How To Write A Children's Story

How To Write A Good Story

How To Brainstorm Children's Picture Book Ideas

Writing a children's story requires a vivid imagination, enthusiastic creativity and the ability to put yourself in the mind of a child. For many writers, writing children's books successfully will require some effort to step back into the shoes of the very young and to see the world from a very fresh and curious perspective. For those who are always young-at-heart, writing children's stories can be a very satisfying craft. And if you are a child author reading this article, (and many child authors have published stories), then these characteristics will be second nature to you but you will still benefit from the steps on how to write a children's story well.

Steps

1. Brainstorm story ideas.The story is perhaps the most important aspect of a good book. Consult some of your favorite books (children's or not) for examples, but try to be original. Choose a story that fits your interests and talents, such as action, fantasy, or mystery. Smaller children enjoy stories with a play on words or a repeated phrase like, "No, no fat cat. Scat! Scat! Scat!"
2. Develop your characters. In order to have a good story, you need some interesting characters. Who is the main character of the story? Is there more than one? Are the characters human, animal or fantasy, or do they include elements of all three? Before you begin, it is best to make an outline of the characters and how they fit into the story.
3. Make a story outline. Use note cards, draw it in picture form, or write a standard outline. The important thing is to have a general understanding of the beginning, middle and end of the story, and of how the characters will interact and evolve. A good story usually has some sort of conflict or obstacle that the main character has to resolve, after which everyone lives "happily ever after". Here's the breakdown:
   • Introduce your characters with descriptions of physical and personality traits, their surroundings, and those with whom they come in contact.
   • Create a problem/conflict. This could be between two people, an internal conflict, or one in which the main character overcomes an obstacle in the outside world.
   • Write the climax of the story, which will include the main character(s) coming face to face with the conflict.
   • Show how your character(s) resolves the problem, and what happens next.
4. Add some pictures. Everyone loves pictures. They can add to the interest level of the story and make it easier to follow. You may like to include a few funny cartoons or pictures in your story. Make sure that you use bright happy colors or sad dark colors depending on the mood of a story.

Tips

• Keep it nice and simple. Depending on the age group you are trying to engage, you don't want to make your story too complex and difficult to follow, because younger kids will quickly lose interest.
• Use some humour. We all have it. Focus on the 'silly' things that will have both the child and the adult reader laughing together. Use made-up words and rhyme: Dr Seuss knows, it's much easier and more fun to read aloud.
• Whenever possible, show the character's personality through speech and actions, not bland statements like "Sally is selfish". Try to differentiate between different characters by having them react differently to the same situation, for a start.
• Make sure your diction (level of word usage) and storyline are audience-appropriate: Age 3-5 years: Slightly larger storyline. More complex sentences explaining the motivation behind actions shown on the page. Adventures. Getting lost and finding your way home. Fighting. Being brave in spite of fear. Telling the truth. Thinking of others before yourself. Explaining how you feel. Learning to spell. Learning to add. Telling parents if someone hurts you or makes you feel bad. How to resolve arguments (though they still need a lot of help at this age, they can be introduced to healthy argument resolution, especially the idea of sharing and thinking how others feel). Disappointment. Age 5-7 years: overcoming challenges. Learning new skills. Understanding good reasons to do something and bad reasons to do something. Magic. Confusion. Books long enough to read over two or three nights. Use bigger words but be careful to explain them, so as not to frustrate new readers.
• Any children's story must have a happy end; children don't like when their favorite characters end up badly. They usually feel sorry for them and are disappointed with the story as a whole.
• The realm depicted in the story should be bright, colorful and optimistic; a story about a dark, evil world is certainly not a children's story. The personality of the main character should have mostly positive traits, such as bravery, intelligence, humor, beauty and so on.
• Describe characters or places as good as you can, so the young reader may picture it the way you want him/her to. However, do not lose yourself in complicate descriptions, for it may confuse a child and distract him/her from the story itself.
• Don't use too many difficult words. Keep in mind that a young audience may find it difficult to read a text written in formal language or one that contains too many complicated words. Make the language clear and easy to read.

Warnings

• Avoid using slang words or inappropriate language/situations for younger readers. The writing should be of the best quality, to encourage young readers to love their language and to want to read more.
• Try not to give the characters long names, or name them similar or even starting with the same letter. This may confuse the child and make the story harder to follow.

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Write a Children's Story. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Steps

1. Pick your story ideas based on what you know (even if you just have a little bit; see number 2). If you know your starting subject, it's easier to write about and to branch details from it. Aside from facts and experiences, don't be afraid to dig into what you know emotionally. Grief, love, joy, how to overcome obstacles, fear, these are all things we 'know' and are the universal human experiences at the heart of great stories.
2. Research subjects that you are familiar with but not expert in. For example, most people know what surfing is--they've at least seen it on TV--but they don't know how to do it. So, if you have a surfer character in your story, research surfing. Learn about the moves and techniques. If you have the opportunity, interview a surfer about the experience. Spend time observing people and imagining what the world looks like from their point of view. Practice empathy and accumulate experiences that make the facts you read about have context and meaning.
3. Decide what audience you envision for your work. Maybe you're writing for teens, or maybe for people who are familiar with a particular place. You might even be writing for yourself alone. Having a clear audience in mind will help you frame your ideas. Write down the reason that you are telling this story. Make sure that is what you are expressing with the story. Sometimes this is called a theme and some examples involve love, what it is to be human, how to be a friend, the power of overcoming fear, etc.
4. Get inspirations in your everyday life. For example, if you want to write a children's book, observe children. See how they act, see the world through their eyes, and then write about something that fascinates them. Listen to the news: maybe your brain can conjure up a story just waiting to be written. Everyday life can be an inspiration. Ask "What If?" and ask it about everything that interests you.
5. Carry a notepad with you all the time. If you're on the bus, at work, or anywhere, and something piques your interest, write it down so you won't forget. Even if it doesn't seem to make sense at the time or fit into a current work. Trust yourself. Decide on the following:
   • The story arch- plan when to throw bumps and hurdles in your character's path.
   • Beginning- introduce the problem. What does your character want...or not want? What is in her way? What troubles him? (Examples: divorce, being the new kid at school, making the grade, a place in life). Or start out with something that brings the reader 'into' the book: something that makes the reader read further. (Examples: a coming event, a national spelling bee, an exciting street happening).
   • Middle- add bumps along the way that make the character rise to the challenge. (Examples: selling their house, finding a place to sit at lunch, pop quiz, getting fired, bad love break). Keep bringing on the action.
   • The darkest moment- this is the moment where it looks like your character is not going to achieve their goal or learn their lesson. It happens sometimes after failing to overcome the biggest hurdle (see below) or when first realizing what the hurdle is.
   • The biggest hurdle- this is the moment of the greatest conflict. it is the point in the story when your character has to deal with or overcome the big problem that you set up at the beginning or middle of the story. (Examples: dad gets remarried, new friends ditches you, big test, someone important to you dies)
   • End- the conflict is solved. Your character either gets what s/he wants or doesn't. Whatever the case is, your character has changed or learned. Remember: Your ending is always in your beginning. (Examples: two families are better than one, a true friend forever, A on a test, illusions shattered)
6. Read through your story and edit!
7. Find someone else to read your story and give you feedback. Tell him/her not to be afraid to be honest and be honest with yourself when you say it. You need someone to really tell you how good your story is, or isn't. Everything can be improved. Don't get offended, and don't give up if you get bad feedback. You need it to go beyond your own creative limits, and constructive criticism is a great help towards that. Ask your reader to be very honest and accurate. Look for patterns in feedback. Don't change your vision of the story out for someone else's ideas, but at the same time, don't be afraid to listen. If you let five people read your story and all five stumble at the same point, there's a good chance you need to change that point.

Tips

• Write down dreams and hopes. You might make a story out of one or more of them. A good way to capture dreams is to set your alarm clock about an hour earlier than when you usually wake up, and always have a notebook within hands' reach so that the first thing you can do is write the dream down. Dreams evaporate from conscious memory very quickly, so get it down at once!
• Read a thousand books before writing one. Embark on a brave, focused journey to read authors who intrigue you from all over the world.
• Think long and hard about your characters (who they are, what they're like, what they want, what they're afraid of), setting (time period, location), and conflict (person versus person, person versus society, person versus fate). They make the story interesting.
• Know what you want your main characters to be like. Don't give a nerdy kid a cool phrase if you know s/he wouldn't say it. Know your characters like you know yourself. Live inside your character's head for a day.
• If you are easily influenced by other people's writing, don't read too much. Stick to books you are familiar with and study how the author develops characters, the plot, and the goals over time.
• Edit, edit, edit. Check punctuation, spelling, grammar, and sentence sense, of course--but don't ignore the big questions. Are your character's actions and responses plausible? Have you taken a short cut on the plot, making it mundane or superficial?
• Look to improve your wording. Find the exact word you're looking for: is the character upset or agitated? Research and think about the connotations of words. Try manuals like "The Elements of Style" so you can learn how to say what you want in a way that's clear, effective, and uniquely yours.
• Minimize those little dialog tags: 'Andrew said' or 'Molly whispered.' Without them, how could you tell who was talking?--by giving each character a unique voice and by grounding the dialogue in the scene. People move when they speak. Things happen around them. Use cues from that context to show who is speaking. If you need to use 'said', go ahead and use it because confusing the reader is worse, but if you really picture the scene often you'll find it's not needed. Employ slurred words, an accent, an authoritative tone, a submissive tone, or very clipped speech and show it through the word choices. Be very careful of using dialect. If you must use it, use it sparingly. When you know your characters well, you'll have a good idea of how they would would sound, the way they express themselves, and the things they'd never say.
• People don't generally talk in full sentences. They give one word answers. So occasionally use lazy words such as "Yeah, mmhmm," etc. Do not overuse them! Good dialogue doesn't actually sound exactly like real speech. It's real speech with all the boring parts cut out.
• If you don't know where to take the story next:
  • Try writing whatever comes into your head. Eventually you'll be back on a roll with some good ideas, and you can use them to edit/replace what you just wrote.
  • Take a break. Go out for a walk; listen to some inspiring music; ride the bus somewhere unusual, or even just go do some daily activity to get your mind off of the story for a short time. After a while go back and try writing again. Soon it will come to you. Ideas seem clearer if your mind gets some rest every once in a while. You would not want to stress over it too much. If you try to finish it in one sit down, you will get tired quickly and your excitement about writing to story will go down hill fast. So breaks are good to take about every half an hour or so, depending on your mood, and how long you can sit without totally going blank, but you are not suppose to wait until you go blank, take breaks, they help a lot...with the story and your personal liveliness.
  • Maybe you've painted yourself into a corner. Is the plot really going the way you want it to? Is the scene you're writing necessary? Get to the action (it's there, happening in your head) a different way.
  • Get your mind up and running. Play word poker: grow a collection of single words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs) that appeal to you. Write each on a small piece of paper. When You've got a lot of them, put them in a box and pick five out. Make a cohesive sentence or two using these words. Soon your ideas will coalesce.

Warnings

• Try not to drag the story on. Give just enough detail to encourage both understanding and interest.
• Describing scenery at length can be a dead end (unless the book has a geographical bent).
• It's natural and easy to use close descriptions of people you know well, like your family. Either disguise the characters enough to avoid offending your family or know that you'll be on their bad side for a while.
• Writers block is very common, you will get frustrated but do not give up, take breaks, and rest your mind.
• Change words around, don't use the or and all the time, find some new words. It makes the story a lot more interesting.

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Write a Good Story. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Steps

1. Think of a particular child you know.
2. Think of that child's problem behaviors. Choose one.
3. Consider possible short-term negative outcomes resulting from the problem behavior. In other words, think of something unpleasant that you can imagine happening because of the behavior - but nothing too traumatic. For instance, if the child insists on sleeping in his parents' bed, maybe you imagine his friends no longer coming over because they feel he acts too babyish.
4. Now work backwards from the imagined outcome. For instance:
   • Your son's friend stops coming over. Why?
   • Because your son no longer has his own room. Why?
   • Because Dad turned it into an office. Why?
   • Because bedrooms are for sleeping and your son is no longer sleeping in his!
5. Take the story arc you've just defined, add a beginning (start with a happy child unconcerned with the problem behavior), and an ending (in which the child chooses, as a result of the negative outcome, to self-correct the behavior), and you should have a complete story ready for writing!

Tips

• If this was a project for home use, you can 1) illustrate the book yourself or 2) let your child illustrate so it's a something you've created together. Put just enough text on each page to describe one colorful scene.
• Additionally, since the book refers to an actual problem behavior, you might be able to use it as bibliotherapy for your child.

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Brainstorm Children's Picture Book Ideas. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.