Writing a Children's Book

Lesson 2: Planning Your Book.

How to Plan Your Book.

There are several ways of planning a book, but the one I’m going to show you in this section is one of the most straightforward.

We have already seen how questions and facts can be turned into a story idea. The next step is to test the idea and see whether it is strong enough to be turned into a viable children’s book.

You will be hearing the word strong a lot in this course. Lack of strength is a major cause for rejection of children’s book manuscripts.

It is easier to understand the planning process if you look at a story as a mathematical equation. A good idea is very important, but there’s a lot more to it than that. Here is the equation, reduced to its simple form.

Idea + How/Why Reason = Situation. Situation + Result +Action + Result = Story.

Here is an actual simple plan that resulted in a published book.

Idea - What if someone had a pet unicorn?

How/Why Reason – Q. How could you have a unicorn without attracting attention? A. It’s a pocket-sized one. It came from the pet shop.

Situation – A boy buys a pocket unicorn from a pet shop.

Result – He has a rare pet with a rare sense of its own importance.

Action – He has to work out how to handle its demands.

Result – He gains the upper hand by refusing to be bullied.

Here is the storyline rendered as a brief synopsis.

A lonely child buys a pocket unicorn as a pet, but because it will eat only rose petals and drink only spring water, it’s a problem! Then it demands a silk pavilion and silver chalice for its food... Of course, the pet-shop it came from denies ever stocking unicorns, and our hero knows he can’t just let pets loose... somehow he must learn to handle the pocket unicorn and win its respect.

Characters. The characters had to match the type and length of the projected book. As this is a RS novel, it was short, and aimed at readers of eight or so. Therefore, the protagonist was a boy of about that age. Other characters in the story included the pet shop owner, the boy’s elder brother, the boy’s dad, a neighbour and the unicorn itself.

The brother was older and was always reading. This allowed him to accompany the protagonist to the pet shop, but made him vague enough not to notice what his brother bought.

Themes One theme is wants Vs needs.

The unicorn wants things the child can’t provide. It doesn’t need them.

A second theme is reasonable obligation. How much obligation does the child have to a demanding pet?

There is also a somewhat sneaky “hidden” theme. Adults reading between the lines will spot it, but children may not. This doesn’t matter. Just because child readers fail to see parallels between Perren’s problems when his unicorn demands things he can’t give it and their own parents’ problems when they do likewise, doesn’t mean the theme has failed. It’s always better for a book to work on more than one level.

To plan your own book, look at your idea. Ask yourself how or why this idea can be turned into a Situation.

X does Y, therefore Z happens.

Once you have your Situation, look at it hard and critically. Ask yourself a question.

Why is this important? or Does this matter?

If the situation isn’t important to the protagonist, and if the situation can be solved or left unsolved without it mattering, then your idea is weak. Don’t ever write a book with a weak idea.

Let’s look at Perren and his pet. Does it matter if the pet demands things it can’t have?

Yes, because it ruins the owner/pet relationship.

Is it important for Perren to solve the problem?

Yes, because if he doesn’t, he’ll have to abandon the pet or return it (and feel a failure) or else suffer being bullied.

Look at the central idea/situation of “The Orange Outlaw”.

Does it matter if the painting is never found?

Yes, because stealing is wrong and thieves shouldn't profit from wrongdoing. Uncle Warren will feel an obligation to his friend. The children don't want to see Uncle Warren discomforted. Other people in the block will be under suspicion.

If your idea/situation is important, then look at the central problem or goal and ask yourself this;

What does the Protagonist do about it?

You may come up with several answers to this. You should always pick the most interesting one.

Next question: What happens next?

The answer to this depends partly on the level of the book. If it is a short JCB or RS novel, then the protagonist will make between one and three attempts to solve the problem/achieve the goal. For example, in “The Pocket Unicorn”, Perren first tries to comply with the unicorn’s demands, and then tries (and fails) to return it to the shop. In a longer book, more complex solutions will be tried.

Depending on the length of the book, you might ask the “What happens next?” question five or more times.

Next, you decide how the protagonist solves the problem. Note that the solution should come from the protagonist. The problem shouldn’t be solved by someone else.

Finally, you decide how the story should end.

When all these questions and responses are written down in order, you have a skeleton plan.

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