12 Tips for Writing Children’s Stories

Remember yourself as a child – your feelings, childhood memories, worries, and pleasures. Some of your best ideas will come when you get in touch with that child you remember. Here are 12 tips for reconnecting with those years:

1. Set aside time to write, and try to write every day. Even if you can find only fifteen minutes, your mind becomes accustomed to creative activity.

2. Create a system for jotting down ideas and images.

3. Read lots of children’s books, both old and new. Become a frequent visitor to the “children’s books” section of your local library and bookstore.

4. Get to know the field of writing for children: Consider taking a writing class or workshop, attending conferences, joining The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI).

5. check out these links: Institute of Children’s Literature, and Children’s Books Insider.

6. Read books on creativity such as:

The Artist’s Way: The Right to Write by Julia Cameron
Writing Down the Bones: Wild Mind Natalie Goldberg
Bird By Bird by Annie LeMott
If You Want to Write by Brenda Ueland