I have made the courageous choice to intentionally write for
children. I say it that way because writing for children is much more difficult
than most people realize. In my many years of working with children and writing
for a young audience, I have learned two essential lessons that I would like to
share.
1. 1. Writing
for children requires concise word choice. Children have a smaller working
vocabulary than most adults. There is a fine line that authors must walk
between staying within the typical child’s vocabulary, possibly creating a story
that feels stilted, and injecting too many advanced words, thus creating a
story that is out of reach of the reader. Choosing just the right words to
convey the message while honoring the child is a true art form. To illustrate
this point, did you realize that Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss uses
only 50 unique words to create a full storyline? That is true artistry!
2. 2. Children can
sense inauthentic characters from a mile away and will stop reading without a
second thought. Adults are more willing to give an author a second or third
chance to draw them in to a believable story. Children are not so indulgent. If
you try to make your story about teaching a lesson, your audience will lose
interest. If, however, you are able to weave a believable tale about a
character that learns a lesson, then your reader may learn that lesson as well.
Don’t simply take my word about the difficulties in writing
for children. Here are some words of wisdom from authors of children’s stories
that have been beloved through the years.
“I don’t write for children. I write — and
somebody says, ‘That’s for children!’” Maurice Sendak (Where the
Wild Things Are)
“The third way [of
writing for children], which is the only one I could ever use myself, consists
in writing a children’s story because a children’s story is the best art-form
for something you have to say: just as a composer might write a Dead March not
because there was a public funeral in view but because certain musical ideas
that had occurred to him went best into that form.” C.S. Lewis (The
Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe)
“I know what I liked
as a child, and I don’t do any book that I, as a child, wouldn’t have liked.”
H.A. Rey (Curious George)
“I’m probably more
pleased with my children’s books than with my adult short stories. Children’s
books are harder to write. It’s tougher to keep a child interested because a
child doesn’t have the concentration of an adult. The child knows the
television is in the next room. It’s tough to hold a child, but it’s a lovely
thing to try to do.” Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)
"Children are
very good about finding mistakes. We get probably thousands of letters, and
some of them find mistakes in our books. As some readers know, Sister Bear
always wears a pink hairbow. In one book we forgot the hairbow, and we got a
letter about it. That proves to us that the children are really paying
attention, and that's good." Stan and Jan Berenstain (The
Berenstain Bears)
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