Who Knew Writing Children's Books Could Be Easy?

Well, maybe not "easy." But you sure make writing children's books look easy.

Special note to search engine visitors

If you just now found this writing children's books page:

The people on this page are mostly parents who just followed my instructions on writing a children's picture book using one of their child's problem behaviors as subject matter for a story.

It's a terrific exercise for writers and a wonderful experience for parents. If you'd like to try writing a child behavior book, here's the page to get started:

Writing Children's Books: How To Write A Child Behavior Book

Welcome back

When we were last together, you grew from someone interested in writing children's books to someone who actually wrote one.

Are you proud of yourself? You should be.

Now it's time to make your book everything it can be through rewriting and polishing. Writing children's books is like anything else. There's always room for improvement.

The first thing you should do is go back to the How To Write A Children's Book page and reread it.

I know. It was long. But it was your guide for the book you have in front of you. Before rewriting, you should probably refresh yourself on what makes for a good children's story.

You expect your child to do his or her chores, right? This is a writing children's books chore and I'm afraid it's time for you to do it. Then come right back.

How To Write A Children's Book refresher

Welcome back again!

Okay. You'll remember that on the How To Write A Children's Book page I referred to the story of Balooga. If you think it would help you to read a book I wrote using the same format you just used, then here's the link:

(You'll need Adobe PDF software.)

How Balooga Got Her Friends Back

As I hinted on the How To Write A Children's Book page, I had an ulterior motive when I wrote Balooga.

I was trying to help my child with a particular problem behavior. Talking to her about it didn't seem to be making an impact. Telling her a story about another child with the same problem behavior did make an impact.

I only found out after the fact that I'd just engaged in "Bibliotherapy."

"Bibliotherapy is the process of using books to help children think about, understand, and work through social and emotional concerns."

from Positive Child Guidance by Darla Ferris Miller

My daughter was so enthralled by my oral telling of the Balooga story that she kept asking me to tell it again and again!

Why was she so enthralled? Because she was identifying with the character. After all, it was about another little girl struggling with the same behavior my daughter was struggling with!

That's one reason I suggested the child behavior book format when you showed up with an interest in writing children's books. I wanted to give you a head start by providing a subject your child would likely find interesting and relevant!

So if you downloaded Balooga, you'll notice that the first page is devoted to advice on using the book therapeutically. You may want to read the notes ahead of presenting your book to your own child.

You may also want to check out my bibliotherapy page.

And...

...if your child struggles with cooperative play, you may want to give the gift of Balooga to your child as well!

So now you know why I like to call these pictureless picture books child behavior books. Anyway...

Writing Children's Books - Writing Is REwriting

Let's get down to it. If writing is rewriting, then rewriting is rereading. Time to reread your book.

Some people like to do this on the computer. Some people like to do it on hard copy.

Writing Children's Books - Hint

If you're going to work on computer, you should probably save a new copy of your book. Name this one 2nd draft, and don't dispose of the 1st draft. If you don't like your changes, or you make a mistake, you can always go back to the 1st draft.

If you're going to work on hard copy, put a lot of space between the lines so you have room to scribble.

Writing Children's Books - Writing Is REwriting, continued

Reread your book. Feel free to fix typos and make tiny changes. However...

If you see things you don't like that require more substantial rewriting, just mark them somehow so you know to come back on your second read-through. Right now you're just trying to reacquaint yourself with your pictureless picture book.

How's it look? Hopefully it looks pretty good... and pretty not so good.

Pretty good because you're impressed with a lot of what you did. Pretty not so good because now you're seeing things that you know need improvement.

I am not going to try to list all the things that could be making your book less than perfect. (No book, by the way, is perfect, so don't feel you have to shoot for that.)

What I want you to do is use your lifelong experience as a reader and apply it to your writing. Which parts of your book sing? Which parts of your book clunk?

On your second read-through, do your best to fix the parts that clunk. And don't be too hard on yourself. Remember:

1. You're just a beginner
2. Your child is just a beginner too. (S)he doesn't have lifelong experience as a reader. (S)he is probably going to think your book is just terrific.

Take your time with this. You can resolve to do it today, or you can resolve to keep working at it until you can find nothing else wrong with it.

The only thing I request of you is that, when you're done, you can look back and honestly say that this draft is significantly better than your first draft.

Until you've REwritten, you're not truly a writer. Come back when you've rewritten, okay?

Writing Children's Books - The Title

Here's something easy. Now that your book is in pretty much its final shape, you can title it.

If you picked a fun name for your hero, include it in the title. What I wouldn't include is any description of the child behavior that inspired the book.

"What Happened When Billy Leaned Back In His Chair Exactly Like His Mom Told Him Not To" is not a great title to choose when writing children's books.

Here's a better direction to go in...

Did you know that one of the appeals of fiction - in any form, for any audience - is that it lets us experience danger and distress vicariously?

Lots of people go to the movies, for instance, to experience the thrills of a different lifestyle or an outlandish adventure - one we would never dare take on ourselves.

When writing children's books - or any kind of books - keep that thrill ride aspect in mind.

You can keep it in mind when titling your book too. How about a title that captures the thrills contained in your book?

"The Time Balooga Lost All Her Friends."

Or you could choose an empowering title, say, "The Reason Sonora REFUSES To Sleep In Her Parents' Room."

I always like to come up with at least three or four possible titles before I choose one.

Take a few minutes to settle on a title for your child behavior book, then...

Writing Children's Books - The Illustrations

When I conjured up Balooga for my daughter and she kept asking me to tell the story again and again, I got the bright idea of putting it to paper.

Then I got the bright idea of illustrating it. Then I got the even brighter idea of not illustrating it.

Why not illustrating it?

Well, firstly, because I can't draw. But secondly, and more importantly, so my daughter could illustrate it. I figured the more time she spent with Balooga, the better she would learn Balooga's message!

Repetition is one of the most important components of learning. The more your child chooses to expose himself or herself to your book, the more effective the bibliotherapy.

Remember: you've not only written a children's book, you've written a piece of bibliotherapy aimed directly at your own child's problem behavior!

(I figured it would be challenging enough convincing parents that they had it in them to be writing children's books. If I'd told you I was also going to turn you into a practicing bibliotherapist, you would have thought I was nuts!)

Writing Children's Books - The Illustrations, continued

So you can illustrate your child behavior book yourself and it'll be a gift for the ages. Or you can let your child be the illustrator. The book will be something you did together, and you and your child will have the same pride of authorship in the book!

Here's what you have to think about in either case: because it's a picture book, intended to be illustrated, the point at which you break off each page and go to the next is important.

You don't want so many words on the page that they describe a number of colorful scenes. How disappointing then that there will be room for only one picture!

And you don't want the text so short that the illustrations will pretty much keep repeating themselves because you keep describing different parts of the same scene.

The best picture book will have page breaks that leave one vivid scene described on each page. Makes sense, huh?

And this brings up one more thing...

Writing Children's Books - The Settings

At the risk of urging you to do more rewriting, I should tell you this:

A more colorful story results if you vary your settings. For instance, if you have two scenes taking place in sandboxes, you might consider trying to set one of them on a swingset!

Writing Children's Books - "Publishing" Your Children's Book

Okay, you're ready to print. The easiest thing to do is make each page an 8 1/2" x 11" page. Put your text at top or bottom. Remember the page breaks you thought out.

Consider using card stock for the title page and the last page, to increase durability.

Claim your authorship with a big "Written By" somewhere before you start the story. Most importantly, if your child is going to illustrate, put in an even bigger "Illustrated By," leaving space for your child to print his or her name.

Staple. Place child on lap. Show child that you wrote a book and that you mean for your child to illustrate. That should get some attention!

And remember: if you want to use the book as bibliotherapy, you'll want to check out the first page of my Balooga document above.

Writing Children's Books - Farewell

Okay, I'm leaving you now. Frankly, I wish I could be there the first time you read your new book to your child. But I'll settle for the next best thing. I'm putting a form below that allows you to tell me about your experience.

I love nothing more than hearing about good experiences!

Another thing

There's a page on this site where you can post your book (for free) if you so choose. Show it to the world. (Maybe even with your child's illustrations!)

I would also love it if you could tell friends who might be interested about these pages. I honestly think the world would be a better place if more parents invested the kind of time you just invested in creating something special and unique for your child.

Let me know how it went: