Children’s Book Course – Questions to Ask Oneself

The Bible has the best stories. Can you pick a biblical story and see how well it conforms to our best advice?

Why are you writing this story? Why do you write for children? It’s important to check your motives!

Why do you care about your story? Why should children, parents, librarians care?

Title – Is your title catchy, does it convey the basic idea of the book, does it contain keywords for search engines?

Can you think of some catchy book titles?

From Darcy Patterson:

1. Use Characters’ names
2. Include verbs or strong action words
3. Use a metaphor
4. Find a catchy phrase from the text
5. Rhyme the title
6. Play off a famous saying
7. Include emotion
8. Use something concrete
9. Stick with the simple
10. Be unexpected

And a few more from me:

Use plays on words

Use humor – funny title

Use irony

Ask a question

Surprise

Tell the Story

Use contrast and juxtaposition

Opening sentence(s) – Does your opening scene hook you into reading the entire story? Does it tell you something tantalizing about the main character, the atmosphere, the time, the situation, the crisis?

How is your main character?

You should know a lot about him/her/it. Have you created empathy? What is the fatal flaw of the character? Anger? Pride? Deception? Envy? Avarice? Fear? Gluttony? Lust? Sloth?

From “Writing Picture Books” by Ann Whitford Paul:

…we want our characters in our stories to be:

-someone the reader cares about

-likeable

-a child, or a childlike adult, or animal

-an imperfect character

-someone who behaves in consistent and believable ways

-assertive and resolute; active, not passive

-a problem-solver.

Does the main character rise to the challenges that you put before him/her? Does she/he overcome them?

What does the main character hope to achieve? What is his/her goal? What stands in the way?

What is special? The atmosphere, the time, the language, the place?

What happens to make us excited, worried, sad?

Have you used humor and irony to good effect?

What makes me want to turn every page and find out what will happen next?

Is the end of your story surprising, yet not ‘contrived’?

Good endings have a twist. They are surprising, unanticipated and rewarding.

Length – Many agents and publishers prefer picture books with less than 700 words of text. Best not to go over 600.  Can you convey your message in a few words? Can you leave space for the illustrator? Can you write the story in less than 100 words? Fifty? Try writing your story in one or two sentences. If you can’t then maybe your story needs more  work.

Are you showing, rather than telling?

(Dialogue can help here. Have you created believable dialogue?)

When you prepare any story, have these question words in the back of your mind: 

Who, what, when, where, how, why?

Try and answer each of them in an interesting and engaging way.

It’s very much the same when writing a children’s book. Here is the example of the “Duck Who Forgot His Glasses in a Strange Place” (not a real story, just to illustrate the point) 

Who is the duck? His name is Dr.Cecile I. Forgette, a retired ornithologist

What happens? He forgets his glasses

Where? While out rowing his boat on Fowl Lake

How? He places them on the nose of a crocodile.

When? One fine Sunday morning

Why? He thinks he is placing them on his green dresser. Dr. Forgette is one absent-minded duck!