How To Write A Children’s Book
Writing for children is entirely different to any other kinds of writing, and comes with its own set of rules, trials and tribulations too!
While you might be fooled into thinking it’s easier (after all, with all your worldly wisdom and experience, you can surely impress a bunch of kids right?) writing a children’s book, or rather, writing a successful children’s book, is a tough old task indeed.
Children are complex and demanding creatures and to have them wide-eyed and full of wonder you have got to understand what they want. Times are a changin’ and what children are exposed to now is very different to a decade ago, and a decade before that and so on – so what children once found exciting and interesting, they may do no longer.
If you are writing a children’s novel, there are some things you might want to bear in mind that will hopefully save you time and that pulling-your-hair-out feeling when you begin!
Don’t be patronising
One thing that will not go down with the youth of today is an author who tries to baby them. Think back to when you were a kid. What did you want more than anything? To be a grown-up!
Talking down to your reader, being too sweet and nice, and explaining things exactly-as-they-happen-in-painful-detail – these will all put your audience off. Children want action and adventure; they want mystery, they want to be challenged, scared, amused and horrified. If in doubt look to the greats – some of Roald Dahl’s characters are genuinely menacing and utterly repellent, yet children squeal and rub their grubby little hands in delight when they hear these stories. Don’t underestimate how smart and tough they are. They can take it.
Be imaginative and compelling
The great thing about children is that they still believe in magic, they don’t have to ‘suspend their disbelief’ they already believe it! Writing a children’s book gives you an amazing opportunity where you can let your imagination run wild. If you can create wonderful, lovable, exciting characters, they can be just about anything. Think outside the box, create a world where anything can happen. Children still live in a world where people can be who they want to be, and achieve amazing things and overcome impossible obstacles – so make it so with your stories – children will love you for it.
Don’t try too hard
Do be careful. Children are pretty scary critics and sometimes it’s easy for authors to be so desperate to please they go way overboard. Not every single character has to be utterly unique – by this I mean it’s OK (if you want to) to write about fairies and goblins and wizards and witches and dragons and spells – just think of new and exciting ways of doing so.
Watch the pop culture references
There is nothing more cringe-worthy than reading a children’s book littered with enthusiastic pop culture references that they think children will relate to. Unless something is totally crucial to your story, it’s always better to leave these out as they make the author sound a little desperate, and they’ll quickly become outdated anyway.
Characters will make or break your book
Children need to care about your characters and to care about them, they have to be able to relate to them in some way. Most successful children’s books have a hero or heroine who is a child themselves. If you main protagonist is a 49-year-old man with two divorces under his belt and an alcohol problem, children are going to have a tough time finding anything in common with them, and therefore won’t be able to connect with the characters or the journey that they find themselves on.
Attempting to write a children’s story is never going to be a walk in the park. However, if you do your research, read as many children’s books as you can, and trust your reader then you’ll make life so much easier for yourself, and stand half a chance of producing a great book too!
Bethany Cadman -author of ‘Doctor Vanilla’s Sunflowers’
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