Writing a children’s book can be either the easiest or the most difficult thing to do. Don’t write a children’s book for the sole reason of tapping into the children’s market. These types of books take very serious work to write and compile. If you have no knowledge of writing children’s books, the best way to start is by reading a few to get inspiration. That’s basically the first step to familiarizing yourself with writing children’s books. There are different children’s books from the pre-school to the middle school crowd.
For the elementary to middle school crowd, there are books such as "Harry Potter." Once you’ve familiarized yourself with the different age groups regarding children’s books, do a little research on what their interests are. Before the actual writing, it always helps to go plenty of research. Many projects tend to fail due to the lack of the proper research. Research can definitely compensate for the lack of experience when it comes to the working on the children’s books.
The most important thing is coming up with the idea. Make sure that your idea is very original. But you can take a similar concept and add your own personal take on things. Think about what story you want to tell. Think about what story you’re going to tell. I work as a freelance screenwriter and see that this is pretty similar. Though there is a difference between script writing and novel writing, both require one thing: presenting the story that stems from an idea or a series of ideas.
If you’re writing a novel, a screenplay, a short story, or a poem, you basically need to present your idea and the story. Even songs and poems have some sort of story to tell. In the case of a children’s book, you want to come up with a story that’s appealing to children. However, just about any kind of story can be appealing to children as long as you can articulate it to a way they can understand better.
Keep it simple when writing and/or typing up the story. But at the same time, use words to describe what is going on. Remember that reading a book is very different from watching a movie or TV show. The children will have to rely on their imagination. Carefully choosing what words to put in will help children imagine what’s going on when they read the book.
Think about what lessons you want children to learn from reading this. All good stories have at least one lesson that everybody can take to heart. You want the readers to at least learn something. Show a lesson. Don’t be all preachy. Both children and adults tend to dislike "preachy" people.
Take your time with this. Do not rush anything. This is very important if and when you’re writing your first children’s story again. Take breaks when you have to. It’s not uncommon for people to be working on more than one thing at a time. Work on one story for at least one to two hours and then work on another one.
If you’re having writer’s block, write a journal on why you have it. I learned that writing about why you have writer’s block tends to help a lot. It’s a good way to do away with that pesky writer’s block. Like any type of story including a children’s story, writer’s block can hurt.
Once you finish writing and/or typing up that book, don’t do anything with it. Leave it alone for at least a week or two. Don’t look at it until then. Spend that time doing something else like work on another story. Or you could take a break. When it’s time, you can take a look at it. You’ll be looking at it with fresh eyes. From there, make the necessary changes.
Once you’re satisfied with changes. By all means try to get it published. Keep in mind that you’re going to get rejection letters. Don’t get discouraged but take it as an opportunity to learn. Importantly, register for a copywrite for your children’s book. There are plenty of dishonest people that will try to steal your work. A copywrite is extremely important. Next off is to get it registered with the Writer’s Guild of America. That gives you a bit more added representation.
Writing your children’s book is one thing. But keeping your story from getting stolen is another thing.
Leave Your Comments