Kids Story Books | KIDSSTORIESTIME

 But first – I want to pause and look at some common mistakes. Because these are the things you need to watch out for before you even think about sending out to agents.

 The cry-baby little sister. The dysfunctional dad. There are certain stereotypes we take for granted. So think when you make decisions about every character in your novel – can they be subverted? Can you show that boys can cry too, and that dad’s can do all the housework? This goes for race, gender, sexuality, disability and pretty much everything else. Write characters, not clichés.

 This is becoming increasingly important in children’s fiction – and so it should. If you are writing about a character with an experience different to your own, then you need to ensure you do copious amount of research – including speaking to people who live this experience. This especially goes for anything to do with race, gender, sexuality and disability. There are things you can do to help ensure you are not portraying these lives in a way that is stereotypical or harmful. Sensitivity readers are now becoming a mainstay in children’s publishing and authors can even hire their own if they feel the need to check their facts. You should know however that no amount of research ever makes up for the real experience and you should learn from any feedback you have from readers, rather than challenge it.

 Don’t let this put you off writing diversely as this is incredibly important for all children’s writers to do, whatever background they are from. But ensure you do it sensitively.

 Think about what the inciting incident is, then give your readers an idea of what life was like for the main character before then. If the inciting incident is about to send them on a big adventure, then show the contrasting quiet life they had before then. If the big character arc is that they become braver, show them being scared early on in the story.

 Alternatively, don’t go the other way and start your story somewhere that has nothing to do with the rest of the story, just because it is more exciting than waking up.

 Your opening scene should excite, but it should also introduce the reader to the world that will appear in the rest of the story. So, if you’re story is about a girl’s relationship with her mother, then don’t start your story in the middle of a fist-fight unless that very quickly turns into something to do with the mother.

 Of course, this changes if you are writing fantasy where the beginning of the novel is set in the everyday world before the magic is let loose. Still here though, ensure you are spending time introducing us to the characters and situations that will be important throughout the rest of the story.

 Pick one, and stick to it (flashbacks permitting!). There’s nothing worse than reading a story that switches heads or propels us back and forth in time. Try reading this article on Psychic Distance if you need more clarification.

 Depending on the the age of the children you may want to stick with one or two points of view so they find it easier to follow, but once you are writing young adult novels for teens, then don’t hold back from pushing boundaries and being brave with format and structure.

 This is one of the biggest mistakes I see writers make – including myself. When you are trying to explain a world or situation, it can sometimes be easier to just dump that information on the page. And some of that is fine, but too much can slow action and feel amateur.

 This one is particularly for the picture book writers amongst you. Rhymes are wonderful when they work, but I’ve seen writers fall into the trap of sacrificing sentence meaning to shoehorn in a rhyme.

 If you are struggling to make a sentence flow because of your rhyming structure, then try something else. Or try no rhyme at all! Some of my favourite picture books don’t rhyme – it’s all about the characters and the story you are telling.

 All new writers seem to fall into this trap. Perhaps we want to show off how beautifully we can write, so we pen long, languid sentences that dazzle and glitter with sparkly splendour.

 Unfortunately, they also weigh down your words. Keep your sentences to the point and I promise that those metaphors and similes that you do scatter in, will be all the more breath-taking because of it.

 This doesn’t feel very realistic, does it? That’s because people don’t tend to spend their time reiterating things they all already know. Avoid doing this in your own book – especially with parents and their children, which tends to be where the clunkiest dialogue comes into its own! Try these tips on writing realistic dialogue.

 Finally, we have the ending. There is nothing worse than rooting for a child protagonist all the way through a book, only to have a grown-up step in and save the day at the end. Children want to see themselves as having the power to change the world. Sometimes, that might mean asking for help from a grown-up, but the decision to conquer should always come from the child.

 This could be a whole other blog article in itself, and indeed there are plenty around. The more comprehensive overviews are things like this article on how to get a book published, or this one on how to find an agent.

 Agents will receive around two-thousand submissions every year and will only have space to take on one or two. Out of these one or two, a third then never find a publisher.

Mermaid Tales For Kids

 So the odds are perhaps not in your favour. But that’s okay. Because the fact that you have read all the way to the bottom of this blog post tells me that you are serious about writing a brilliant children’s book. And brilliant children’s books are the only ones that get published.

 The other alternative to getting your book published is self-publishing. This shouldn’t be seen as a ‘last resort’ option. In fact, plenty of authors create lucrative careers from publishing independently and it is fast becoming the number one option for a lot of writers.

 It can be a little harder to self-publish in the world of children’s books. Illustrated books don’t always transfer to eBook easily and the market tends to favour print in general. However, there are authors who are doing really well in the YA genre fiction market, particularly for things like paranormal romance. If you are interested in this option, then you can find plenty of free information here.

 Being a children’s author takes an incredible amount of hard work and dedication, but it is the most fulfilling thing you can do (in my biased opinion!) Children don’t like books, they LOVE them. And once your book is published, hearing from those readers makes every step of this whole process completely worthwhile.

 I’ve mentioned the Jericho Writers membership a few times in this article, and it is something to think about if you are serious about carving a career for yourself as a children’s author. Reading and writing will take us so far, but sometimes we need a helping hand from the experts to create something at the level it needs to be to get published. You can find out more about that membership here.

 Sarah Ann Juckes writes books for young people. Her YA debut, Outside, was nominated for the Carnegie Medal Award 2020, shortlisted for Mslexia's Children's Novel Award and longlisted for the Bath Novel Award. Her YA novel The World Between Us will be published in five languages and her Middle Grade novel, The Hunt for the Nightingale was published in early 2022. Sarah is a Trustee for Creative Future, a charity supporting under-represented writers. You can often find her hibernating in her writing shed in East Sussex, with her cat. See more on Sarah's website, Twitter, or Amazon author page.

  This year, more busy teachers and homeschoolers are looking for easy creative writing lesson plans, and some of them have used my summer writing prompts and my Christmas writing prompts.

 So I put together this list of writing prompts for kids. They include some story starters, some funny writing prompts, and some mystery and adventure ideas. I hope these are helpful for parents looking for creative writing activities, too…so their kids can learn how fun writing can be. Then again, maybe they already know!

 If you liked my story ideas for kids, please share them on Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter—I really appreciate it! And if you don’t want to miss future posts, be sure to subscribe to the blog. Thanks so much for reading, and have a great rest of your week!

 Thanks for this post. I think this is a great idea. Since my grandson always wants me to tell him stories and he always adds to them, I can simply give him one of these and let him create the stories. Also, I have several friends who are teachers. I will share your post with them. I’m sure they will appreciate these.

 Hi Bryn, Just what I needed and at the perfect time! How did you guess? Tomorrow morning I am giving a Zoom meeting through Nepris for a class of 4th-graders. The topic is writing fiction. Since I am a Discovery Writer, I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to present “how to write fiction” till I remembered your index card plot illustration from Blank Page to Final Draft page 61. I simplified it a bit. Haha. I’ll bet you didn’t think it could be simpler than what you created. (Don’t worry, I give you credit) I feel confident now, that I will be able to help the students “see” the structure of a story. And then the BIG FINISH. We can let them choose an idea from your list to write their own story. It’s Perfect! Thank you so very much not only for this post, but also for all the tips, ideas, encouragement, and (OK I admit it) LOVE you give and are willing to receive.

 Jessie! You’ll probably be done teaching by the time you read this, but that’s so great that this was helpful! I love it. Lucky kids, getting you for a guest teacher! Thanks so much for the kind words…you made my day. 🙂

 YES! This is perfect timing. Both my kids have expressed interest in writing, and the youngest is getting a word processing machine (a Neo2) from Santa (he asked; how can I say no??) so I might have to print out this list for them. Thank you, Bryn!! <3

 Hi there! Thank you so much for this incredible prompts! I have a little cousin who doesn´t like to write, she says that she never gets good ideas and that she gets bored when she’s writing, so I’ll try to use this prompts to increase her writing. There are so many funny and cute ideas in this post so I am sure that she will find something she would love to write about.

 This is a very generous list! Thank you. Also , it reminded me that my dad always used to make up a story when he tucked me in at night, so good for this too.

 Picture books can appear deceivingly simple to create. But in reality, are some of the trickiest books to write. With the word count being so low, every passage and illustration needs to be absolutely perfect so a child will want to read it over, and over again.