McIsaac,+Robert+M.

I would like to write a children’s book, for my unfamiliar genre project. I have no experience in writing a children’s book but I read them nightly to my seven year old son. After reading many of these stories, I am intrigued by the idea of writing my own. I understand that many children’s books are written with the purpose of providing a moral message or to teach learning skill. Although, some books may appear to be written for the pure entertainment of the child and provide no coded life lesson, these too offer a learning experience for the child. Take for example, a book about big tractors. The child’s eyes are initially focused on the big powerful tractor, but their attention shifts to what the tractor is doing and how it helps the farmer. The child quickly gets an education about agriculture and its role in our daily lives. Understanding that children’s books are usually accompanied with photos and illustrations, combining the right image with the points of emphasis in the story can make or break a children’s book. I think this will be the biggest hurdle for me. Pictures are vital because the picture is the key to holding the child’s attention. While I am used to writing a long lead in, children’s books get right to the point.

Dear Robert:
==You have a good proposal, if you decide to stick to the story (below), as opposed to the non-fiction style you mention above. You'll need to provide illustrations, but I don't want your story overly dependent on illustrations so as to minimize the importance of writing. It will be good to define the reader's age, so the audience is clear. If the product does not easily upload to the wiki, that is not a concern. I'll be requiring a hard copy eventually. Good luck with it!== Bill Tucker

|| “How to write a children’s story” Get a list of topics together. It could be about a bee or a butterfly, a lonely bumble bee, or a lonely butterfly. Also find a simple setting that a kid could understand. It could be fictional because kids will most likely believe it. Try not to give the characters long names. Also, do not give them similar names or even names starting with the same letter. This may confuse the child and make the story harder to follow. During this process, it is important to understand the difference between writing ideas and writing topics. Ideas are different then topics. A topic is a general idea like dogs, cats, the beach, or a giraffe. These are not meant to be writing Ideas. If a story is written about a topic, the writing will generally lack organization. Think of a writing idea or simple event or conflict, such as a storm, or getting all muddy, or getting lost, or feeling left out and trying to find a new home. A writing idea is more specific then the writing topic listed above. A writing idea could be an explanation of the advantages of a giraffe having a long neck. These are ideas that help provide purpose to your story. Be sure to put a child or children at the center of the story. It should be about the child, or from the child's perspective. The child should be instrumental in working out the solution or solving the conflict. Overt moralizing or didacticism is an authorial intrusion, and even worse, the author is an adult! Don’t try to teach or wag your finger (don’t do this or this will happen). Simply write from a child’s perspective or sensibility about a character doing things that are interesting from a child’s perspective or sensibility. Write tightly and with concrete words that evoke concrete images. 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. Verse: (Especially rhyming verse) in the right hands can be great. Usually it isn’t. Some editors specify “no verse.” If you can’t tell the story any other way, then verse is appropriate. If you plan to use anthropomorphism (giving human characteristics to nonhuman things) be very careful. Editors are sent so many bad stories that feature talking turnips, trout and mineral collections that stories using these can be a hard sell, although brave little toasters have sometimes prevailed. Always end happily (no tears). Now the family is back, the runt is reunited, realizes he belongs best at his very own home, and gets cookies as a treat for coming home safe. Scary stories, even if they have a happy ending, are NOT good for children’s books. Avoid even slightly scary overtones when writing for children 3-7. Create a dummy from 8 sheets of paper folded in half. It can be scrap paper. This is for your eyes only. Place your text onto your dummy (handwritten or pasted on) so you can see how the words & story flow. On your dummy, you can provide illustrations (place images on the pages) to see the overall flow of your story. Go back to your work and make sure a kid can at least understand what the story is about and the vocabulary used. If the kid has to stop and ask "what's that word mean?" every sentence, then you need to simplify (to some degree building vocabulary is good) and that's it. Don't expect that every child is a prodigy.
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 **“Annotated bibliography” ** "Step by Step Children's Writing Course." //Writing Children's Books @ Write4Kids.com - How To Write a Children'sBook//. Web. 11 Oct. 2010. . This website offers step by step instruction on how to write a children’s story. Beginning with; finding your passion, developing your story idea, making time to write, laying the foundation for your main character & plot and creating your antagonist. Later, you’re instructed on; igniting your plot with a catalyst, perfecting your pacing, building a strong middle and creating an ending to your story.

"How to Write a Children's Book | EHow.com." //EHow | How To Do Just About Everything! | How To Videos & Articles//. Web. 08 Oct. 2010. . This website offers insight on coming up with a plan to write a children’s book. They suggest that you should begin by choosing a target age group for which you plan to write. Second, you should choose a genre within your category. For example, this may be a book about numbers, lost and found, or a family story. The site also offers warnings and tips to prospective writers. One suggestion they recommend is creating characters who are the same age as your intended audience.

Herrick, Jack, and Jamie Bresee. "How to Write a Children's Book - WikiHow." //WikiHow - The How-to Manual That You Can Edit//. Web. 09 Oct. 2010. . This website proved to be the most useful because it includes most of the ideas and tips from all other sites I visited. Also, many of the other web pages offering information about writing a children’s story offered only basic short ideas and tips. For more detailed information, I was asked to pay up to $11.00 for the information. This sight was detailed and offered step by step instructions ranging from getting started to having your book published.

Children's, By. //.:: Write A Childrens Book ::. Child Book Publisher, Publishing Child Book, How to Write a Childrens Book, How to Write a Child Book, Publish Child Book, Child Book Review, Writing Child Book//. Web. 08 Oct. 2010. . This site provides motivation and story ideas to perspective children’s book writers. It contains information about how to get your story published and how to achieve publicity for your book. Although this sight is more geared toward the actual publishing of a book, they offer knowledgeable insight about how to copyright your story and characters. This was something that I had overlooked as being vital to any children’s boot writer. Not only does this protect the writer from having their story stolen, It protects them from unknowingly using a copyrighted character or idea and being sued. ||

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