Help me write a story. Please?

Illustrations. Most children's stories are very short, but with lots of pictures.

Also - usually the type face is much larger.

Yes, I have a friend who will be working on the illustrations with me.

Four pages long is not very descriptive when it comes to children's books. How many words long is the story?

If it is 800 words long then it doesn't need to be longer. You might have to shorten it.

I should say that I if I was trying to make my story stretch into 15 pages or so with illustrations that I would not be worried. It is a long story. My problem is taking said story and making it small enough to fit into typical 5 to 6 lines per page (Sorry if this is wrong, I haven't read a child's story in a while) without losing the story.

How long (read: Pages with illustrations) can the story be before it no longer something a parent would want to read to a child?

Ages 4 to 10?

That's a huge age difference. I'd work on narrowing down the category you want to appeal to.

it is just a rough estimate.

If parents are going to be reading it then it should be 4-7 in age. I can't imagine a child of 9 or 10 reading a picture book.

First thing to do is see about your descriptions in the story. Simplify them. Move as much as you can to the illustrations without destroying the story.

I often liked my mother reading stories to me up until I was 12 or even 13. But I guess that is just me.

I don't know contemporary children's books at all, and barely knew them when I was a child. (I remember an oilcloth book that I probably slobbered on, a mother goose book, and a couple of christmas present type children's books that I had faint interest in. So... I'm no expert. A big factor in my learning to read for pleasure was the sunday funny pages back in those days.

But, if I were you, I'd spend an afternoon in a really good library and work my way through the children's section looking for books that seemed to have stories like yours and how they were formatted. I'd list authors and titles that seemed anywhere near a likely fit for your story, and then research them more at your leisure on your computer.

Even figuring out what you don't like could be a help.

post the story

mmm? I don't know if I'd post a story I was writing a book about. Probably not a problem, but potentially is. I know a little bit about this re screenplays.

Someone might steal it. The internet is one big shareware. He needs to at least get a copyright.

In my experience, hard earned, you cannot copyright an idea. If I live so long and don't give a **** as time passes, I'll explain the layers and complications of this.

I understand he can't copyright the idea. I meant an actual book copyright.

you need to spend some time in book stores and libraries getting to know what contemporary childrens' books are like

I linked a good site on one of boomer's threads earlier today where you can look at some samples

Google orca soundings + publisher

A routine copyright method, at least in the past, was to send your script to yourself registered mail.
I see this as a mild palliative, like one aspirin.

No argument, but he's just about to talk about his idea here.

This is a myth. It has no legal standing.