Kids want to be entertained and have fun so make your fictional stories full of enjoyment.

Try to bring out the humor in your stories. Then, for the more serious subjects, do not be frivolous; keep it honest, if you are trying to get a message across to the reader. Lessons are for the classroom, so make it enjoyable and fun to read, lead the children this way and that so they have to use their imagination and work out what is going to happen next.

Children tend to have a shorter attention span; therefore, they will lose interest quicker than an adult will. Capture their imagination, from the very beginning or first sentence of the story. If you cannot capture a Childs imagination, throughout your story then you will lose their interest and waste your time trying.

You need the young reader to enjoy your short story or fictional book from start to finish. You will know if you have succeeded when a child says, "Wow, that was great, or that was really funny."

You can write a ghost story, kids love them even though they are scared. Young children especially girls all love fairy stories. If you have a young child test out your success on them. Do not tell them that you wrote it or they may laugh at you. You need an honest opinion, so keep that a secret until they have read it.

Parents read to their children well before they can read themselves. Therefore the size of the words are not as important, these books needs more graphics and less pictures so they can visualize the story as you read to them.

As the children grow, and watch TV they will pick up some of the letters before they start school. Children will all learn to read at different ages and different levels so there is no set age when a child will learn to read. Under five-year-olds, normally enjoy picture and letter books.

Early school age children

This group of children will enjoy the fantasy and animal type books. This could include the six to ten year olds. Graphic pictures are still very important to the drama or science fiction of the stories. They are now spreading their wings, proud to show their parents that they can read themselves. You need to keep the words short and simple so they can understand the story you are writing for them.

Teenagers

Both boys and girls in their early teens could still read similar type books. They enjoy reading adventure, mystery, and farfetched animal stories. Stories like the series of books written by Enid Blyton. Her books , mainly worded, although she still captured the Childs interest by inserting seven or eight pictures throughout each book. This allows the child to associate a character in the story to that picture.

The older teenage girls now turn to their idols, or to reading high school romance. On the other hand, the boys turn their attention to fast racing cars, and sporting heroes.

1. Keep all paragraphs and sentences short. As a Childs attention span is shorter than the adult is, it makes it easier to digest and retain the information.

2. Do not write down to them. No one likes you to talk down to him or her. Children are no different. When you write treat them as equals, and use simple easy to understand words.

3. Use simple plots. You will lose their interest if you make the plots too complicated. The older the child the more complex you can make your stories.

4. Keep standard high. Teenagers are more perceptive, than you think. They want to read high quality stories, or lose interest otherwise.

5. Write using their language. Authors writing for teenagers need to sit and listen to the way they talk and speak. Sometimes I think they talk another language than English. By listening, you will identify with the problems they have with others and the type of peer pressure and bullying that is causing frustration in their life.

6. Use similar age characters. If you are writing a book for a twelve year old, then use characters of similar ages.

Marketing children's stories

You need to research, and research the markets for your short story or novel, before writing it. Find out which sells best and which does not. Research the publishers, what word length each publisher requires. What type or theme of story they prefer. It is no good writing a great novel if you cannot sell it.

We have all made that mistake in our lives. Tip. You could always make up stories, and try telling it to your children and gauge their response. If it goes over well, then embellish on this and give it a go.

Do not forget the online market opportunities. Do a search on Google you will find many online publishers.

Above all, enjoy writing for kids, whatever age.