5 Mistakes To Avoid When Writing a Children's Book

Hey, Aspiring Author!

Izzy B here, children's book, author and illustrator.

And today, we're going to talk about five things

to avoid when writing your first children's book.

So these five mistakes are really big ones.

But just like anything else with writing, it comes with practice.

You're going to really want to listen to all five.

And number five is my big one!

So you're going to want to stay tuned.

So you hear all of them.

Number one is something we talk about all the time in writing,

but I'm constantly seeing it when people send me their manuscript.

It's to show and not tell.

You need to have action.

Your story should be SHOWING what's happening

and not you telling the reader what's happening.

You should be using way more verbs than adverbs.

For example, instead of saying, Judy doesn't like mushrooms,

you should say Judy's nose scrunched up as mom put her plate on the table.

See how that shows that Judy doesn't like them

because of her facial expression?

These are important when doing show and not tell.

It's like, chop...

It's like really big chopsticks.

Mistake number two is a big one.

And new writers make it all the time.

You know how I know?

Because you're looking at one of the biggest culprits of it myself. Why?

When we first start out writing, we think we need to impress people

by being eloquent and detailed and have tons of descriptions

and to be super, super duper good at writing.

When you have to describe a tree in perfect detail down to the finest

little cracks in the bark, or her hair blue in the wind.

And we have to describe it. Perfect.

No, don't do that.

This is a children's book.

You're not Tolkien.

You don't need to have a whole paragraph

to describe someone blowing their nose.