From Idea to Page: My First Step in Writing a Children’s Book

Growing up, I always wanted to be a writer. I envisioned myself living in a cabin in the woods of Maine, writing story after story. Now that I look back on that, I don’t know that I ever pictured what I was writing…just that I was an author. But then life happened and I got too busy to fulfill that dream.

After my boys were born, I read to them all the time. The same books…over and over! I had favorites (Moo Baa La La La and Little Blue Truck among them) and some not-so-favorites (I won’t name and shame here), and I started to think that maybe I could write a children’s book.

When that idea began to take shape, I immediately knew the subject would be our dog, Pico. She had so much personality and quirky characteristics that I thought she’d be a great main character. But I had some failed attempts: I tried to write the story while on vacation one year, but I started with no structure and no idea about where the story was going, so I abandoned the effort. In 2022, I took some time off from full-time work, and that’s when I had time to really focus on writing.

I had the premise and the title and the characters, but I didn’t know how to tell the story. So I started where I start most of my big projects: with a plan. I spent a lot of years as a project manager, and I like steps and timelines and a vision of the final outcome. This approach makes me comfortable, and since I was doing something that was way out of my comfort zone, I had to do something to take control.

I started with a summary document, which essentially allowed me to map out the book. I wrote an overview of what I wanted the book to be, and I made notes about who I was writing for (the target age range) and what kinds of lessons or takeaways I wanted the book to have. Then I mapped out each scene; not the actual words, but what I envisioned happening in each scene of the book. If I was writing a chapter book, this would have been a list of all the chapters and what was going to happen in each. But since this was a picture book, it was more about what was happening on each page. I didn’t know how long the book would be, but this process allowed me to see the story unfold and find the right flow and depth.

Mapping out the scenes also gave me visibility into areas where I might need a little research or some extra creativity. I used the summary document to capture thoughts I had, document important information and jot down ideas that I wanted to use later.

Once all that was done, I felt like I was ready to start writing. And this time, I had a blueprint to go back to when I got stuck. Of course, the story changed as I wrote it, and my original outline looked different from my final story, but the summary document provided the structure I needed to get the story out of my head and onto the page.

If you’ve got a story in your mind but you don’t know how to start, here’s my advice: stick to what you know! If you think best by talking things out, then pull out your phone and record a voice memo of you talking through all your thoughts. You can go back to it later, transcribe it, and see what you’re working with.

If you’re visual, create a storyboard or comic strip to depict the story you’re trying to tell. You don’t have to be an artist to do this: stick figures are a great way to help you figure out where the story is going!

If you think in numbers, start researching word counts of book categories. (Did you know that standard picture books are less than 1000 words?) Map out what that means on a words-per-page basis, or think about how many words you have to write per day in order to finish in a certain timeframe.

Essentially, you can reframe the writing project into something you’re comfortable with so you can take that crucial first step. Once you do, the rest will flow!

Want to see examples of my summary document? Or are you interested in getting help with your book? Send me a note and let me know!

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