Not Easy – Ok, Accept it. It isn’t easy to write for children. If it were, wouldn’t everyone be doing it? I would compare it to making a movie - you have to think of characters, storylines, visuals and a million other little things. Once you manage to put it all together, you might just have something!
Creative, anyone? – Superman, Batman, He-man, Barbie, Bugs Bunny…all done. What next? That is the million-dollar question. How many of us can really think beyond characters already in existence and come up with new and entirely different ones? THIS is the need of the hour, as children today have ‘been there, read that’.
Write, not Report – Writing for children is not the same as writing for other media like newspapers for instance. You don’t just ‘reel off facts and figures’; you create them. Believe it or not, you actually have to come up with a story!
Competition from other Media – Children today are bombarded with different media – television, internet, CD ROMs etc. And let’s be honest – these definitely grab more attention than ‘sitting with Grandma or Grandpa and having them read to you’. All the more reason why you need to stretch yourself to reach the target audience – a la Harry Potter.
Think Like a Child – When in Rome, do as the Romans! When writing for children, become a child. Keep the adult within you aside for sometime, and rewind. Again, not easy for everyone to do. When was the last time we did it and had someone say to us ‘Would you stop acting like a kid, you’re way past all that?’ But it is necessary, for only when we think like them, can we cater to them.
Smart Kids of Today – PS 2, prices of cars, beauty treatments – name it and children today will reel off facts and figures. At times, they may even know more about these things than you or me. Due to exposure by various media, children today are much more aware of and can understand things a whole lot better. Ask anyone who works with children regularly and they will tell you how they are kept on their toes at all times, trying to find answers for endless queries and how ‘patiently’ children actually explain things to them that they may not know of.
Children are your biggest Critics – It isn’t easy to please the children of today. They are very quick to reject what they don’t like or what they think isn’t ‘in’. You need to be strong enough to hear a NO from them if they don’t like your work and that isn’t easy for an adult ego.
Keep the interest alive – Be it a one page story or an entire children’s novel, it has to be INTERESTING. It has to capture children’s minds, their attention and leave them wanting for more. Something that J K Rowling has understood perfectly and continues to deliver!
Old Wine in New Bottles – Morals, values – passé? Not exactly. But children today will definitely prefer a Superman to an Amar Chitra Katha. Does that mean that you stop educating children on the important stuff in life? Not at all. But it needs to be presented differently. It needs to be tweaked to today’s times. Hanuman has ceased to be just a God and has become every child’s friend and hero, thanks to the animated film. But can this happen through writing as well? Sure, you just need to be creative and think out of the box.
Don’t treat children as kids – While it is important to think like a kid while writing for one, NEVER underestimate a child’s intelligence and creativity. Don’t talk down to them through your writing. This is a sure way to rejection and failure. Children are smart and mature in their own way, and deserve respect just like any other reader.
Just be yourself, write from your Heart and you can’t miss!
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