Beginners Guide To Writing A Children’s Book
Starting to read books from an early age has a massive impact on a child’s cognitive development. Through reading books, children learn to interact with their surroundings more imaginatively. We all have memories of our earliest reading experience, be it bedtime stories, moral stories, or even just listening to our mums read out from the colorful picture books. Such is the impact of books on early infant brains.
Reading to children has endless proven benefits, so if you’re attempting to write a children’s book purely for the sake of making children fall in love with reading, you’re contributing to a good cause. Since children’s books are often not as long as compared to adult fiction, people mistake the venture of writing good books for children as easy. That’s not the case.
If it’s your first time writing a children’s book, here’re some tips to help you along the journey:
- Know Your Audience
While writing a children’s book, or any book for that matter, you first have to get a clear picture of who your targeted audience is. And remember to make it specific. In the case of children, there is a lot of cognitive development happening in a short frame of time, and hence the reading age groups of children are short and distributed.
For that, you can either refer to group charts or determine the readability level of your text using the Flesch Kincaid grade level. After you have decided which grade level you’re aiming for, you can pick out the desired set of vocabulary to use in the book. The vocabulary should be such that the child can upgrade their vocabulary level without getting too overwhelmed!
- Make It Relatable
Knowing what not to write in a children’s book is fairly easy, you’re not going to write about complex topics such as globalization or human rights in a book that’s meant for a child.
Even then, it’s difficult to ascertain what exactly is going to cater to the chosen age level. Try to find out more about what the particular age group relates to the most by doing surveys, questionnaires, etc.
- Focus On Details
A child’s mind tends to retain the particular details of almost everything they come across. Hence to say, the more detailed your text is, the better! Repetition is one such detail that sticks to a child’s brain for a long time. Try making the repetitions sound funny and interesting.
You can also add rhyming text format to grab the attention of young readers. Some other common details that you can include are the writing fonts, colors used, detailed illustrations, etc.
- Develop The Storyline
The storyline is the most important, yet difficult part of a children’s book. Once you have determined what your chosen age group relates to the most, try to build a story around it. Your story should first introduce a situation. Then you should introduce characters that are engaging. Each character should be strong and present enough to leave an impression on the child.
Once a situation is introduced, it’s now time to explore the situation through the characters. Try to make the vents as climactic and dramatic as possible. Toward the end, you should resolve the situation and teach the children a moral. Also, try to keep the stories short. Children with short attention spans do not like to read books that go on and on.
Conclusion
After you’ve made the decisions that will drive the story, it’s now time to take action! Write your first draft. Go through it repeatedly and make corrections. Repeat the process until you’re satisfied with what you’ve created. As for satisfaction, the bar should be high since kids are not that easily satisfied.
Once you’re confident in your draft, you can conduct a small social experiment. If you have kids from the targeted age range around you, you can have them read the book to provide feedback. Finally, you’re all set to publish your first children’s book!
