To be honest, writing for any genre should be enjoyable but writing for children seems to have extra appeal. Don't be fooled into thinking that writing for children is easy - it's not! There are strict guidelines and rules that have to be adhered to when writing for children but this should not diminish the fun and pleasure it can bring.
Writing for children can be enjoyable for many reasons; you can use your creative powers, you can allow your imagination to flow, you can recreate some of your own wonderful childhood games and memories, you can picture children's faces reading your stories - the list is endless!
To be able to write for children, you have to put yourself in the mind of a child, to think like a child, have a child's curiosity and understand what it is that they like. This is not easy to do once your mind has been exposed to a broad range of experiences and life itself. For those who are young at heart, writing children's stories can be incredibly satisfying and rewarding.
One of the most enjoyable aspects of writing for children is planning the story and researching for it. You should look to some of your own favorite books, which don't have to be children's books, to find out what works. However, you need to make the story work for you and make it your own. You may have a particular interest in fantasy or science- fiction so perhaps writing a story in that genre is better for you and certainly should be an enjoyable experience.
For all types of writing, the story is the most important part; however, you can have great fun developing your characters! Create characters that are likeable or that children will love to hate. The great thing about writing for children is that the characters can be whatever you want them to be. You can have a talking dog, a cow with three heads - whatever you want! This is one of the big differences between writing for adults and children. You can use humor in your writing and be as silly as you like. Being silly often adds enjoyment for the adult who might be reading the book also!
Writing children's books often involves using pictures to enhance the story. Pictures can really add to the story and children love to see what they are reading about. You get to use bright, happy colors for happy parts of the story or dark, muted colors for sad parts of the story. You can also add humor through pictures and depending on your level of artwork, you may do the illustrations yourself which adds another level of enjoyment!
Helene Goldnadel says that one of the most enjoyable aspects of writing for children is that you can contribute to their enjoyment of words and reading and make them want to read even more. This is a wonderful gift and one that you should nurture and ensure you use to the best of your ability by producing high quality books that may get to a child and change their lives forever.