How to Write a Values Based Story for Children

Hints on Writing Stories with a Moral for Kids

Aug 15, 2008 Helen Brain

Writing a values based short story for children is harder than it seems. This article, the second of two, outlines some things you can do to ensure success.

• Do look out for real incidents that could be the starting point or frame for your story. Look out for inspiration in newspapers and magazines. You can fictionalise names and places, or change situations to give them a unique twist, but keep with what is credible. Children are much more critical 'crap-detectors' than adults.
• Show how the main character has to struggle to overcome a difficulty. Think of traditional fairy tales. The hero/heroine faces three difficulties, each more onerous than the last. Finally, through using their wits, the intervention of a supernatural being, or the help of someone they previously helped, they succeed in their struggle.
• Make your characters real. Show the kind of people they are through their actions and dialogue and the way they interact with the other characters in the story. If you choose to go the animal route, your characters should be particularly strong or archetypal. Harry the Hippo doesn't suggest any particular sort of person or emotion because most children don’t have contact with hippos. However, two cockroaches fighting over a crumb in a school lunchbox, or three rats bickering over the remains of a MacDonalds burger in an alley at midnight conjure up precise characters, which readers will recognise. They will fill in the gaps and know the animals are archetypes of greed and selfishness.
• Do choose a precise age group you are aiming for and write to suit that group alone. E.g. ages 4-6, 6-8, 8-10 or 10-12 would be broad categories that have different needs and interests. Between the ages of four and twelve, readers go through the steepest literacy learning curve of their lives. Be very careful to match the interest level of stories with the reading level they are comfortable with.
• Do consider whether children are reading in a mother tongue or an additional language, and adjust your language to suit their reading level.
• Do ascertain whether the story will be read to the child or is a read alone story. A read alone story, particularly at the lower grades needs very simple language and sentence structure, while a story designed to be read to a child or class of children, perhaps by a teacher, parent or in a school assembly, will allow for more sophisticated language and structure.
• Do use your heart not your head. The best way to find a suitable story to teach a child something valuable about life is to tell them something that you have personally learned. You form a bond with them, by sharing your own feelings and experiences. When you engage with an incident or value because it means something to you personally, it takes on a life and personalised energy that brings it to life. The child reading or listening to the story responds to the truth behind your words. You can’t fake this. The kernel of every value-based story is the personal experience of the writer or storyteller.

The copyright of the article How to Write a Values Based Story for Children in Writing for Children is owned by Helen Brain. Permission to republish How to Write a Values Based Story for Children in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Julia Reading