write children

How to Write for Children

Writing a children's story or writing something that targets children requires a lot of creativity and imagination. It also requires you to think the way a child would and write the story from a child's perspective. There are numerous other things that you also need to remember when writing for children such as:

Establish your target age group

The first thing you need to do is establish what age group you are writing the story for because you need to carry out research into that particular age group and determine what they are currently reading in their school curriculum. By doing so you can establish what words you could use in your story that children will easily understand.

Brainstorm some ideas

Try to think of a variety of ideas for your story by looking at other books you like but the main thing is to be original.

Develop your characters

You need to create and develop interesting characters. You need to decide who the main character is or if there is more than one. Also, if they are human, fantasy etc. You must highlight each character's profile and how they fit into the story itself.

Develop the story line

The important thing to establish is the beginning, middle and end of the story. It is important to remember that normally a story has some sort of conflict or issue that the main character has to resolve. Normally the story line involves:

• Introducing the characters (ie. what they look like, personality etc)
• Create the conflict, problem or issue
• Create the climate of the story (ie. when the main character comes face to face with the conflict)
• Highlight how the character overcomes the conflict and what happens after it

Keep it simple

Try not to make your story too complex keep it simple because children will loose interest far more quickly

Include pictures

Add pictures in your story as this can make the story funnier and will add interest to the story.

Use humor

In your story you need to use humor that makes both kids and adults laugh. Make words up and focus on silly things.

Inappropriate language

Avoid using slang words or inappropriate language, you need to remember that you are writing a story for children!

Write about children not adults

Children like to read about other children so make sure that you write about children being the heroes and overcoming problems without adult help

Test your story

Try to test out your story first with children you know. Note down when children loose interest in a story and add in twist or surprises to keep the children interested.

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