You are your biggest fan. Without a doubt, no one will ever admire your children’s books quite the way you do.
Don’t get me wrong, you’ll get those rabid fans that read every word you write and remember details you don’t even remember coming up with.
But when it comes to quiet appreciation, you are your biggest fan.
Of course, this means you get to do some of the fun things fans do like create fan art or fan fiction.
Sure, when you do it, it’s called “sequels” or “companion stories” or “research into your world.” But that doesn’t make it any less of an appreciation of what you’ve written before, for the children’s book that inspired it all.
And the best part is that you can do these pieces of fan fiction even before you finish the first draft. Fan fiction is a great way to power through a mid-book or mid-revision slump. It can reinvigorate a narrative that might have begun to feel stale by injecting something new.
So, write that character backstory. Develop that throw away line into a full short story. Writing can be work, so interject that moment of fun. And then finish the novel that will inspire others to create works of their own.
