THE HOW-TO’S OF BECOMING A CHILDREN’S AUTHOR

So you want to write a children’s Story?

As a grade twelve English project, my teacher challenged me to answer this exact question, and believe it or not, with the right know-how, it’s quite simple! In the last couple months I spent a lot of time researching the best ideas and techniques at my school and local library. I also had the opportunity to go to the festival of Faith and Writing held at Calvin College and hear about first hand writing and illustrating experiences from a number of well known authors and illustrators. There is so much you can learn, and luckily for all you people, I am going to collaborate all of my recently gained knowledge into one blog so you can get started on building your dream Children’s book!

Step 1: Turn an idea into a story.

Write out a rough draft of the whole story from start to finish. Then go back and edit it until you’re happy with how it sounds. Many authors rewrite the story several times before letting anyone else read it.

Step 2: Make worth Reading Twice

A great Children’s story has to be fun for both the parents and the kids because of coarse, the parents are the ones buying the books, and often reading them to their children as well. There are plenty of books out there that teach about how to increase your writing skills, but to get you started, story books often use: rhyme schemes, Impact rhythm, alliteration, Onomatopoeia etc. These techniques help make writing easier to read, and follow along with, especially as a young reader. 

Step 3: Get it edited

Find trust worthy acquaintances, or even an editor whom you think can help make your story better. Mistakes are often over looked by the author, and editors can help clarify your ideas and make them better. The parts of your story that sound good to you, can sometimes not make sense to others. Did you know that Robert Munsch reads his stories to kids and changes his stories by how kids react? Try reading it to kids. They’re honesty and attention (or lack there of) are perfect indicators as to how well your story is.

Step 4: Nit-picky Details

It may be helpful to know that as a general guideline, the average children’s book right now, written for the age group 4-8, is about 250-100 words and 32 pages long. The font size should usually be around 14-18 point font. If your book follows most of these criteria, you might be reader to send it to a publisher!