Some Tips to Help you Write an Amazing Children’s Story

Imagine that you have always wanted to become a published children’s author. You have a remarkable idea that you think children and their parents will love. How do you know what elements your story needs to make it stand out among all the competition? Just like when you bake an amazing creation, you need certain ingredients in your story that will help it to be successful.

 Here are some suggestions:

·        Create an opening that’s engaging to your young readers:

How can you accomplish this? One way, is to begin with a question that would make your readers anxious to learn what happens next. I did this in my book, Tails of Sweetbrier when I asked, “Have you ever really wanted to do something, but you came across a roadblock of some kind?”

·        Be sure to introduce enough conflict:

If you want to make your story interesting for children, you must have enough conflict. What exactly is that? It means you need to have a problem or struggle that needs to be resolved. Maybe your main character is lost and needs to find his/her way home. Maybe your character is sick and needs to get well before he/she can realize a dream.Perhaps your character is very talented at dancing, or singing, but too painfully shy to perform. If you don’t introduce enough conflict, your story will be boring to your readers.

·        Be sure the conflict involves your main character:

It’s important that your main character be involved in solving the problem, or conflict because you want your readers to empathize with your main character and relate to him/her. You want you readers to be cheering your character on.

·        Remember to make your main character about the same age as your readers:

It’s a good idea to have your main character be about the same age as your target audience. For example, if you’re writing a story for middle grade readers (ages 8-12) make your main character around fit into that age range.

·        Be sure your character changes or grows during your story:

In order to make your story outstanding, you must have your main character learn something important during his/her adventure. Perhaps your character was a bully, but finally learned that is not proper behavior. If he/she is shy, find a way for this person to overcome the shyness and succeed in reaching his/her goal. That way, your readers will be cheering him/her on and they will be interested to know if your character succeeds in reaching the desired result.

·        Make your characters believable :

If your characters are too perfect, your readers won’t relate to them so take care to make them realistic. Remember that we all have shortcomings and your characters should as well.

·        Create an ending that wraps things up nicely:

When you’re crafting the ending, be sure that it ties into the events of the story. For example, in my book, Charlene the Star and Hattie’s Heroes, Hattie the chicken recalls that she might have been just a cute chicken who liked to wear hats, if she hadn’t discovered her other talents. Another character, Wooliam the sheep, mentions that he might have spent his life merely being a “fuzzy sheep” but for the fact that he found that he was a good coach, who was also able to realize his dream.

I hope these suggestions help your to create an unforgettable story!