Naima B. Robert – Learn How to Write a Children’s Book Na’ima B. Robert Mistakes to Avoid #1
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AI: Transcript ©
Is your sister Naeema B. Robert here back
again with another video on how to write
for children.
Alhamdulillah, we've been helping sisters to write for
children since 2018 now, Masha'Allah. And along the
way, we have come across
some mistakes that sisters make again and again
and again when they are writing for children.
And I've shared a couple of these before
and I would like to share one today.
And that is
unnecessary
detail.
Unnecessary
detail.
Many of us, when we're writing, even though
we're writing picture books,
we want to describe
everything, right? And I see this happening with
picture books and with chapter books.
We are compelled to describe
what kind of a day it was,
what people were having for breakfast,
Many authors
get stuck in with describing the characters
in great detail, hair color, eye color, what
they were wearing,
you know, what they what they ate in
their lunchbox, etcetera.
So much detail.
And I would like to tell you
that
looking at the picture books specifically, then we're
going to talk about chapter books.
With picture books,
one of the reasons they are actually more
challenging than you would expect
is because every
word
matters.
You only have a 1,000 words, so you
have to be very careful with which words
you use and how.
Remember that with a picture book, the illustrations
will help you to put the story in
context.
So you don't have to
describe the day unless it's significant to the
story.
You don't have to say it was a
windy day or a sunny day unless that
is significant to the story. You do not
have to describe what the character is wearing
unless it's significant to the story. Because guess
what, when the book is actually done,
if there was a reason why she was
wearing a red coat, you can always have
the illustrator make sure that they illustrate it
where the character is wearing a red coat.
But again,
only significant
details should be included
in your text, in the actual text.
Superfluous
dialogue,
there's no need for
it. Every time a character comes in, assalamu
alaikum, warahmatullahi wa barakatuh, warahkum, salaam warahmatullahi wa
barakatuh, how are you doing? Alhamdulillah.
I've seen I've seen authors
use up precious words
on relaying dialogue that does not move the
story forward, that does not teach us more
about the characters and ultimately
needs to be cut.
So if you're writing a picture book, please,
if you've written 1, read through it and
make sure that every word that you've used
is necessary,
that it
makes the sentence more readable,
that it makes the sentence richer
and not the other way around, that it
doesn't make it less readable and sort of
overburden the sentences,
that it takes us forward in the story
in a way that makes sense, that is
logical,
be elegant and beautiful
and flow with imagery. It doesn't mean that.
But it means that you should be very
selective
about what words you use and what expressions
you decide to employ.
Otherwise, your picture book text will be clunky,
it will feel like it's been overwritten,
and you will waste precious words talking about
things that have no bearing on the story
itself.
Focus your attention on the details that matter.
Where you need to draw your readers' attention
to something, that's when you go into detail.
When there is a significant
conversation,
that's when you tell us exactly what was
said. And all of this applies to chapter
books and novels as well.
Again,
very, very common mistake, rookie mistake really is
to go into a lot of detail about
the way that characters look. She had blue
eyes or she had musharif. She was wearing
a hijab that matched her bag and matched
her shoes.
The only reason that you would want to
go into that kind of detail
is if this tells us something significant
about the character.
In the case of the the girl who
has a hijab that matches her bag and
matches her shoe, if this character is particularly
meticulous
or very fashion oriented and that is a
significant part of her character which is going
to come up and be important later, by
all means,
let the reader know that that's what she's
like. And by contrast, if she's not, you
know, that type of person, if she's very
sloppy, if she doesn't care about her appearance,
if she's a lot more laid back, then
you may want to talk about how her
hijab was flung carelessly around her head. There,
you're telling us something significant about the character.
But as for describing every character in detail,
every room that they go into telling us
what's in the room, every road that they
go down telling us exactly what's on the
road,
I would advise you to be aware of
this, be careful of this, and know that
sometimes
that can be a bit of a comfort
zone where maybe you enjoy describing things, And
so you end up just doing a lot
of describing
and not enough
moving the plot forward, not enough developing the
characters, not enough
editor's
gonna have something to say about that. Editor's
gonna be putting lines through, the editor's going
to have something to say about that. Editor's
going to be putting lines through, and if
you send it to a publisher,
even worse. So
don't make that rookie mistake.
Don't go overboard with description and dialogue that
is not
necessary, that does not move the story forward,
that does not actually add to the quality
of your text. So, I hope that that
has been helpful.
Maybe it'll give you something to think about
as you're writing,
or even when you go back in for
your editing period. But it's certainly something that
we've had to say
time and time again to our clients and
our students. So I'm giving this to you
and I hope that it's useful to you
insha Allah. And if you would like to
work with my team and I and if
you'd like us to look over your manuscript
and give you this feedback, this kind of
feedback,
simply go to my website naimarobert.com/
services. Send us information about your book. We
would love to help you become one of
the 222 Muslimah authors that we support this
year, insha'Allah.
Until the next video, take care and remember,
be economical.
Be economical with your words. Trust me. It's
way, way better in the end, Insha'Allah.