Last month I pondered a bit on the topic of ‘writing quiet’ – about what that means for me and for my work.

In the course of my ponderings, I mentioned some feedback I received on an early picture book manuscript, which read “Lovely language … but can’t something more interesting happen?”

Although that’s been useful food for thought in some ways, in another far more important sense it’s absurd.

Because how do we define ‘interesting’? Whose version are we talking about? There’s a kind of arrogance in that line, an assumption that the way the speaker sees the world – or the way in which she thinks kids see the world – is *the* way. That there’s a single version of ‘interesting’ which will speak to the readership, and that’s what the writing needs to tap into.

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