What Writing Children's Books Has Taught Me
Writing for Kids Is Challenging
Kids these days have a ton of ways that they can choose to spend their time. Picking up a book is just one of many and many kids might choose not to do so. Books for children need to grab the attention of the young readers immediately and keep them hooked throughout the story to keep them reading and hopefully keep them wanting to get the next book of your book series if you are writing a book series.
Writing for kids is challenging because most of the time, the story is action based and needs to have good pacing to keep young readers reading without getting distracted.
It Can Be Immensely Rewarding
Knowing that your books are being read by young readers can be such a joy. One thing about children are that they are more open and outspoken about what they love or don’t love about things, including the books they read. If they loved your book, you can be sure that they will tell you about your book to their friends and will share how awesome your book was. Having an impact on someone’s formative years is a privilege and as a children’s writer I am glad and thankful that my stories are being read by young ones.
Inspiration Can Be Tricky
While sometimes inspiration happens naturally, if you are planning on doing this full time you need to come up with new ideas frequently. While I am good at coming up with ideas, it can be a bit daunting at times if you are working with tight deadlines. To stop myself hitting a rut, I keep my ideas written whenever I get them so that I always have something to write about when I need ideas. While ideas can be tricky sometimes, especially if you are looking to write something that resonates with young readers, the hard part is executing your ideas on paper.
It Can Get Lonely
A writer’s life can be a bit lonely. This holds true to children's authors as well as authors of other kinds. You need to be prepared to spend hours in front of your laptop planning, writing and editing, while your friends are surrounded by colleagues or partying after their jobs in the evening. It is challenging if you are a very social person. But if you are an introvert, you might be thankful for the alone time you get to have. It depends entirely on the person. But if you are a writer, you will spend a lot of time by yourself, and that can make some people uncomfortable.
You Need To Edit
Yes, I know, this is obvious but oftentimes we don’t realize the importance of editing. Editing can elevate an average manuscript to an extraordinary one after several rounds. If you are a children’s author, you want to make sure that your young readers get the best possible version of your book into their hands. So take the time to polish your writing, and make your children’s book the best possible book it can be so that your young readers will enjoy your book and will hopefully talk about it and recommend it to their friends.
You Need To Build A Writing Habit
If you are in this for the long haul, you need to write regularly and not just wait for inspiration to hit you to get started. If you want to make a living writing books for children, one book is likely not going to cut it unless you are an outlier. But if you are like many fulltime children’s book writers, then you will need to have several published works under your belt to make a fulltime living. So remember to write even if you don’t have much inspiration to draw upon. Keep writing and hopefully the muse will come and inspire you with brilliant ideas as you write.
Getting Started Can Be Hard
One of the key things about writing for children or writing for any audience is to get started. If you like to write for children the best way to get started is to start now. If you keep putting it off then you are likely never going to start. I’ve been putting off being consistent as a blogger but thought that I will start working on it more often and devote more time to blogging. They say love is time, which means if you love something you give it time. This has to be the case if you are a children’s book writer. If you want to be a children’s book writer, you need to write.
These are some of the few lessons I have learned in my time as a children’s author. I always wanted to write for children over adults and if you are like me, and prefer to write for children or even if you like to write for adults too, I hope you found this article helpful and most of all I hope it inspires you to keep going or get started on your writing journey as a children’s book writer.
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