Writing children’s fantasy adventures requires a vivid imagination, strong writing skills, and the ability to put yourself in the mind of a child. How do you write a gripping fantasy adventure for children? Well, here are eleven tips to help you get started:
Brainstorm first. Think of different ideas for your children’s fantasy adventure. Get a better sense of children’s fantasy adventure by reading a few books on the genre.
Decide on your characters. Brainstorm different types of characters – people, animals, and creatures. In fantasy adventures, the characters are not just regular people, as they could be wizards, witches, fairies, vampires, superheroes, mythical creatures, talking animals (or anthropomorphic characters), etc. Brainstorming characters can help you think of possible settings and conflicts.
Create possible settings. Where and where should your fantasy adventure take place? Your story could take place in the past, present, or future. Your story could take place somewhere realistic or somewhere you’ve imagined. Your story could take place in a magical world that your characters could enter only through a magical wardrobe, a castle long ago, the moon or another planet in the future, a big city at night, or the world in your dreams.
Identify your story’s inciting incident. What will your fantasy adventure be all about? Will your protagonist battle monsters, pirates, or aliens? Will it be about travel to medieval times or a dream world? Will your story be about having superpowers? Think of an event that will change or challenge the protagonist. This event can come from or be caused by monsters, aliens, evil spirits, a band of pirates or marauders, secret societies, or even nature.
Create an outline or story map. How can you make sense of your ideas for your story? How can you make your story flow logically? How do you want the events to unfold? Before you write your story, it helps to create an outline or story map to help you decide on the most important parts of the story before you actually write it. An outline or story map will make it easier for you to fill in the details when you start writing.
Start your story strongly. No matter how fabulous your fantasy adventure is, if your introduction is lame and boring, your young readers won’t go further than the first few paragraphs. Create a strong introduction to set the mood for your story, introduce your characters, and describe the setting. Hook your readers’ attention with a sound, dialogue, action, or detailed description that can help activate their senses and grab their attention.
Write your plot. Your fantasy adventure has to have a strong plot. Exciting and mysterious things should happen. Your protagonist should be able to overcome perils and dangers and defeat monsters or villains, but not without a bit of struggle first. Don’t tell the plot – the problem or conflict – right away. Stretch it out to make it more engaging, more intriguing, more interesting, more exciting, and more suspenseful.
Stick to one problem or conflict.Limit your fantasy adventure to one problem or conflict that is concrete and clear to your young readers. Don’t mix different events even if you have lots of exciting ideas.
Decorate your fantasy story. Write about your protagonist’s feelings (happiness, optimism, sadness, fear, anger, shame, etc.). Use strong words and sensory language to effectively describe and convey feelings and actions. Highlight what is special about your protagonist, the situation he/she is in, and the changes or challenges he/she is facing.
Write a dramatic climax. The climax is the high point of your fantasy adventure. Convey and describe how your protagonist is dealing with the situation he’s/she’s in, how the event impacts him/her and the people around. Highlight the major decision or choice he/she is going to make, as well as the eventual consequence. Your climax should be full of drama and action.
Write a fantastic ending. Even if the problem or conflict is resolved, your story is not quite finished. So, you might want to wrap it up in an interesting manner. You can end your fantasy adventure by showing the moral (or important lesson) through the actions of your protagonist or making reference to a theme, such as friendship, teamwork, or courage.
Good luck with writing your first children’s fantasy adventure!
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