Timespans and Young Children's Stories

 

 

 

 Contributed by Karen Cioffi, Children's Writer

In children’s books, especially those for toddlers through early elementary age, you’ll notice a common thread: the plots often unfold over a very short period. Sometimes a story spans a single day, or even just a couple of hours. This isn't a coincidence or a mass mistake; it’s a deliberate, developmentally appropriate storytelling strategy.

So, why do young children’s stories tend to have short time spans? And why does that technique work best for the intended audience?
 

HERE ARE 6 REASONS

1. Young Children Live in the Present
Early childhood is marked by a strong focus on the here and now. Very young children don’t yet grasp abstract concepts like "next week" or "last year" in the way adults or older kids do. 

Because of this, stories with timelines that mirror a young child’s own sense of time feel familiar and understandable.

Take “The Snowy Day” by Ezra Jack Keats as an example. The entire story takes place over one day. The plot is simple: Peter explores outside after a snowfall. He wakes up, plays outside, comes back home, and realizes snow melts, but that’s okay. The simplicity and the connection to a child’s daily rhythm are what make it work.

2. Short Timespans Fit Short Attention Spans
Preschoolers and early elementary children have shorter attention spans. A story that spans weeks or months would require multiple plot threads (lines of action that contribute to the overall story), character development over time, and more transitions. That kind of story can be too much for a child to comprehend.

Instead, stories with short time spans offer a tight, manageable narrative. 

“Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak is a classic case. The entire story seems to take place in one evening. Mischievous Max is sent to his room, and he imagines sailing away to the land of the Wild Things, to return home “while supper was still hot.” 

It’s adventurous yet tightly contained. This allows young readers to follow the plot without getting lost, which is essential for comprehension and enjoyment.

3. Emotion and Growth Can Happen Quickly
Even in a short time, a child can go through big emotional arcs, and so can characters. In real life, a child can go from anger to sadness to joy in a matter of minutes. Children's books reflect this emotional truth.

In “Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse” by Kevin Henkes, Lilly adores her teacher but feels betrayed when he takes away her beloved purse. All this unfolds during a single school day. Lilly goes through shame, frustration, reflection, and eventually forgiveness, all within one plot setting. This mirrors how young children process feelings, often quickly and intensely.

4. Routine Structures Create Comfort and Engagement
Many stories for young children are built around routines: getting ready for bed, going to school, visiting Grandma. These events naturally fit into short time spans and help children see themselves in the story. They recognize the sequence of events and anticipate what might come next.

“Goodnight Moon” by Margaret Wise Brown is the ultimate example of a time-bound, comforting bedtime story. The entire plot takes place as a little bunny says goodnight to everything in his room. It’s about the passage of a few quiet moments, and that’s exactly what makes it so connecting and calming for children.

5. Simpler Plots Allow for Stronger Repetition
Short time spans often go hand in hand with simple plots. That simplicity makes space for repetition, which is crucial for young learners. Repetition builds language skills, memory, and anticipation.

“If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” by Laura Numeroff features a consequential plot that loops back to the beginning. The story’s events all stem from a single action and unfold quickly, with cause-and-effect building rapidly. 

The entire story feels like it could take place in an hour, possibly two. This tightly packed, fast-moving chain of events keeps kids engaged and reinforces comprehension through predictability.

6. Visuals and Text Work Hand in Hand
In picture books and early readers, the illustrations often do as much storytelling as the words. A shorter time span allows for a clearer visual narrative, as the illustrations can stay consistent with setting, time of day, and characters’ outfits or expressions.

In “The Adventures of Planetman: The Case of the Stranded Bear” by Karen Cioffi, Thomas and his friends (environmental superheroes) spot a polar bear cub stranded on an ice block that’s heading out to sea. They jump into action to save the bear. 

Set in Churchill, Canada, the story takes place within an hour or two, and the bold and fun illustrations capture the setting, movement, and mood. This helps maintain the young reader’s attention span and helps in understanding what’s happening in the scenes. 

SUMMING IT UP

Short time spans in young children’s stories are a smart storytelling strategy. They match the developmental stage of the audience, emotional rhythms, and deliver relatable and meaningful stories in a form that’s just right for young minds.

By keeping plots close to home and close in time, authors open the door for children to not only understand a story but to see themselves in it. And that’s what children’s authors should want to accomplish.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 

Karen Cioffi is an award-winning children’s author, working ghostwriter, editor, and self-publishing specialist. If you’d like to learn more about writing for children or  need help with your story, visit Writing for Children with Karen Cioffi.

 

You can check out Karen’s books HERE.

Connect with Karen on SOCIAL MEDIA. 

 

Get Your Book Into Libraries

By Terry Whalin (@terrywhalin) 

While there are many different ways and places to sell your book, I rarely see articles about how to get your book into libraries. In this article I want to give you some ideas and resources for your books.  If you are counting on your publisher or someone else to take these actions, I encourage you to use your own passion for your book to take action with libraries.

Through the years, I’ve learned libraries have a system to acquire books for their collection. If you put your book in the donation box inside the library, from my experience, those books go into a place where the library sells books to the public and not into the collection (where they are available to the public for years). There are over 120,000 libraries in the United States with over 100,000 of those school libraries. Even if you focus on the 17,000 public libraries, that amounts to many books, and I would love to have my books in those libraries.

I am a regular user of my local library, and I hope you are as well. Years ago when my biography of Billy Graham released, I checked with my local librarian about the book and they ordered the hardcover version of my book and put it into the collection. I understand libraries have limited space for books and their collection is always in motion. When I checked again a few years later, that book was no longer in the collection. I did find my book in a couple of other libraries where people can ask for it and read it.

When I searched my local library for my own name, I found one book, 10 Publishing Myths. I noticed they have three copies, and all three copies were available. The library allows patrons to rate books—so I added my rating to 10 Publishing Myths (yes five stars).  I also checked out my book. Then I searched for Book Proposals That Sell, and nothing came up and I knew my new book was not in my local library. The system offered me to use a tool called Prospector (which searches).  I found my book in one library—but the book was my first edition and not my revised and current book.

Midwest Review, a respected publication from libraries, reviewed Book Proposals That Sell (follow this link to look at the review. Jim Cox, Editor-in-Chief wrote, “If you only have time to read one ’how to’ guide to getting published, whether it be traditional publishing or self-publishing, “BookProposals That Sell” is that one DIY instructional book.” 

I reached out to my library reference librarian and asked her about how to get my new book into the collection. I sent this quote from Jim Cox at Midwest Review in my request and I took an additional step. I have prepared a one page library information sheet. If you check this sheet, you will see that it is targeted for libraries. Anyone can print this single page, then take it to their local library and request the book. 

I have several action steps for you from this article:

1. Print my one-page sheet (use this link) and take it to your local library and request my book for your library. 

2. Use this sheet as a template for your own book. I’ve uploaded my Word document (this link). Download it then rework it for own book request form, then promote it to your audience and encourage them to request your book in their library.

3. After your book gets in your library, do your best to promote the library book to others, encouraging them to check it out and use the book (which will keep it in the collection). For example, I belong to a local group of writers. Now that I know our local library has my 10 Publishing Myths, I will make a regular effort to tell the group and encourage them to check out the book and use it.  I belong to their local online group, and I can post a little note about the group which would include a link to the exact place in the library where the writer can put my book on hold and use it. Libraries have budgets to purchase books for their patrons—especially ones they have requested. As an author and a local user of your library, you can tap into this resource.

Our lives in publishing are not easy but are possible. I hope in this article along with part two next month, I’ve given you some ideas and encouragement to keep moving ahead. What steps are you going to take to get your book into libraries? Let me know in the comments below. 

Tweetable:

Take some actions to get your book into libraries and follow these specific insights from author and editor Terry Whalin: https://bit.ly/4vKHLlp #writinglife #pubtip (ClickToTweet)

W. Terry Whalin, a writer and acquisitions editor lives in California. Get Terry’s newsletter and a 87-page FREE ebook packed with writing insights. Just follow this link to subscribe. A former magazine editor and former literary agent, Terry is an acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing. He has written more than 60 nonfiction books including  Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams and Billy Graham. Get Terry’s recent book, 10 Publishing Myths for only $10, free shipping and bonuses worth over $200. To help writers catch the attention of editors and agents, Terry wrote his bestselling Book Proposals That $ell, 21 Secrets To Speed Your Success. His website is located at: www.terrywhalin.com. Connect with Terry on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Writing Goals: Front and Center

Contributed by Karen Cioffi, Children's Writer

As a writer, you have to move forward to keep up with the onslaught of books and authors in the book publishing arena. And you especially need to be sure you’re staying in alignment with your writing goals. 

This means you need to stop every now and then to evaluate your core goals and whether you’re actually heading in that direction.

Every marketer will tell you that at the beginning of each year, you need to create a list of core or major goals. It’s important to make your goals realistic and attainable, and not to burden yourself with too many.

Three is a good number of writing goals, not too few, not too many. Then, under each goal, list a few tasks that you will do on a daily or weekly basis to help you reach your objectives.

In addition to writing your goals down in a document, they need to be printed and kept visible. It’s important to put them somewhere you’ll be sure to notice every day. You might put your list on your computer, inside your laptop case, on top of your daily planner, or on the inside of a kitchen cabinet you open every day.

You get the idea: your writing goals need to be visible each and every day. Not just visible, though, they need to be read each and every day.

Why is it important to keep your writing goals front and center?

Here’s another question to help answer that question: Did you ever hear the expression, ‘Out of sight, out of mind?’

That’s your answer.

On January 1st of ‘any year,’ you may tell yourself, and maybe even write it down, that you will:

1. Write a minimum of five pages of your new book each week.
2. Effectively market your published books.
3. Submit articles to three paying magazines every month.

Okay, that’s great. But, suppose it’s now July, and you haven’t even written 10 pages of your new book, and you haven’t gone past the very basics of promoting your published books.

What happened to your writing goals?

Easy. You didn’t keep your goals list front and center, so you got sidetracked.

While you may have had the best of intentions on January 1st, if you don’t keep those writing goals visible, it’s difficult to stay on course.

Maybe you decided to add the writing of unrelated ebooks to your workload. 

Maybe you decided to do book reviews and started a critique group of your own. 

Maybe you devoted too much time to social networking and your online groups.

These additions may not necessarily be a bad thing, but before you continue on, ask yourself three questions:

1. Are these additions to your workload moving you in the direction of your primary writing goals?
2. Are they actually keeping you from attaining your goals?
3. Are they providing some kind of income?

If your answers to these questions are NO, YES, NO, then you need to step back, redirect your steps, and get back on track. If you keep your writing goals front and center, you’ll be amazed at how you automatically work toward achieving them.

And, interestingly, it seems once you have that focus, the universe somehow aligns itself with you and things start falling into place.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 

Karen Cioffi is an award-winning children’s author, working ghostwriter, rewriter, and coach. If you need help with your story, visit Karen Cioffi Writing for Children. 

You can check out Karen’s books HERE.

Connect with Karen on SOCIAL MEDIA. 
 

 

 

Increase Your Productivity

 

By Terry Whalin (@terrywhalin)

Because I’m involved in publishing, publishers and authors will send me books to review. As a literary agent or editor, writers will send email pitches or book proposals or manuscripts in the mail for consideration. If I am not consciously organizing this material, it does not take long for the paper and books to overwhelm my workspace and bottleneck any level of productivity. 

Maybe you’ve had this experience where the piles around you grow to such a level that you can’t accomplish anything because you spend half of your time looking for a particular item. I’ve walked into the offices of some editors, and they have paperwork piled everywhere. Some can barely reach their computer and desk because of the work piled around them. These editors have learned to work in the middle of such chaos, but it doesn’t work for me. 

Another editor friend is so organized that she has each of the books on her shelf alphabetized by the author’s last name. I’m definitely not that organized! The key to productivity for your publishing dreams is to create a system to tame the paper tigers in your life, the time wasters such as physical mail and email. 

Let’s return to the basic time wasters and find a solution for each one. 

First let’s tackle your email. There is no rule that you have to read or respond to every single email. In fact, it is unrealistic to have this expectation. Also reevaluate your participation in online email groups with high volume participation. What value are you getting from this group? Can you drop out or go into a digest format and skim the responses? It is worth your examination to find a more effective way to handle these emails. 

Veteran coach and management consultant David Allen has written a best-selling book I recommend called GETTING THINGS DONE. For every email or physical mail in your in-basket, Allen recommends you determine first, “Is it actionable?” If not, it goes into the trash, begins a tickler file so you can act on it later, or is filed for reference in a place you can retrieve it. If you look at the item and decide you can take action, then in less than two minutes, handle it (do it), delegate it (to someone else) or defer it (take action at a later date and set a specific time). These three steps move the items out of the holding pattern and into action or productive steps. 

Combined with these steps, Allen recommends you process the top item first, then the other items one at a time, and you never put anything back into the “in” basket. Use these steps as you handle your regular mail as well as your email. 

It’s important for each of us as writers to experiment and adopt whichever habits will work for your writing life and increase your productivity. I’ll have more insights next month with a second part about this topic of productivity. Each of us is on a journey to discover and use what will work for our writing life. 

Tweetable:

Want to increase your productivity for your writing life? Discover some new ideas from this prolific author and editor in this article. #writinglife #pubtip (ClickToTweet)

W. Terry Whalin, a writer and acquisitions editor lives in California. Get Terry’s newsletter and a 87-page FREE ebook packed with writing insights. Just follow this link to subscribe. A former magazine editor and former literary agent, Terry is an acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing. He has written more than 60 nonfiction books including  Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams and Billy Graham. Get Terry’s recent book, 10 Publishing Myths for only $10, free shipping and bonuses worth over $200. To help writers catch the attention of editors and agents, Terry wrote his bestselling Book Proposals That $ell, 21 Secrets To Speed Your Success. His website is located at: www.terrywhalin.com. Connect with Terry on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

The Story Behind My “The more you. Know…” Motto

Making Publishing Decisions the Frugal Way

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson, novelist, poet, and
author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers

 

The internet spreads a cruel notion among new authors. They are led to believe the well-respected publisher they are “sure” to acquire employs a magical entity who will apply literary voodoo to their manuscript and come up with the perfect book they dream of. The truth is authors might achieve that dream better by publishing their book themselves like Faulkner or Hemingway did or hire someone (or many someones) to achieve that goal. To carry that idea a little further, they might have to do much of what they think they’ll avoid with traditional publishers anyway. The stories we hear about the does, don’ts, and what ifs are often fairy tales borrowed from the centuries before this new millennium.

A more practical way to make publishing choices is to make a list weighing the suitability of the title of your WIP (Word in Progress), the author’s preferences, personality, and pocketbook and then break each of those categories into as many as an author can determine are applicable to their project. The graph you build will not make the decision for you—the idea that it’s always your choice is usually a bit of a fairytale, too. But it will give you a more realistic expectation for your WIP as well gaps in learning you still need to do. That process is never ending. 

 

Your list would look something like this. 

1.The title. 
    a. Some genres—even some writing styles—are simply

more difficult to get into print; that range of difficulty can

vary with the different aspects of publishing process from

covers to formatting, to interior design, to developing 

index that librarians expect in nonfiction books.

b. Some titles depend on publication within a current

timeframe that cannot wait for the traditional search for an

agent or publisher. Once a contract with a publisher is

signed, it can easily take a year to get a book to library and

bookstore shelves.

2. The author’s personality. 

a. How honest can the author be about their own strengths 

and weaknesses.

b. How willing is an author to learn what it takes to partner

with publishers or those they must hire.
3. The author’s preferences.

a. How flexible can the author be when they meet unexpected exigencies.

b. Can the author welcome input/demands regarding their creative work, or—minimally—be willing to ask or negotiate with a publisher’s team or those they must hire.

c. Some authors go in search of an agent before they are aware that most take about 15% of the royalty a publisher allots to what they think will be the author’s “share.”

4. The author’s pocketbook.

a. In any publishing scenario, there will be unexpected expenses—sometimes insurmountable. The most disappointing is ending up with a publisher who isn’t a true publisher, that is, it doesn’t cover important needs like marketing or charges hefty fees for what the author could better do themselves.

5. Time Considerations. That would be for the tune the author needs to invest to learn more about the different aspects or the process they believe is right for their situation as well how quickly the book must be available to the public to accommodate current or coming news cycles.

a. This list is long on possibilities and includes most

everything from marketing and PR skills like speaking,

making videos, etc. to the basics of writing a successful

query letter.

b. Most experts strongly suggest that the book cover not be

one of those you hope to do yourself, even if the author is

an artist. Book covers require a graphic artist with

marketing knowledge, knowledge of printing in color and

the delicate mathematics needed to make the cover fit

many elements of a book from book dimension to weight

of the paper to width of the spine.

 

You can see that both the success and joy of your publishing journey will depend on what you know. I borrowed the phrase “The more you know…” from the hours of TV I spent watching MSNBC on a cruise when their own ad campaign took place of paid ads to meet cruise system parameters. It started to make more sense when I finally turned my computer on to tackle the self-editing project I had planned for sea days. I had already spent a few years trying to sift through rumors at expensive writer’s conferences and critique groups populated by others as new to the publishing industry as I was. I could feel the truth to that MSNBC adage through to my bones.

 

The two best ways for authors to learn is to eschew how-to books written for everyone. To learn what I needed to know to avoid the publishing potholes I had been falling in. I now tell my clients to take specific classes in writing and other aspects of publishing at accredited universities which is also expensive, but their instructors and information are usually carefully vetted. I also tell them to read books—even used paperbacks from Amazon—written by those same instructors or experts—people with lots of experience learning the stuff our traditional industry expects of us! Eventually I became one of those instructors myself (at UCLA) and started to write texts for my classes and for everyone else including the emerging do-it-yourselfers. You know, not for everybody but books precisely for the needs of publishing authors.

 

Here is a list of those books and there are more recommendations in the appendixes of each one: 

 

The Frugal Book Promoter, The Frugal Editor, The Great First-Impression Book Proposal, Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips for Writers from Modern History Press as well as

How To Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically that was self-published and will soon be available in a second edition from Modern History Press. Hurry! Amazon was showing a 46% discount on the Book Proposal paperback! 

MORE ABOUT TODAY’S COLUMNIST

Carolyn Howard-Johnson brings her experience as a publicist, journalist, marketer, and retailer to the advice she gives in her HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers and the many classes she taught for nearly a decade as instructor for UCLA Extension’s world-renown Writers’ Program. The books in her HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers have won multiple awards. That series includes The Frugal Book Promoter and The Frugal Editor which won awards from USA Book News, Readers’ Views Literary Award, the marketing award from Next Generation Indie Books and others including the coveted Irwin award. How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethicallylaunched to rave reviews from Jim Cox, Editor-in-Chief of Midwest Book Reviews and others: 

 

“How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically [and other books in the series] could well serve as a textbook for a college Writing/Publishing curriculum.”

 

Howard-Johnson is the recipient of the California Legislature’s Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment Award, and her community’s Character and Ethics award for her work promoting tolerance with her writing. She was also named to Pasadena Weekly’s list of “Fourteen San Gabriel Valley women who make life happen” and was given her community’s Diamond Award for Achievement in the Arts. 

                  

The author loves to travel. She has visited nearly 100 countries and has studied writing at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom; Herzen University in St. Petersburg, Russia; and Charles University, Prague. She admits to carrying a pen and journal wherever she goes. Learn more about her books for writers and her creative work in the media room on her website.