Tips for Making a Great Children's Book

Story Writing:  7 questions and 7 steps

7 Questions to ask:

1. Who is the reader? Do you know your audience?
2. What do you want to say in your book?
3. Is there a message or maybe there is no message?
4. (Is it just a counting book?)
5. What voice is telling the story? Who is the person telling the story?
6. Is the story character or plot driven?
7. How long is the story going to be?
(Will it be read in one sitting or over a longer period of time)



7 Steps to follow:

Step 1
Forget about all the other books out there. Writers often compare what they've written to what is currently popular among children or what has been popular or prestigious in the past. All of those books have been written already, though, so it's best to put them out of mind and focus on creating something new.

Step 2
Review your manuscript and note the parts that you like and why. These are the parts that you should try to maintain after you edit your work the next time.

Step 3
Review your manuscript again and note those parts that you don't like and why. These are the parts that need more work to make them unique and interesting.

Step 4
Read through your old journals and flip through your old photo albums, both times paying special attention to events that were especially meaningful to you. Those situations form the storybook of your life, and they underlie the kind of individual experiences that make you different from other people.

Step 5
Focus on one or two defining experiences in your life as a child and try to recall the details-who was with you, where you went, what you did, when this happened and how it all turned out. Write down the information you can remember in a notepad, including names, places and dates.

Step 6
Compare the information from your memories of your childhood with the parts of your manuscript that need more work. Try to weave them together at points of similarity. For instance, if a character is bothering you because he seems too wooden and too fake, try giving him several personality traits from two different people that were part of an important memory from your past.

Step 7
Continue weaving small parts of your own childhood into the disappointing parts of your manuscript until the narrative becomes more realistic, lively, and unique.