Five Tips to Write a Good Children's Short Story

chillibreeze writer — Pavithra K

Writing for kids - Resources and articles

Writing stories for children can be a rewarding experience both for you as a writer and your readers. All you needs is tons of imagination and a little adherence to some etiquette or ethics, as I would call them, of children's short stories. I emphasize these because I believe young minds are easily influenced and the writer must behave responsibly while creating material targeted at a child. Following these rules will enhance the experience of your readers and make the quality of your story that much better.

Language and word choice – Don't use very advanced words or long-winded sentences. Your readers may not understand them and would lose interest mid-way. Also never use slang/offensive language. Innuendos and racist comments are of course a strict no-no. Always keep that in mind your target audience when choosing the type of language you use. Try to use descriptive and detail-oriented language with many dramatic moments. For a lower age-group, illustrations would be a great addition.

Characters – Let your story have a main character who is as old as the age group you are trying to target or a little older. Kids will generally not be interested in tales of younger kids. Adults should feature in your story but not too prominently - maybe as an endearing grandparent or a loving aunt. The best part of writing for children is you could invent your own characters! Talking monkeys or three-legged aliens are perfectly legitimate characters.

Plot – The plot of your story should have one or two twists. Try not to make it very elaborate as this will just confuse the kids. For example, you could put in a conflict or a dilemma and have your main character solve it along with other characters in a series of straightforward incidents. Preferably, you could introduce a moral angle to the story but do not get too preachy.

Narrative – I would say that children do not take well to first person narratives in the sense an anecdote would be welcome but not a whole plot and a story. Third person would ideally be the way to go. Humor in the narrative would make it that much more enjoyable for a child. Writers are discouraged from introducing horror or overly scary elements into the story. A big-mustached watchman is acceptable but a mutating zombie is not. Kids appreciate detail as well as descriptive narration, so add those liberally. A little wizard going to school is fine but a little wizard carrying a wand , wearing robes and a pointy hat going to school would be much more fun. Do not write in overly baby-ish language. Treat your readers like adults (no one likes being talked down to) who have a mind of their own.

Endings – Always have a happy ending. Do not leave kids disappointed or anxious by concluding your story with an unhappy ending.

Following these guidelines will not automatically make you a prolific children's books author. You must develop your own storytelling style. The story must be original. Kids remember good stories and will definitely detect plagiarism if you have been “inspired” by any other stories. Fantasy with a strong base of realism, real- life incidents and problems faced by children (bullying, change of schools/neighborhoods) and so on will definitely appeal to kids. Before writing your story research on the targeted age-group, decide and develop your characters and be sure to have a “happily ever-after”.

Editor's note: Most articles submitted to Chillibreeze go through a selection process. Only 30 percent of submitted articles are accepted for publication on the Chillibreeze.com featured article list. All accepted articles are edited and proofread for glaring errors of punctuation and grammar. Sentence structure is changed in certain cases and sometimes, entire sections are rewritten. If you notice any errors that have slipped through the cracks, do let us know! (Email us at info at chillibreeze dot com).

Chillibreeze's disclaimer: This is a contributed article and was published on Chillibreeze in May, 2011. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of Chillibreeze as a company. Chillibreeze has a strict anti-plagiarism policy. Please contact us to report any copyright issues related to this article. The relevance of the facts and figures cited (if any) could change after a period of time.

More on Chillibreeze.com

Other popular articles on Chillibreeze

Nagala – A Haven in Your Backyard
Be Your Own Surrogacy Sleuth
How to Pack for India
Ten Tips for Working From Home
Ten Tips for NRIs Returning to India

Out of 5 “chilies”, our editorial team gave this article...

—About our writer:

Pavithra K holds a BE degree in Computer Science and works at SuccessFactors Inc as a UI developer in Bangalore. Arecent undergraduate, she still holds the freshness and enthusiasm of a student, eager to always learn new things. She has no formal writing experience but blogs frequently and writes stories for her diary.

>> Read more articles written by Chillibreeze writers:

More resources for Writers on Chillibreeze.com

Chillibreeze offers Indian writers the opportunity to work on customer projects. We are also India’s biggest writer network and a one-stop shop for Indian writers and editors. The writers’ section on Chillibreeze offers freelance writers and editors a variety of tools to advance their careers. Resources for writers include:

Assessment of your writing, editing and proofreading skills

Writing courses

Expert Feedback on your article

An opportunity to promote yourself on our website

Top websites for Indian writers

Tips and resources for Indian freelancers

Book Publishing services

And more………………..

Explore our writers’ section using the links on our left-hand side menu.