Writers and authors in the book industry know for a fact that self-publishing entails more effort and most of the time requires costs to be shouldered.
In this practice, publishers are not in any way paying authors for their work. Instead, authors make their own efforts to have the satisfaction of seeing their books hit the bookstores. Start to write a book today!
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Let’s face it: some kids just don’t like to read. Increasingly, parents, teachers, librarians, and editors are looking for books that will appeal to reluctant readers.
Are you bored over the weekends? You can start writing a great children’s book! If you can work at least three of the elements listed below into your book, it will have a good chance of being loved by all kids, even those to whom reading is a chore.
1. Humor. Making kids laugh is essential to building a pleasant association with reading. But you need to understand what tickles kids’ funny bones at different ages. The humor in picture books is broad and very visual.
Easy readers (and some picture books for ages 6 and up) begin to introduce verbal humor: wordplay, puns, double meanings. As kids move into the chapter book arena they can handle jokes that need a setup and a payoff that’s played out over several scenes.
Dialogue, how characters react to each other, or the situation in which a character finds himself may be innately humorous.
2. Well-Defined Characters. Many kids want to identify strongly with the characters in their books; for reluctant readers, this is essential. It doesn’t matter what the character looks like on the outside (be it space alien, a clown or a talking frog), on the inside this character needs to embody the perspective of the reader.
This means the character is dealing with issues the reader might face, or seeing the world in a childlike way. Book characters must have multidimensional personalities with strengths and weaknesses in order for the reader to care about them and want to stick with them for the entire story.
In nonfiction such as biographies, authors who find an element of their subject’s life that is relevant to the target audience have a better chance of reaching reluctant readers.
3. Fast-Paced Plot. Kids who love to read don’t mind a story that takes a few chapters to unfold, but reluctant readers don’t have that much patience.
The action needs to start in the first paragraph, and by the end of the first chapter the reader should know quite a bit about the main character and have a good idea about the conflict or problem that character will face. Subplots are fine for chapter books and up, but too many will get in the way of the forward movement of story. Keep the pages turning.
4. Concise chapters. Ideally, each chapter should contain one clear event (or one specific point in nonfiction), and have an arc of its own (a beginning, middle and end). This makes reading even one chapter a satisfying experience.
Chapters that end on a high note in the action will make the reader want to see what happens next. Episodic novels (where each chapter stands alone as a short story) are also good bets for reluctant readers.
5. Kid Relevance. This applies to the themes and ideas that form the basis for plots or how an author approaches a nonfiction topic. These ideas should be relevant, meaningful, and applicable to the reader’s life.
Instead of conveying a lesson your adult perspective tells you the reader needs to know, try using the reader’s frame of reference as a starting point. Write to your audience, not at them. And remember, books can be just for fun.
6. Suitable Text. Depending on the age and ability of the reader, the text needs to be challenging but not overwhelming. Strive to write your story as clearly as you can, using active sentences and concrete nouns and verbs.
When writing for a broad age range of reluctant readers (8-12, for example), make the vocabulary accessible to the younger end, but the interest level appealing to kids on the older end of the spectrum.
7. Unique Presentation. Reluctant readers often choose nonfiction over fiction because it speaks to their personal interests. Finding a new or unusual slant to your topic helps keep that interest alive. Humor doesn’t hurt either.
It’s Disgusting and We Ate It! True Food Facts from Around the World by James Solheim appeals to middle graders’ love of the gross while sneaking in some history on the side.
8. Visual Appeal. Authors generally don’t have much say in a book’s design, but author/ illustrators might. Larger typeface, the generous use of white space, and illustrations that elaborate upon the text all help break up the string of words and make the book less intimidating to read.
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During a career spanning twenty-five years of novel, film, and television work, there are two major tools most valuable: the yogic “chakras” for characterization, and Joseph Campbell’s model of the Hero’s Journey for plot structure.
These are not random choices, nor were they selected because of the many intelligent and thoughtful essays on their relationship to successful film or world myth.
Rather, they are important because they create a connection between the inner world of the writer, and the external world of the finished work—and the reader.
A plot structure is nothing more than a tool for organizing events in temporal sequence. While there are more such structures than there are professional writers, few of them meet what thousands of students consider a critical test: are they actually easy to use and apply?
A simple tool, however limited, can be of greater use than a complicated tool that requires years to master. Remember: you will achieve real quality in your writing only by mastering your basics.
The Hero’s Journey, extracted from thousands of years of world mythology, has the advantage of actually mimicking the path of life itself. The “three act structure” does not. After all…life isn’t divided into three, or five, or eight acts.
Such divisions can be useful tools, but they should never be mistaken for some kind of “truth” about existence. In comparison, note this interpretation (there are others) of the steps of the Hero’s Journey, and to explain them, we’ll look at the first Star Wars movie, “Episode IV, A New Hope”:
1) Hero Confronted With A Challenge. “Come with me, Luke, learn the ways of the Force.” This is pretty clear, right? There has to be a challenge, or a beckoning, or the character won’t begin to change—and all great writing is about change.
2) Hero Initially rejects the challenge, :I promised Uncle Owen I’d work on the moisture evaporators.” A real challenge, one that can provoke real change, will be frightening and exciting. A character will usually have some reservations.
3) Hero accepts the challenge. Luke’s aunt and uncle are killed, freeing him from his oath. If your character doesn’t accept the challenge, there is no story—unless the story is about the consequences of not accepting responsibility.
4) The Road of trials. Traveling to the desert town and cantina, getting on Han Solo’s spaceship, traveling to other planets, etc. This is the section where locations and sequence interact. The character travels, learns, commits actions that force inter-action with the environment, and the environment responds positively or negatively, with greater and greater stakes as the story proceeds.
5) Gaining Allies and Powers. Luke meets Han Solo, and Chewbacca, and Obi-Wan, and Princess Leia. He learns of the Force, and the use of Light Sabers, and how to fly and fight and rescue princesses. If your character doesn’t have to grow in order to resolve the problem, you may have chosen the wrong problem or character!
6) Initial Confrontation with Evil, and defeat. Obi-Wan’s death. Or possibly the disastrous attack on the Death Star. One is private and emotional, the other spectacular and physical.
7) Dark Night of the Soul. The moment of greatest weakness. Luke begins to believe he cannot win, and everything he loves will die.
Leap of Faith. “Trust your Feelings, Luke.” The leap of Faith is always faith in one of three things: faith in self, faith in your companions, or faith in a higher power. In “Star Wars” it is all three! This may be the only time in the history of cinema that this was true, and helps to explain why George Lucas is a billionaire.
9) Confront Evil—victorious. The Death Star blows up.
10) Student Becomes the Teacher. Luke is presented with medals, which establish him as a role model.
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The above ten steps are not some cookie-cutter pattern. They are the combined world wisdom about the path of life itself, the process we go through in achieving any worthwhile goal.
There will be fear. There will be defeat. We will need to gain new skills and friends and partners. We must be clear on our acceptance of goals and responsibility. We must have faith. And ultimately, if we have struggled, and learned, and sacrificed, and moved through our fear…we learn and grow and succeed.
And then we teach others. This is the pattern of life, and any time you organize information and events into a pattern even vaguely reminiscent of this, the human nervous system, worldwide, will recognize it as story.
It is NOT some kind of cure-all for bad story tellers. What these ten steps are is something analogous to the eighty-eight keys of a piano. Understand the emotional and life significance of each step, and then “play them” as your developed instincts dictate.
Make your own kind of music. The pattern has worked for about thirty thousand years. It will work for you, too.
Maybe you’re one of those lucky writers whose head is bursting with ideas.
Or perhaps you have one idea that’s been nagging you for weeks, always at the edge of your thoughts. Either way, you’re itching to begin writing.
That’s good.
But before you rush headlong into your story, stop and ask yourself one question: Is this just an idea, or is it a book?
Ideas, of course, are the seeds of any work of fiction or nonfiction. But until an idea is fully developed, until you can envision its beginning, middle and end, that one idea might not be enough.
The experience of writing for pages about an idea and ultimately getting nowhere (or getting a pile of rejections) has taught many writers to outline their books before they begin. But if the thought of an outline sends shivers up your spine, at least thinking your idea through and making sure it merits months of writing can save you future frustration.
Ideas for Fiction
A lot of writers, especially when they’re beginners, get ideas for fiction from their own lives. This can be useful for several reasons: you’re emotionally invested in the topic, you can relate directly to the main character, and if the situation actually happened to you, you’re less likely to be unconsciously basing the story on a book you’ve read.
But remember, just because you find this thing that happened to you or your child fascinating, it doesn’t mean it will be fascinating to thousands of potential readers. Very often, a real-life event is just that–an event. It’s a vivid scene you recall with pleasure, or a family joke that’s repeated over and over. It evokes strong emotions when you remember it, perhaps you even look back on an event as a turning point in your life. But only rarely does reality provide a plot.
When writers stick too closely to what really happened they fail to develop the elements necessary for a good story: a believable main character who is faced with a problem or conflict, mounting tension as that character tries to solve her problem and experiences setbacks, and a tension- filled climax followed by a resolution that’s satisfying to the character and the reader.
If your main character is really your son, you might not want to get him in trouble or throw rocks in his path. But you have to. It’s the only way you’ll create a story that will keep readers hooked and wondering how it will end.
Speaking of endings, if the resolution of your story comes too easily, it’s probably obvious and predictable. Try mixing up real life and have the situation evolve in a different direction. Surprise yourself, and you’ll surprise an editor.
However you get your idea, focus first on whether it’s a plot or a theme. Many times, an initial idea is really the underlying meaning of the story, what the author wants to convey to the reader. Themes should be universal in their appeal– such as friendship, appreciating one’s own strengths, not judging others too quickly.
Then play around with the sequence of events until you develop a plot (what actually happens in the book) that makes this theme clear to the reader. And remember; if you’re using a childhood incident as the foundation of your story, tell it from your childhood viewpoint, not how it feels to you now as an adult.
Ideas for Nonfiction
Your nonfiction book should be based on something you’re truly interested in and passionate about. After all, you’ll be living with this idea for many months. The key to successful nonfiction is to take your idea and approach it in a way that no one else has ever done before.
This means doing most of your research before you begin to write. Don’t settle for the most easily-found information on your topic–your readers have probably read the same information. Keep digging until you find an aspect to your subject that strikes you as unique. Then search through the library and book stores to make sure no one else has already beat you to it.
For a nonfiction idea to become a book, you need enough information to fill the number of pages necessary, depending on the age group for which you plan to write.
Younger children need a foundation of basic facts, but you can also get fairly detailed within the scope of the approach you’ve chosen as long as you explain concepts in a simple and straightforward manner (how animals hibernate, why insects are different colors).
Older readers can draw on a broader foundation of knowledge, and infer connections between your topic and related subjects. A detailed outline of any nonfiction book is essential to help you see if your idea has enough substance and originality, or if you need further research before you begin writing.
Whether it’s fiction or nonfiction, your idea should mean something to you, but also have the potential to mean a lot to your readers. Think it through, add to it, take the nonessential elements away, and make sure it has a beginning, middle and end. Only then will your “idea” turn into “an idea for a book.”
Leap of Faith. “Trust your Feelings, Luke.” The leap of Faith is always faith in one of three things: faith in self, faith in your companions, or faith in a higher power. In “Star Wars” it is all three! This may be the only time in the history of cinema that this was true, and helps to explain why George Lucas is a billionaire.
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