How to write a children’s book: Don’t over-simplify

By Dennis Mellersh

If the book you are planning to write is a book for children, one of the main temptations to avoid is the intuitive tendency of the beginner writer in this genre to oversimplify the writing, or to “talk down” to an reading audience comprised of children. Part of learning how to write a book for children is training yourself as a writer to avoid this tendency.

Whether your book is one that will be read “to” children or one that will be read “by” children, the advice is the same – if you are writing as if you need to constantly hit your message with a hammer, children will sense that the writing is forced and not realistic, and you will lose them as an audience for your book.

Often when we talk to/with children many of us have a tendency to talk in a different tone of voice, and use different language and context than we would when talking with an adult. We have a tendency to talk “to” children rather than “with” children and have a real conversation with them.

At its worst this tendency can result in talking to children as if they were a baby or a family pet. Carried over into your writing, such as in a book for children, this will result in failure of your writing efforts, particularly if you’re a planning on writing a book that will be read “by” children.

It is difficult for us as adults to remember exactly how we felt or understood life when we were children ourselves. The result is that we don’t instinctively know much about children in terms of how they think and react to different situations.

The novelist John Steinbeck talked about writers generally not knowing much about children in his Journal of a Novel. In the Journal he discussed his thinking concerning how he planned to write about children in his novel East of Eden.

His comments are instructive in terms of helping us understand not only how to write “about” children but also to understand how to write “for” children (which is what we are concerned with in this article):
”I am going to try to go into the minds of children, but more than that I am going to try to set those minds down on paper. And these are not children as they are conceived by adults but children as they are to and among themselves...Most of what I read about children is crap. Grown people forget...children are no more alike than adults.”

Later in the Journal Steinbeck went on to say that in general, children in literature have been badly written, and particularly that they have been “underwritten.”

This article has focused on one important aspect of writing for children. For more detailed and general information, there is an excellent and thorough how-to article on Wikihow on the mechanics and style requirements of writing for children:

http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Children's-Book

In learning how to write a children’s book, you need to read them constantly

By Dennis Mellersh

If you are interested in learning how to write a children’s book, you should make it a priority to read as much children’s literature as you can, particularly books. Your reading program should be an integral part of your learning-to-write program.

When beginner writers think about children’s books the usual image that comes to mind is the typical picture book (lots of illustrations, not many words) that an adult would read to a child less than five years of age, who has not yet developed their reading skills.

However, in professional publishing, the children’s book category actually comprises books written for the 18-years-old and under market.

In order to read children’s books as part of your learning process, the best method is to go to your local library and focus on the children’s section. You should also make it a habit to periodically check out the children’s book section in your local bookstore.

The market for e-format children’s books is growing, so there are electronic versions of children’s books available that you can study on your computer or tablet. However, doing so  is not as effective a method for learning about the traditional the children’s book market  as is reading and studying as many physical children’s books as possible.

In addition to the main genre divisions of children’s books of fiction, non-fiction and those books written in poetic form, there are a number of age categories which you should investigate. Reading these books will help you decide on the type of children’s book that you might want to write:

• The picture-book category (for pre-reading children) is for 5 years old and under
• Early reader books are generally for children 5 to 7 years old
• Chapter books* are for 7 to 12 year olds
• Young adult fiction is directed at 12 to18 years old
• * As the name implies, chapter books are divided into chapters.

Children’s books are generally written specifically for the children’s market; but some, such as the Harry Potter series are what might be called cross-over books and actually turn out to be of significant interest to many adults as well.