Writing Books that Kids Relate To
Using Memories and Feelings to Energize your Writing for Children
Feb 18, 2008
It's been said that an unhappy childhood is an asset for fiction writers. This is particularly true for children's writers. If you can remember how childhood 'felt', you are well on the way to writing books that readers can relate to.
A Vibrant Store of Memories is an Assett for Writers of Kid’s Lit
Those lucky people who had an idyllic childhood, were attractive, popular, with a loving stable home and no huge dramas or heartbreak, may struggle to write books that children want to read.
Likewise, adults who say they have no childhood memories at all, or the few they have are hazy, will find it hard to write for kids.
Strong Memories Energize Writing
But people who have strong memories of their childhood emotions – the feelings of being so excited you can’t sleep, of anticipation, of unmitigated joy, are in luck.
It’s even better if they have a strong recall of the darker, less acceptable emotions that all children feel. These are the feelings that make adults uncomfortable, and which they try to stop children having:
- Intense jealousy of the new baby or the prettier older sister;
- Hatred of the music teacher who tormented you with scales and arpeggios;
- Fear of the dark monster that stood behind the door at night;
- Fear of the throbbing vein in your father’s forehead which meant that someone was about to get walloped;
- The humiliation of being the last one chosen for the team;
- The even worse humiliation of being turned down when you asked a boy to be your date for the school dance;
- The dread of turning up at school and realising that the lesson with the worst teacher starts in ten minutes and you have completely forgotten to do your homework
- the list goes on and on.
Forming a Bond between Author and Reader
Writers who can remember how they felt in their own version of these situations, already possess the emotional energy that will form a link between writer and readers.
Only Adults with Bad Memories Think that Childhood is the Happiest Time of your Life
There is little doubt that almost all children suffer intensely from experiences like the ones laid out above, and they often find little comfort from adults.
Literature Helps Children Explore their Feelings
This is one of the reasons why children continue to read for pleasure in a world filled with electronic distractions like PC games, 24 hour TV and DVDs. Only in literature can they really explore and find meaning in the feelings and emotions that they experience daily, at their own pace.
Writers Use their Feelings to Engage with their Readers
For children to engage with a book, it has to have emotional authenticity. Writing for children isn’t just about thinking up a clever story. It’s about the author taking the core emotions that he or she experienced, growing up, and using their energy to weave a story that engages children who are experiencing the same feelings now.
Click here to read about different ways of creating bonds between writer and reader.
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