Five Steps of Writing a Great Children’s Book

If this is your first time trying to write a children’s book, then you are in the right place. If you get the basic things right, then you can make your children’s book a massive hit the first time.

On that note, be mindful of the things that we have mentioned below. You are all good at writing a successful children’s book. Remember – much of the success part of your book lies in the planning phase. 

Read on to learn more. 

Understand the Genre

To write a successful children’s book or picture book, you must familiarize yourself with the genre that you intend to deal with. Now, this aspect also includes that you might have to get very friendly with your local library. In fact, if you have a local library near you, we encourage you to make the most of it as it is absolutely free.

The best thing that you can do is to spend time at the local library and read a lot of picture books or children’s books within the specific age range that you want to write for. While you read the books, you will get a better idea about the sorts of books that you are drawn to. 

You will also get a better understanding of the potential features that you see in the layouts and the general structures of the books. Usually, for young readers, picture books are mostly thirty-two pages and comprise under five hundred words. 

Usually, the story is laid out in about twelve to fourteen spreads. So, familiarizing yourself with the genre is absolutely mandatory if you want to write a great children’s book for the first time. 

Write A Character Profile 

Ideally, you must have a clear understanding of what you want to write about in your children’s book. On that note, if you have a vague idea, we recommend writing down a list of things that have something to do with the vague idea that you are thinking about. 

You might have a character in mind, and in that case, you might want to make a character profile so that you understand your character fully. When making a character profile, think about the following aspects:

• What does your character do?
• What does your character look like?
• What family does the character have?
• What are their likes and dislikes?
• What are their strengths and weaknesses?
• What does your character eat and drink?
• What does your character hate?

You get the point – by creating a character profile, you will really get to know your character. While you are working on the character profile, we recommend you let your imagination run wild. The thing is that you don’t have to use every single one of those things in your story.

But you will find that the more you write about the character, the more relaxed your mind becomes, as it will be easier to write a children’s book. 

Choose a Subject You Love 

Make sure to write about something that you really enjoy. Now, the thing is that when you choose a theme or subject that you are passionate about, your readers can tell it when they read your story. Also, while working on the story, you will enjoy the process, and you will get into a state of flow, which will make your story flow much better.

Not to mention that your reader will pick up on that and enjoy the story just as much. Once you have completed the draft, send it out to an editor and proofreader. Also, don’t forget to get a children’s book illustrators for hire if you aren’t illustrating the book yourself so that the young readers can enjoy both – the story and the perfect illustrations. 

Portray a Likable Character

When it comes to planning your children’s book, make sure to portray a character that you like in your book. Yes – you read this right. This is the ultimate way to get things right the first time as a children’s author. Choosing a character that you like personally is incredibly important when you are writing about the protagonist of the children’s story. 

The thing about the protagonists is that they are the central characters of your book, which means that they will be the ones who will be delivering your story to your young readers. Now, think about this: if you don’t like your protagonist – then why would you expect your audience to like them? This is especially true when it is a very young audience that you are writing for.

Your young audience should be able to feel like they can relate to the main character or know the character. You readers should like the character, but most readers don’t want to spend their valuable time getting to know or vouch for a character that nobody likes. 

On the same note, when drawing your protagonist, be mindful of how you name them. The thing is that the name of your protagonist should be believable. The name of your protagonist can convey a great deal about the character. 

Craft a Compelling Plot

When thinking about the plot for your children’s book, you might want to decide what happens at the end first. Now, the reason why you should do this is because the end is usually the most challenging thing to get right. Readers, especially young readers, want a satisfying experience and not a boring one where the character goes home, and it is the end of the story.

Nonetheless, once you have decided on how you want your story to end, then you can start to plot the character’s journey to get there. On that note, make sure that your beginning has that essential aspect of laying out your protagonist and giving an idea of what is going to happen to the character.

You should know that the golden key to a great story is having an enticing opening page. Also, once you get that enticing first page right, you should be ending that page with a page-turning plot. Again, complete the story with a satisfying end, and you will have an amazing children’s book to offer to the world.