Writing for Children:
A Different Ballgame

chillibreeze writer — Nidhi Pathak

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One odd day you move to the nearby bookstore and without giving a second thought, head toward the kids section. You randomly pick up a book, then another and another. What does it look like? An ordinary story (somewhat senseless), with lots of illustrations, colors, and a simple font. Your eyes shine bright, face glows with a grin, and this makes you think, “This is so very simple. No big deal! I am all set to write for kids.”

Hold on there! This task looks easy but unfortunately it is not. It requires focus, undying dedicated efforts and above all patience; in the same quantity (or sometimes even more) as required when writing for adults. Let’s discuss some of the vital points you ought to carry on your fingertips when you’ve finally decided to write for those little geniuses.

Introspect:
Before jumping to the dos and don’ts of writing, it is very important that you first become clear as to why you want to write and more importantly why write for children? It is possible that you want to write because, a) you love children; b) for fun; c) you want to re-visit your childhood memories; or d) because this is what you always wanted to do.

Writing for the young minds is more of a responsible job than mere fun. Every word, theme, story and message shared is constantly molding their personalities. When your purpose of writing becomes clear, you could analyze your work and its impact in a far better manner.

Interact with your readers:
Many writers, knowingly or unknowingly reminisce about their childhood days to select a particular theme or subject. While this does work well, however this might not necessarily give you the flavor which today’s generation relish. Therefore, it is very important that the writer meet and interact with them. Children today are very different in their thoughts, behavior and aspirations. When a child is born in the technology driven world, there are fair chances that he might find those conventional fairytales and moral stories quite unrealistic. This doesn’t mean that fairytales and fables don’t work. However, they should include elements which make the writing casual for the reader.

Maintaining a dialogue with the readers would therefore generate lots of practical ideas. Go! Informally converse with those little angels in the neighborhood (if they don’t look like angels, just remember if your work is a hit, these little ones will be nothing less than those divine angels). Often watch children’s talk shows, other TV programs and if possible, also attend formal events organized for kids.

Selecting the theme:
Theme of the book decides whether your book is going to generate huge demands or whether it will be ruthlessly ignored lying at the dark corner of the book shelf. It catches the eye of your reader. It is therefore necessary for a writer to know what age-group of children he/she is working for. Children, unlike adults, have strikingly different characteristics, likes and dislikes at different ages which possibly occurs due to their rapid development (physical, cognitive and emotional).

While every child is unique, for the ease of understanding young readers can be roughly categorized into the following groups:

1-3 years: This is the age where children learn to speak and express their feelings. Vibrant colours, attractive objects and large-size pictures capture their attention. Board books are therefore in huge demand for this category. Short rhymes, lullabies and attractive illustrations are what parents generally look for their kids.

4-8 years: Children now start learning to read extremely simple and short sentences. Books written for this category should therefore have simple four line text along with interesting colorful illustrations. Stories/rhymes need not necessarily have a moral. The important point is that the illustrations should clearly express the adjectives mentioned in the text. Like for example – LONG nose, ROUND belly, GREEN tree, etc. A child should be able to make out what the adjective stands for by looking into the picture.

Pre-teens (9-12 years): Write stories with a plot that is solid but strictly not complex. Children in this group can relate well with the moral of the story and therefore some heroic tales and some mythological stories can be narrated to them. Biographies, if done, must be written in very simple language. Guardians also prefer that their children should learn about their rich culture and traditions. Remember, the story must be thrilling and generate excitement. However, it is also very important that in an attempt to create thrill, writer should not use the elements of horror or crime in their stories (you are a responsible writer after all). Excessive elaboration, however, can make child lose interest in the story. Stories with multi characters work fine, but to keep in mind, the lead character should be distinct and easily identified. Stories must be ended on a positive note. Avoid choosing tragic ends and never make them look dark or negative.

Teenagers: Teenagers undergo very sensitive ‘transition phase’ in their lives. Therefore the selection of plot, language, illustrations, etc. must be done very carefully. They experience a number of changes like identity crisis, fantasizing, seeking adventure and search for a role model. The experiences during this tender age build their value system which has a deep impact throughout their lives.

Stories written for the teenagers should reflect their thought processes – real heroic tales, leaders’ biographies, travelogues and simple love stories will generally work for this group. Stories can be built over complex plots and moderate elaboration will also improve the appearance of writing.

Language:
I think we all know what children like to read. What did you like to read when a child? Every child likes simple and short sentences with minimal use of difficult words. This doesn’t mean that difficult and new words should not be included in the text but go slow. Motive is not to prepare them for winning a scrabble game but to inculcate reading habits enhance their creativity and more importantly for recreation. Here again you need to revisit the categories of readers and then decide how much you want them explore a whole new gamut of words. The rule is - don’t overdo it but don’t under-do it either. Make sure you insert a fairly uncommon word in the story only after you have strongly developed the context and feel that it is sufficient to create appropriate interest in readers’ mind.

Publishers:
Hooray! You have finally managed doing it and have the manuscript ready in your hands. Now, the biggest challenge is – to get it published. Getting the publishers’ details is not at all difficult. It’s only a ‘search engine’ away. Other important points are – do your research work and send work only to the selected publishers as per their guidelines, carefully format the manuscript before sending and ensure that it is error free and send it along with a covering letter.

Also, never take those rejection letters to your heart. If the letter is general, just throw it into the dustbin and if it is personalized, take that feedback seriously. If required, don’t hesitate to work on your manuscript but only when you genuinely feel it needs a change.

 

 

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Chillibreeze's disclaimer: This is a contributed article and was published on Chillibreeze in January, 2011. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of Chillibreeze as a company. Chillibreeze has a strict anti-plagiarism policy. Please contact us to report any copyright issues related to this article. The relevance of the facts and figures cited (if any) could change after a period of time.

 

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Related links

Five Things to Remember When Writing for Children
Ten Reasons Why Writing for Children is Difficult
Ten Tips on Writing for Children
Five Things to Remember When Writing for Children

 

 

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—About our writer: Nidhi has an MBA in marketing and presently works with an NGO. She has worked on a variety of projects that largely include report writing, web writing and blogging. In her current profession, she works as an editor for the bi-monthly newsletter and has written two annual reports. She has also contributed for the latest ‘Chicken Soup’ series. Nidhi loves writing fiction and poetry.

 

 

 

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