Finding Fresh Ideas for Kids Books

Author: Helen Brain
Published: Feb 15, 2008

Finding fresh ideas can be a challenge for writers of children's books. Five simple ways to find inspiration.

Every writer wants to write a book that is fresh and new. But finding the right idea, one that can sustain a whole book, can be challenging. Try these techniques to find ideas that will inspire you.

• Try Looking at Life with a Child’s Eyes.

Many situations that adults take for granted are new for children. Being stuck in a traffic jam is simply an annoying experience for adults. But a child might be wondering where the jam is, and why it's called rush hour when the cars move so slowly. From there it's a short step to a road covered with sticky jam...

• Listen to what Children Say

Children often mis-hear things, because their vocabulary is still growing. A little girl was singing ‘Teddy Bear’s Picnic,’ and thought the lyrics were: ‘Catch them eating underwears.’ Not knowing the word unawares, she substituted the nearest word she knew. But for a writer, the image of Teddy Bears eating underwear opens up a whole new interpretation of a familiar scenario. Just make sure your story is actually suitable for children....

• Observe Children's Interactions

Spend time with children and watch their interactions carefully. The power relationships between children are an endless source of material to write about.

Who is top dog, who is trying to rise to the top of the pack, who gets on with everyone? Who runs away from conflict, and who stirs up trouble surreptitiously?

All these things are intensely interesting to children to read about, because these are situations they experience and can relate to.

• Adapt a Familiar Scenario

Sometimes a situation that has become overexposed or clichéd can be given a fresh approach by changing the setting and characters. Richard Adams did this in his novel ‘Watership Down’ (Rex Collings 1972).

Walking in the downs with his children, he began to tell them stories about the rabbits they saw. But instead of the conventional fluffy bunny stories that a less imaginative writer might have made up, he invented a whole society of rabbits, filled with politics, complicated relationships and power play.

• Listen to Parents

Listen to what parents say about their children. Award winning British writer Anne Fine says this about the inspiration for her novel ‘The Book of the Banshee’:

“There was a time when we couldn’t even bump into friends on the street without swapping horror stories about what our teenagers were doing now. It struck me it was the stuff of comedy.”

Stepping back from a family situation and looking at it as an outsider can bring a flood of new ideas to the front of your mind.

Start an Ideas Notebook

Sometimes more ideas flood into your mind than you can use at once. Write them down in a notebook. Add anything else that inspires you – photographs, letters or other artefacts.

Follow these steps and you’ll soon find you have more than enough ideas to choose from. Click here to read about how to start developing your ideas into a book. You can read about different types of storyline at Plotting your Book for Children.