Uninspired by Children's Books, I Set Out to Write a Better One With AI

Part 1: I don’t know what I’m doing.

I’ve never done this before. What I mean is, I’ve never a) written a children’s book b) tried to publish a book or c) documented my journey to the public.

So, bear with me.

Like you and countless others, I’ve always had a dream to write and publish my own book. Of course, it’s 10 years late and not exactly the award-winning literary novel I imagined, but I can’t think of a more rewarding experience than writing a book for my own children to enjoy.

My 3-year-old loves books. I want to cultivate that love by offering him diverse and inclusive books with the pizzazz of classic fairytales and a wholesome moral-of-the-day ending.

The problem? It doesn’t really exist.

Most fairy tales actually have terrible morals (if any) and some are downright creepy. If you don’t believe me, here are some classic fairytales with creepy origins and themes.

Fairytales with Dark Origins

Warning: This might ruin your childhood stories for you, so skip this section if you have any sentimental memories of reading fairytales.

Little Red Riding Hood

This story which dates back to the 10th century of France which includes how the girl is deceived and has mistaken her grandmother’s teeth for rice, her flesh for steak, and her blood for wine. She participates in eating her grandmother before the wolf eats her at the end, too.

Snow White

In this story, there are several murder attempts by an evil queen who’s so obsessed with beauty that she’s willing to kill for it. In earlier versions of this Brothers Grimm fairytale, the seven men who find Snow White enslave her.

Hansel and Gretel

Still widely popular in modern times, this story was inspired by the Great Famine of 1315 and shows a glimpse of how medieval Europe dealt with famine. Many families abandoned their children, and some turned to cannibalism.

The Pied Piper of Hamelin

This fairytale is actually based on the true story of a German town called Hamelin. In the 16th century, Hamelin had hired a rat catcher to get rid of its rats in exchange for money. When the town failed to pay him for his services, he played his flute and lured away 130 children who disappeared overnight, never to be seen again.

These stories are still found in many modern fairytale books. Once you know the basis of these stories, you can’t unknow them. If you’re convinced we could do better (since we live in better times), it’s because we can.

Hallmarks of a Good Children’s Book For 2–5 years olds

Many of the current best-selling toddler books are popular for a reason and they incorporate many of the same techniques:

• Bright, vibrant illustrations that capture the child’s attention and stimulate their imagination. These illustrations often feature bold, primary colors and simple shapes that are easily recognizable to young minds.
• Repetitive and rhythmic language that helps children anticipate what comes next, making the reading experience interactive and engaging. This repetition also aids in language development and memory skills.
• Relatable characters and simple, clear narratives that reflect the child’s own experiences, making it easier for them to connect with the story. Characters often face challenges or dilemmas that are resolved in a manner understandable to a young audience.
• Educational elements subtly woven into the story, teaching children about numbers, letters, colors, shapes, and more without them even realizing they’re learning. This can also include moral lessons on friendship, kindness, and perseverance.
• A balance between familiar, comforting themes and new, exciting adventures that keep both children and parents interested in re-reading the book. This balance helps in fostering a love for reading from an early age.

Incorporating AI into the process of creating a children’s book for 2–5-year-olds involves leveraging these hallmarks effectively.

My Strategy

For Writing

I have an outline and general sense of what my story will be about. Although I don’t have experience writing a children’s book, I‘ve read hundreds of them and have studied enough best-selling books to know what works and what doesn’t.

I think this piece is important: You need to know your audience, and you need to know how to relate to them with your story. It goes without saying that studying a book is not the same as reading one. If you’re interested in my approach to how I “study” a best-selling book, write “bestseller” in the comments below.

I will feed my first draft into an AI model, Sudowrite or ChatGPT, which will spit out some mediocre (honestly unusable) writing that I can then re-write, edit, re-write, edit, and the rest of the painstaking process that writers go through.

For Illustrations

For my illustrations, I will use Midjourney to bring my illustrations to life and do a bit of editing to create the book layout. Since Midjourney upgraded their features of style and character references, it is a little easier to create consistent characters.

However, there are still a lot of flaws. And a lot of Medium writers in this space give you a prompt they used to generate their images and it looks perfect until you try it, and are ultimately disappointed.

I will run through some of these Midjourney flaws in a later post and explain why it actually takes a lot more time to get these images in publishable shape. So no, AI does not do it all for you. Hard work is still very much required.

For the cover, I may hire a professional illustrator if I find that I cannot create the cover that I like. Despite my attempt at doing this solo, sometimes, you just need help. I would also be more than happy to support an artist to help bring my dream to life.

Why AI?

Good question. But, why not?

I believe that with advanced technology, we are given more tools than ever to succeed in whatever we choose to do.

As an entrepreneur with 2 scalable businesses and 2 very young children, I have limited time. AI helps remove boundaries that would otherwise prevent me from being able to write this book:

1. Time: Our most valuable, priceless commodity. Once you have kids, the value of your time increases by 1000x.
2. Illustrating: I might be able to write a decent story — but drawing, painting, graphic design? Forget about it. If you gave me a paper and pencil, I will give you stick figures.
3. Enhanced Creativity: This point is important because I’m sure there are some naysayers out there saying, “But Susan, you’re not writing the story, a robot is.” Well, let me stop you right there.

The original idea, characters, theme, AI prompts, the re-writes and edits, the hundreds of hours spent learning these AI tools, are all mine. There are creatives who are willing to put in the work, and there are creatives with powerful tools who are still willing to put in the work. I don’t think they’re mutually exclusive, and I think both types of creatives can exist and succeed.

Rather than stare at a blank screen for 1 hour and deleting the first same sentence, “It was a dark stormy night,” (kidding) over and over again, I have something decent to work with, faster, without feeling discouraged. Writers no longer need to bleed on the page. For me, that’s worth it.

Like it or not, AI is already here, and it’s changing the world. If I don’t master it, it will master me. Follow me on this journey of creating and publishing my first children’s book with the help of technology.

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Thanks for following my journey and see you next time!