June 29, 2010

Writing Children’s Stories With No Pink Fairies Or Old Fads


Each year I judged children’s fiction entered in the international writing contest sponsored by Writers-Editors.com, I often saw the same mistakes. Since the contest was “blind,” I didn’t know who submitted which manuscript, much less the age of the writers, but I suspect that most were very young or very not.

Stories and novel chapters typically sound like they're from young writers when they focus on trends or have fantastic settings with stereotyped characters who aspire, not to replacing Harry Potter, but to being him. I saw a lot of fairy tales with little pink fairies flying around too, but nothing to entice readers to follow them into (oh, please) Never (again) Land.

Whether sweet little stories or scary, fantasy fiction often has predictable people or plots. If writers do try something new, they’re apt to forget that young readers cannot always follow their sudden flights into a heightened vocabulary, including made-up words with which any earthling would say "What?"

Inappropriate vocabulary does not affect futuristic manuscripts only though. It’s also a problem in the “good ole day” stories where children-in-the-now do not know slang words or references to fads of a half-century ago. If such outdated words or phrases have real significance in a story, the context can help to explain, but too much of this will tuck resistant readers into an early nap.

Like most writers, older people want to tell their tales as a means of recording memories, working through old wounds, or validating their lives. That’s wonderfully healing and very appropriate in a journal, diary, or family album, but these stories seldom have anything to do with the young stranger on the other side of a page.

Relaying your own story has another potential hazard, too, since such manuscripts often go on way too long. What started out as a good idea can quickly bog down in details, descriptions, or rambling events that weaken the overall story. A true episode may be hard to cut, but what interests the writer can be too much for a restless child reader to sit still and hear.

One way to know whether you’ve fallen into this common trap is to ask if your story has a specific theme and purpose. If not, the pages may be a series of events loosely linked by the characters or setting. All is not lost though! As you revise your fiction for children, these tips might help:

  • Focus on a particular child or group of children you know within your chosen age group.

  • Revise or rewrite your story with those specific faces in mind.

  • Look for a relevant theme to guide your revisions. For example, omit episodes that do not help either to enforce or to oppose your theme.

  • Begin the story with the main character identifying, clarifying, and/ or working toward resolving the main problem.

  • Consistently stay in the viewpoint of that character.

  • Without going back and forth, let the plot unfold as the story happens.

  • Remove long descriptions that hinder the story's movement.

  • Use a variety of sentence structures and lengths for older readers, but shorten long sentences in stories for young kids.

  • Avoid slang, archaic phrases, and words outside a present-day child's vocabulary.

  • Let context clarify the meaning of new or unusual words. If a word is key to the story, use it right away and, if need be, include a definition.

  • With the possible exception of an occasional crank or crackpot, portray adults in a positive light with no demeaning statements about law enforcement officers, teachers, parents, or grandparents.

  • Avoid biases and bigotry of all kinds.

  • Avoid lopsided viewpoints and unbalanced information. Make sure you have intelligent, caring people on both sides of the story.

  • Remember the adage: "Show. Don’t tell." Let your well-chosen characters care enough to act in character and resolve -- or accept -- the story's problem by The End.

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(c) 2010, Mary Harwell Sayler 

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12 comments:

Tom Kerr said...

Here's a writer's dilemma....how do you avoid the hackneyed, predictable script? One sees the formula movie script (over and over and over), you also need resolution, so how do you approach the nub of a potentially good story and try to avoid formula but allow for a resolution that gives a young reader a solution that isn't a cliche?
I'm not writing this well, but thinky

Mary Sayler said...

Tom, every writer faces the same concerns. As the Bible said in King Solomon's time, "There's nothing new under the sun." Still isn't, and yet each person's unique combination of experiences, voice, talent, etc., brings a new perspective to old ideas. So keep reading well-written manuscripts, keep studying techniques of your chosen genre, and keep on writing from the center of yourself.

Mina Joshi said...

I found this article informative and interesting. Some good tips which parents can follow when helping their children with homework. I will be following your blog and hope to use some of your tips when writing my recipes.

Reno Lovison said...

These are great useful tip for aspiring writes of children's books. I look forward top learning more from you.

Anonymous said...

Hi Mary,
I liked how you gave me some tips in writing a children's book.

Frank Freund Sr. said...

Hi Mary-
Excellent advice! I'm working on a mystery manuscript targeted at 'tweens and will take your advice as I continue developing it.

Frank

Memorizing Nature said...

I'm working on a new young adult manuscript, and took special note or your advice, 'Begin the story with the main character identifying, clarifying, and/ or working toward resolving the main problem.' Had to step back and ask myself, "What is the main problem again?" Seems like there are too many problems going on.

Diane said...

Excellent article with very valuable tips for anyone writing for children. As a matter of fact good advice for writing for anyone.

PawPurrry said...

This was a great piece. Thank you for sharing your insight. I have shared this posting with someone very close to me who is an aspiring writer of childern's stories and she will greatly appreciate your insight.

Mary Sayler said...

Thank you all for your encouraging words and for letting others know about this blog. Hope you'll check out The Poetry Editor blog and website too. Even if you don't write poetry, the discussions might be of some help in writing poetically.

Irene said...

Thank you for writing this. I wrote a "book" - it's never came further than my computer. It is for young adults, but too long and probably full of problems I don't know about. English is my second language, and I wrote to learn English and write what came to mind. I love writing and consider myself a decent blogger (after 13 years with English as the language I function on. I found you on LinkedIn and look forward to more great stuff from you. Sincerely Irene

Mary Sayler said...

Thanks, Irene. That's good to know.

I just checked out your blog and liked what you said and how well you said it. A few weeks ago, I began doing 200 to 300-word articles for Examiner.com, who's looking for writers to discuss relationships. If you decide to apply, tell them I recommend you.

Regarding your YA novel, write a 1 to 2-page synopsis to see if that helps you to know what needs to be changed. If you're unsure, I might be able to help. I don't critique novels, but I do critique book proposals. For pricing and info, see The Poetry Editor website - http://www.thepoetryeditor.com.

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