You may think that writing a great children’s book might be challenging, but our ten-step guide will help you unleash your inner writer in no time at all!

Here’s how to write a children’s book that your little one will love

1. Think of an idea

The first step to creating your book is to think of an idea. What do you want your book to be about?

You may already have an idea in your head; if you do… that’s great!

If not, you will need to do a little research:

• Have a look at the books you have at home. What inspires you to get writing?
• Do some research on the internet. Type some words into your search engine of choice and see what comes up
• Ask your little one what they would like you to write about

2. Create your characters

When you have an idea, you need some characters. The idea you have will inspire the characters. For example, if you are writing about a castle, you will probably want some knights, princesses… perhaps even some dragons!

As your book will be short, you won’t need a lot of characters. Pick two or three characters to write about. Think about:

• What they will look like. Are they tall or short? What colour are their hair and eyes? What clothes are they wearing?
• What their personality is like. Are they friendly or mean? Silly or serious?
• What their name will be
• If they are based on real people (if you’re writing a story for your little one, you may want to feature them in the book!)

3. Think of a title

When you have got your characters and idea, it’s time to think of a title for your book. Don’t worry if you have writer’s block; you can always come back to the title later.

4. Start writing your story

It’s time to start writing your children’s book! Bear in mind that because this is a picture book, you don’t need lots of words. 300 to 400 words are plenty.

Our top tip is to just open your laptop, pour yourself a big cup of coffee and get writing! Don’t worry about editing it as you go; keep writing until you’re done.

5. Read through and edit it

You should always edit your story after you’ve written it. This helps save time and allows you to focus on the whole piece of content.

Read through line by line and take out anything you don’t like or think is too complicated. If you’re writing for young children, you should be avoiding long sentences and tricky words.

Don’t forget to spellcheck it too!

6. Set your story out

You’ve got your text; it’s now time to set it out on the page. You can do this on a book-creating site like BookBildr or, if you’re handy with desktop publishing software, on a program like Microsoft Publisher.

With a picture book, you will only want a few sentences on each page, as there will be images too.

Once you’ve moved things around and are happy with the layout of your book, it’s time to add in the images.

7. Add your illustrations

You’ll want to complement your brilliant story with some fantastic images. You can either use your own that you have drawn yourself, or use an online image gallery.

With BookBildr, you can access thousands of pictures and photos that you can drag and drop into your story to help bring it to life.

8. One final check

Before you print it out, check your story to make sure it looks right.

• Are the images on the right pages?
• Is all the text there?
• Have you done one final proofread?

If in doubt, ask someone to double-check it for you!

9. Print your story

Once you’re happy with your children’s book, it’s time to print it out. We can professionally print it for you as a softcover or hardcover, or you can download the PDF. And if you’d like to publish your book on Amazon, we can do all the hard formatting work for you.

10. Enjoy reading it

You can now officially relax; well done! We hope your little one enjoys their brand new story, and that you enjoy reading it to them!