I usually hang out in the photography forum, but I've recently enrolled in a children's writing course.  Sooo, I'm looking for some other people who have some experience writing for children, and hopefully for a good critique group as well.  Can anyone help me out?  I would greatly appreciate it.  Thanks!

Krista

I'm not a children's writer, but it is a great direction to go in.  It is one area of writing where a thirsty audience waits. My guess is, if no one here steps forward (it's been very quiet on this forum for a long time)  that the people who are part of your writing course would probably give you the best leads (especially the teacher of the course) about connecting with like minded people.

Also check out writer's magazines. "The Writer" has an article this month called "The ABC's of Writing for Childen" which may be of interest to you.  The Writer's Digest is another one to check out. An organization like the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators (http://www.scbwi.org/) might also have some assistance for you (I'm not particularly recommmending it because I don't have a clue about children's writing...it's just an example of  group I found on a quick search of resources).

Good luck and do let us know what you discover. 

Unfortunately you're not likely to get a writer's circle up here, for various reasons. Dialyn's advise is great. One thing that worked for me (long ago) was to post a card at the local library expressing my interests in a writing circle. We had the first couple of meetings in one of the public meeting rooms at the library, to get a sense of the group, and went on from there.

One other piece of advise I'd give – avoid places that charge money. Published authors I've spoken to have repeatedly told me, money should always flow towards the author, not the other way around.

~jon

Also children's librarians often know local authors.  Sometimes libraries host writer's groups.  Do you have a bookstore nearby that has a particularly good children's section?  Writers may gather there or nearby for discussions.  Once you start looking, you'll find what you're looking for.  At least that's always been true for me.

Waving to Jon. Always good to see you online.  :)

Back at you. ;-)

~jon

Thanks you guys. :-)  I'll definitely check out scbwi Dialyn.  Another children's writing group recommended it to me, but I hadn't gotten around to it yet.  That group, which is on Yahoo, turned out to be a bit too advanced for me just now..not that I'm a novice writer, by any means.  I've been writing since I was in grade school, right up through college, and now for my course with ICL (Institute of Children's Literature, which came highly recommended), and have always had a talent for it.  The part that I AM a novice at, however, is the business side of writing..word counts, which publishers want what, etc.  I'm sure the scbwi site will tell me that, and I'm supposed to get a Children's Book Writers Market Guide (I THINK that's what it's called..again, I'm a novice at the business side of things) from ICL sometime soon as well.  Anyway, so what DOES everyone here write?  Do you just post stuff?  Are any of you published? 

Your best guide as to what the publishers want are the publishers themselves. Look at the books they are publishing now. Look to the guidelines on their websites or which they will mail to you or are in market reports.   The magazines I suggested help there too

You will find a small difference of opinion here about posting.  I feel, rather strongly, that you should not post anything here that you hope to have publshed someday.  Some publishers consider a posting on a website (even unpaid) to be the equivalent of publishing and they want to have first rights to the intial pubishing.  I think the writer's galley and writer's forum are great places to experiment and have fun, but I wouldn't personally post anything onlne that I hoped to sell.

Others will disagree.

I'd say look at the writer's gallery to see what people write here. I suspect, though I haven't looked in a while, there is a considerable amount of poetry and fantasy and some personal essays.  I could be wrong because I tend to be bad about reading the galleries. I don't go on the galleries because I don't want to unconsciously pick up someone else's story and find it has worked its way into my own writing. 

If you look at the forum archives you'll see a great deal of haiku and some short pieces related to challenges.  Some people post links to their websites.  It's a hodgepodge.

We used to have a more vigorous forum but people turned to other projects.  The forum used to be better supported by TPTB of Renderosity but now I think they have little interest in promoting it, though once in awhile there is a contest that includes the writers, and the writers are always invited to join in on the Challenge Forum's monthly challenges.

Have I drifted?  I usually do.

Hi Krista. BobbiJo here. Most of what I write is for my Granddaughter. She has most of my stuff memorized. She's three. Welcome aboard. I read prose non-stop. I'll read just about anything, but always have an eye out for juvenile fiction and fantasy as I work at a school for boys. I have no knowledge of publishing or anything related, except I'd love to be. Always up for questions, or just conversation. 
BJ