Coming Up With Your Childrens Book Idea

Coming Up With Your Children's Book Idea
Children's books are probably the most difficult books to write without a specific plan in mind. Their simplicity doesn't allow for twists and turns, their prose is not made for existential thought, and their content cannot be too serious or too fantasy, otherwise it will be difficult for the child to understand. As such, coming up with a successful children's book idea can be very difficult.
Other Genres
Other genres have several ways to change the story if you struggle with writer's block:
• Mystery - Don't know where to go next? Kill someone. Killing off a character is the easiest way to waste a good 30 more book pages while you try to figure out where you are doing.
• Fantasy - Fantasy's biggest appeal is that it takes you to a different world. If you struggle with a fantasy novel, simply write more about the world - it does not even need to have a purpose, all it has to do it continue to keep people involved in the fantasy world.
• Adult fiction - Most adult fiction is unintentionally based on a similar piece of adult fiction. If you're lost during your writing, look to see where another book went and write accordingly.
• Non-fiction - there are always more facts, and they don't necessarily need to be related. If you are struggling with a non-fiction book, simply write a different section and come back to it.
Children's books do not have the same luxury. You have a limited amount of space (severely limited depending on the age group), people can't be killed off, and wasting words makes an unsuccessful children's story.
So if you plan on writing a children's book, it is important to have the exact storyline, including characters, morals and plot already mapped out before you begin. To do so, you need to have inspiration.
Inspiration for your Children's Story
Much of inspiration depends on the age group.
0-4 years old

Children of this age are not going to be reading the stories to themselves. They also will likely only be read stories in order to look at the pictures, so simplicity is key. The best places to look for inspiration are with animals, toys, the outdoors and weather. The key is to think of things a child observes naturally (since a child this young is incredibly curious) and are safe (not scary). Babies and parenting are also good topics, though these will be purely from your own experience, so you will likely have an idea what you would like to write about if you choose to keep this as a topic.
5-6 years old

At this age, stressing relationships is important. Stories about making friends, sharing, and other friendly behaviors are a good idea, whether those stories are about people, animals or even inanimate objects. Animals are still a popular topic, though at this age it is a little more difficult to convince the child to relate to talking animals. Also, simply fantasy worlds are acceptable at this age, so stories about princesses or heroes may be acceptable.
6+ years old

After this age, story types are up to you. Exploring relationships, including adding conflict, is okay at this age, though it shouldn't be done in any way that could scare or upset a child. Fantasy worlds are fun, and the child is now old enough that you can go into slightly more detail. But what you really want here is a book that a child can read on their own. Longer, more detailed stories that still use only monosyllabic words are great, and animals are still very popular at this age. Finally heroics should be utilized, because after 6 children have a better time relating to heroes and heroic behavior.
Regardless of your inspiration, your own experiences with children will teach you exactly how to write the perfect children's book. If you find your inspiration in a method not described here, then run with it. Children are often limited only by the extent of their imagination, and so too is that true of children's books.
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