Creative Writing /Miss Lewis

The Children’s Book

The Bible says—”A little child shall lead you.” Now that a little child has you by the hand, you are ready to write for children.

Create a child’s picture book. It’s fun to do and not very difficult. And the story is short—usually between 300 and 900 words. The age group you are writing for is the 4 to 5. They’re an enthusiastic audience, but a demanding one, too.

Start With Their Interests
List below seven topics that would interest children. (If you don’t live with a small child, then talk with some, or remember your own childhood, or watch children’s TV shows.)
Choose a Couple of Characters
Children like two kinds of characters above all others: children and animals. Decide which you want to work with. Then dream up two specific characters and describe them briefly. Examples: Sally, a five-year-old who makes magnificent somersaults; or Tibby Tailor, the darning needle (dragonfly) that can sew a straight seam.
Settle on a Setting
When you’re writing for children, make your setting an ordinary one or a far-out one—nothing in between. The back garden is fine, or the playroom, or the kitchen. The moon is also fine, or the bottom of the ocean. But avoid Las Vegas, or Venice, or 19th century London.

Pattern a Plot
For small children, a plot should be simple and repetitious. Remember Rudolph with the red nose? Rudolph had one goal: to be one of the reindeer to pull Santa’s sleigh on Christmas Eve. To achieve his goal, Rudolph had to overcome a number of problems, all fairly similar. Goldilocks (in “The Three Bears”) tasted porridge three times, sat on three chairs, and tried out three beds. When the bears came home, they followed the same rigmarole verbally ... and how children love this repetition!
Create a plot for your picture book story. Remember: simple and repetitious.

Manage a Moral
Just about every children’s story teaches a moral. What’s more, children want them to. Kids have a strong sense of “what’s fair.” But they don’t want the moral tacked on
to the end. That went out with Aesop. So before you begin to write, decide what your
moral will be; then tell the story so the moral filters through the action.

Watch Your Language
Remember that you’re writing for children. Keep your sentences short and direct, your words simple and colorful. Appeal to their senses: use words that will make their noses twitch, their eyes widen, and their ears flap. Use alliteration: they love it; and bits of rhyme (not as a poem, just tossed in for fun). Use crazy, unusual imagery —but make
sure the images are relevant for children. Almost any youngster is fascinated by a lemonade lake or a lollipop tree! Just for practice, write a sentence or two describing your setting .When you have finished, check it against the suggestions listed above. Find out your strong points so that you can use them; find your weak points so that you can eliminate them.

Delight With Dialogue
This is tricky. You are a long way from your childhood. Don’t trust your memory. Listen to children talk. You may think that “goody!” is out of date, but watch a five-year- old who has just been told he’s going to the circus. He’ll clap his hands, cry “Goody!” and jump up and down. It’s not out of date for him; therefore it’s not out of date for you, as a writer. One other thing about dialogue for children. Remember onomatopoeia, and make your meaning come through the sounds of words. (Remember too that most picture book stories are read aloud.) Let the bee buzz, buzz; let the wolf howl; let the small girl who has fallen cry “boo hoo.” Children enjoy the sounds and are amused by them. Every onomatopoeic word will bring a chuckle from a fascinated four-year-old. Try a few lines of dialogue for the story you are getting ready to write.

Delete the Description
Description is not a favorite with small children. Keep it to a minimum. When you must use it, make it brief and exciting. It’s all right to describe a lion if you do it ferociously, or a pig if you do it laughingly; but don’t get bogged down in a lot of dull details. Children can be ruthless in saying: “Skip that page!”
Describe one of your characters “ferociously” or “laughingly.”

Inject With Imagination
You are getting old and may be embarrassed by wild flights of the imagination. Not so the small child who revels in it. Animals talk, and dreams come true; mirrors are to walk through, and trees dance; a day is a million hours long, and bunnies harvest carrots made of orange marshmallow. Have yourself a ball: enter a child’s dreamworld and let your imagination leap and soar!
Dream up one or two bits of magic that will brighten your story.

Now Write

Story finished—and revised? Then you still have three more steps.
1. Read it (or tell it) to a real child. Find out where it works and where it doesn’t. Revise again, if necessary (and it will be!).

2 Next, type or print on a sheet of paper the words you think should appear on a single page (a description of one brief action, for example), perhaps fifty to eighty words. On the facing page illustrate appropriately. If you can draw (or if you have a friend who can), that ’s fine. If you can’t draw, cut pictures from magazines or catalogs— they work, too. Continue alternating text and illustrations until the story is finished.

3 Provide a title page (title of story and your name), a cover, and staple.
You now have completed one picture story book. Give it as a gift to some small friend; offer it to the kindergarten of your school district; submit it (if it’s very good) to a publisher.

Gift Suggestion:
The very nicest gift you can give to a small child is a personalized picture book. Just take the one you have written—or write a new one. Give the nicest character in the story the name of your small friend. Add a few special features: the name of the street the child lives on, the name of a friend or parent. That gift, be certain, will be the child’s favorite and will receive the supreme award: it will be worn out by constant and affectionate use.

You have everything you need. Get worked up about it; get excited. Write it the way
you would tell it if you had a couple of real four-year-olds to amuse. Remember: 300 to 900 words.