so unexpectedly strange - like nothing I've ever read about - that I want to try to make sense of it. With luck and perseverance , I hope I will have something not said before. At this stage, I'm not even thinking about publication.
Which 3 books have had the biggest influence on your life and why?
Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain - because these are the books my father read to us as a child.
Grimm's Fairy Tales - my favourite childhood reading - which taught me that the dark things have a place in life and imprinted on me forever the notion that life is a test and if you are true to yourself, all will be well. A fiction no doubt - but a good-enough rule to live by. The illustrations of the copy we had - by Mervyn Peake, made my hair stand on end. I was overjoyed recently to find a copy in a second hand bookshop.
Shakespeare, especially Macbeth, King Lear, The Winter's Tale, and most loved of all - The Tempest. Shakespeare is the nearest I get to a belief in God. How could one man reveal so much about human nature and so little about himself? How could one man do so much to make us self aware? (I taught literature, including Shakespeare, for 20 years, 10 of them in the college at Stratford on Avon).
Which 3 picture books would you recommend for reading with children?
I won't name the most currently popular, because everybody already knows them and every Waterstone's in every city stocks them. But three favourites from my children's childhood are:
A Very Special House written by Ruth Krauss, illustrated by Maurice Sendak. Crazy, random, bursting with life.
Hildilid's Night, written by Cheli Duran Ryan , illustrated by Arnold Lobel. Again, about the dark things in life, imaginatively absurd.
Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag. This is the oldest American picture book still in print. Behind the rhythmic, repetitive language is a universal story full of heart and soul.
Who is your favourite character in children's literature and why?
Frog and Toad written and illustrated by Arnold Lobel - because they are so simple and understated and funny and show that stories don't have to be exciting and spectacular to be wonderful. Witty and beautifully told, they are about the parts of life that most of us don't notice, the so called boring bits where nothing much happens.
Also, The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. Haunting, timeless, it gives us such a fresh view of our strange planet Earth. In his naivety, the little prince is so wise.
Can you recommend a favourite recent read? Why did you enjoy it so much?
For children: The Sea-Thing Child by Russell Hoban, wondrously illustrated by Patrick Benson. A rarity in children's books nowadays, because it is so mysteriously challenging rather than cute, so multi-layered yet simple.
For adults: Reality Hunger: A manifesto by David Shields (Hamish Hamilton). This is such a treasure trove that I read it very slowly, a couple of pages at a time, so that I can take it all in. For anyone wanting to write about their own life, in no matter what way - this book is a wonderful inspiration.
Also, Instead of a Letter, by Diana Athill and her better known book, Somewhere Towards the End. Direct, honest, upbeat about life's disasters, she shows how to cut complex material down to readable and hugely enjoyable size.
Voices and Visions, a celebration of Norwich Market, is available from Mousehold Press. Joyce's latest book for children is called I Want a Mini Tiger.
