Writing for Children as an Exciting Adventure or How to Become an Author for Kids

girl readingWhat can be more inspiring and adventurous than the kids’ world full of magic, wonders, fears, and fancy creatures? It is challenging to get back to childhood being already a grown-up person in the serious adult business world, but there is a tiny hole through which you can get back to the past and join the positive atmosphere of laughter and sincerity. It can happen if you decide to become a childrens book writer and bring pleasure both for yourself and the youngest generation; then please note that there is a set of special restrictions and rules to follow if you want the kids enjoy your writing.

Tips for a Children’s Book Writer

  1. Read a lot of books for children. You can buy them or borrow them from the library and from your friends’ younger sisters and brothers. You will be amazed at how exciting the stories may be.
  2. Make friends with other writers at specialized conferences and meetings. Share your ideas and get criticized by other experts involved in the same business.
  3. Join various organizations for writers to get more experience and fresh ideas.
  4. Be aware of the trends in the market but let your voice be distinct and unique. Professional writing books cannot be boring or stale. Do your writing as if you and your target audience – children are the only judges.
  5. Keep faith in your abilities and never give up.

Secrets of Writing for Childrenmagic book

  • All characters should behave, speak and react to others in a different way.
  • There should be neither irrelevant sentences nor boring long descriptions.
  • The dialogues should be interesting, but not too long.
  • The actions should be changing at considerable pace with intriguing scenes and mysterious events.
  • Be consistent with tenses – do not confuse your young readers with leaps from the past to the present.
  • Writing for children implies specific nature of each character. Negative characters should be really evil, while positive ones should arouse only admiration and sympathy.
  • No boredom! No reflections! Fun should be your priority.

Peculiarities of Professional Writing Books for Children

Important note: Writing for 2-8 year-old children is absolutely different from that for older kids. However, please keep to the following rules to be successful.

  1. Try to be different from any other childrens book writer. Develop your unique recognizable style.
  2. Make sure that the good always defeats the evil.
  3. Children need to see the world as black-and-white, so use the rule of extremes. Do not make the kids doubt who they should like or hate.
  4. It is great to give a kid a tickle with some scary scenes but do not go too far. Terrified children will not like your books.
  5. Help the little ones believe in themselves and build their confidence on the basis of your stories.
  6. Add hilarious details to make your readers laugh and have fun.
  7. Do not forget about magic! It is an absolutely normal way to resolve all the serious problems in the children’s world.
  8. Turn your book into a sequence of missions that the kid characters are supposed to do and make the readers experience those adventures and wait for the continuation.

DON’Ts in Writing for Children

There are things that are absolutely inappropriate in children’s books. Professional writing books for little readers never looks like giving a lecture or moralizing.

NEVER:

  • talk down to the kids;
  • produce boring texts with no pictures;
  • make the characters neutral;
  • make the main character look absolutely helpless and miserable;
  • provide merely a tale instead of turning it into a show for a curious kid.