Do you believe this? In vain….
Once at a party in Cambridge, in the circle of educated and successful people, a conversation started about who was doing what. I boasted that I create children’s books. To be honest, I am very proud of this fact. To which one of the neurosurgeons present exclaimed that it was great, and that he was also going to sit down and write a book one evening: he had a lot of interesting ideas. And his wife draws well, so she could illustrate her. I really wanted to answer him that I would not mind sitting down one evening and performing a brain operation: after all, I have seen on TV more than once how it is done.
You yourself have probably heard similar comments about the creation of children’s books: “I could do that too”, or “Why is it so difficult? You sit, drawing children’s pictures, ”or“ Six months for a book of 32 pages? Yes, during this time a novel can be written. “
Therefore, if you suddenly decide to write or draw your children’s book and think that a few evenings with the flickering light of the lamp are enough for you, I hasten to disappoint you. Creating children’s books is a big job that requires certain knowledge and skills.
“What’s the difficulty?” – you ask. After all, writing or drawing for children is much easier than for adults. Simple plots, a minimum of text, uncomplicated pictures. Children are unassuming.
Here are some reasons why this is not the case:
1 – Children are the most honest critics.
They don’t know how to be hypocritical. If they don’t like your book, they’ll ditch it after the first page. They are not afraid to offend your subtle creative nature, to seem shameless or ignorant. Adults – the audience is more tolerant and accommodating. Adults are easier to manipulate.
2 – Children are much smarter and smarter than you might think.
They do not like patronizing tone and moralizing. But it is much more difficult to “hide” your thought beautifully and harmoniously than to put it under the nose of little readers. Try it 🙂
3 – You are very limited in the choice of words and their number.
Do you think this will make things easier for you? Not at all. You need to create something touching and exciting, cover a sometimes very difficult topic using a very limited set of words. This means that you have no room for error, every word is worth its weight in gold, every sentence is priceless.
