How to Write a Children's Story

Video Transcript

"Hi! I’m Angela Sage Larsen. On behalf of expertvillage.com, today, we’re going to talk about publishing your own children’s story. Please visit my website at petalwinkthefairy.com. Now, here comes the most important part of writing your children’s story, which is writing your children story. There are a couple of questions that you’re going to want to consider, so I’m going to present those questions to you to answer for yourself, but I’ll also tell you a little bit about what I thought about when I wrote my book Petalwink Learns to Fly. First, you’re going to want to think about who is your reader. Who is this book for? Now for myself, I thought of my ideal reader as myself as a little girl because I remember the feeling that I had when I believed in fairies and when I let my imagination roam and go wild. It was such a fun feeling so I wanted to impart that feeling to other little girls. So as I was writing, I kept thinking about what I was thinking about when I was six or seven-year-old little girl. You also want to think about what you want to say. Does your book have a message? Is it for a special cause or is it just an alphabet book or a counting book? So you just want to keep thinking about what is that you want this to say. Every time you’re writing a page or writing a word, does this word or does this sentence support your overall vision for the book. You also want to think about whose voice is it in. When I wrote the Petalwink book, I debated do I want Petalwink to tell her story or do I want it to be a narrator. It turned out, that it was a narrator that told the story. It’s also a fun to think about what if the main character of your story was telling the story, as if it were an autobiography. You want to think about is it character driven or is it plot driven. The differences between the two is, if you have a very well-developed character, it doesn’t matter what circumstance they’re in, your story is going to enfold as to how the character reacts to the circumstances. On the other hand, if your story is plot driven, it’s all about the action what happens next. You want to think about how long your story is. It’s important for children’s stories that it’s something that they can read in one sitting. Is it a bedtime story; is it something for the daytime? Think about how long it should be. Also, in thinking about the creative process, remember that it’s important to keep going. Set aside time to write everyday, and if there is not time to write, then you can consider that your incubation process. Incubation just means that you’re going to take a break and you are going to let it sit, and when you come back to it it’s going to be fresh and you will be newly inspired. The important thing is don’t incubate too long, you always want to go back and make sure you finish your story."