1. What is your writing day like? When and how do you create? I have a terrible lack of routine! I write whenever I can fit it in around my other responsibilities. Sometimes, this is four in the morning, but my best writing time is usually mid-morning, when my brain is at its least flabby and the coffee has hit! I’m not the sort of writer who can achieve a daily word count or a certain number of hours at my desk. I write very slowly and edit sentence by sentence as I go, as well as at the end. I don’t necessarily recommend this, but it seems to be how I do it. Also, this might shock you, but an afternoon spent staring out a window daydreaming can actually be far more productive for me than writing screeds of empty words which I’ll only delete later. Thinking is working too! I’ve learnt to be kinder to myself and trust the process. That said, there are also times when I just need to force myself to sit down and get on with it! The tricky part is knowing the difference between creative b...

  While there have been a few notable collections of poems in the past few years, overall the market for single poems is a bit dismal! These are a few resources for you to consider. There’s a tendency for writers/poets to try a picture book text instead (not that these are any easier to get published, but at least we know the readership is keen). However, rhyming texts are very hard to get ‘right’. The rhythm (meter) has to be perfect, and the rhymes need to work strongly (rather than be predictable). Combined with that, you still have to tell a really good story. The other tendency is for some to try and write verse novels, usually in free verse. These are rarely published in NZ for some reason (rarely written?). Again, it can’t just be chopped-up prose – there has to be a strong poetic element, as well as a good story.  The main thing, I think, is to keep writing poems – the more you write, the better your poems will be. You should also read a lot of children’s poetry to get...

Katie Furze writes children’s non-fiction and fiction including picture books, short stories, articles, plays, readers and novels from her home in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. She has a master’s degree in creative writing and is fascinated by science and nature. Her books include PEKAPEKA, Secret Forest Bat (2025), RURU, Night Hunter (2024) and TUATARA, A Living Treasure (2023) all illustrated by Ned Barraud and published by Scholastic NZ. You can also read her work in The New Zealand School Journal or in The School Magazine in Australia. Katie has also written stories in anthologies and readers and plays for educational publishers. She loves spending time in nature and you’ll find her outside whenever possible. What is your writing day like? When and how do you create? Even if it is just a sentence or two jotted in my journal, I write every day, wherever I am. I like to process my thoughts, ideas and first drafts the old-fashioned way with a pen on paper. When my children were young, ...