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Sherwood's
Writing Riffs When you write a book for children, you must look at the world from a child's point of view. You must also write about the concerns of a child, and not necessarily about what an adult thinks that a child's concerns ought to be. As Bruce Coville, first-rate children's author, puts it: "Adults look back on their coming of age; children look forward to it. Children's literature is about growing up, and adult literature is about being a grown-up." I think children's literature can also be about being a kid, but the child reader is still gathering clues about how the world works. So writing for children is an endless balancing act. Unlike writing for adults, you can't assume a certain amount of knowledge and reading experience on the part of your readers. Your book might be a child's first. But you don't want to overload the story with a lot of infodumpage that will bore other readers into closing the book. The more you can blend the information needed directly into the narrative, the better the book. (I think this works as well for adult literature.) Simplistic plot? Not necessarily. A linear plot, yes, but these can be quite subtle. Look at the best children's literature, even that written for very young readers, and you will be surprised at the number of intersecting story arcs. Stories for children are usually more spare than an adult novel, but--like the sonnet form, as compared to a 42 stanza narrative verse--the work can be complete in its 50 thousand words, a work of art. One also needs to keep the pace brisk but even. Writing for adults, one can slow and speed, contract and expand, like a piece of music. The plot needs to be a bit more linear, though that does not mean overly simplistic or cliche. The best children's literature focuses on character. The conflict must be resolved by the child protagonists, not resolved for them. It can be something as 'simple' as finding a way to deal with the schoolyard bully (not a simple matter at all, in actuality), or it can be a great quest tale. These are are metaphors for growing up and dealing with the problems life presents. Characters who grow and change--even in funny stories- -are the ones that children come back to again and again, and remember fondly throughout their lives. Which brings us to the matter of theme. It's easy to write a superficial story without substance, but in a sense it's also easy to err in the other direction. We all know and shudder at some of the Victorian tales that we've come across, that were considered good for children: grim preachments about being 'good' and what horrific things happen to the bad child. If one looks at the diaries of some 19th Century writers (like Lucy Maud Montgomery, author of the wonderful ANNE OF GREEN GABLES novels) one can find that children back then shrugged off the stories that were bent around some message, in favor of a good, honest adventure. And message stories aren't a dead issue in modern times, either. I remember my goddaughter commenting wryly to me when she was about 12 and the Real Life books were at their peak, that all the new books the kids were steered toward by helpful teachers, librarians, and family seemed to focus on divorce, drug addicts, child abuse, and horrible diseases. She said, "Every book anyone gives me has at least one character dying of leukemia in it. I'm beginning to wonder if someone is dropping me a hint." I also noted that for a long time she never cared much for reading--not until she got out of high school, and discovered mysteries. There are children who find solace in reading about other children who faced the horrific problems, but I haven't met many. Most of the kids I encounter, from happy to troubled, from eight to eighteen years, want to laugh, to be excited, to shiver over ghosts and ghouls, to watch over the shoulder of the prince or princess, to fly a space ship and battle techvillains-- to race along with an interesting protagonist and triumph over the odds. They want, in short, a good story. And the best type of story, to most kids, is fantasy and sf. Folk tales of magic and wizards and animals who talk reach back far into our history. In Native American tradition, "washte" stories are fun and playful--for sheer entertainment--and "wakan" are the powerful tales that speak across time. There are modern writers who are able to combine washte and wakan--happy endings and wise endings--and to create books that I believe will be read and loved twenty years from now--a hundred years from now. Here are some words from J.R.R. Tolkien, from the LETTERS: We all need literature that is above our measure--though we may not have sufficient energy for it all the time. But the energy of youth is usually greater. Youth needs then less than adulthood or Age what is down to its (supposed) measure. But even in Age I think we only are really moved by what is at least in some point or aspect above us, above our measure, at any rate before we have read it and 'taken it in'. Therefore do not write down to Children or to anybody. Not even in language. Though it would be a good thing if that great reverence which is due to children took the form of eschewing the tired and flabby cliches of adult life. But an honest word is an honest word, and its acquaintance can only be made in the right context. A good vocabulary is not acquired by reading books written according to some notion of the vocabulary of one's age group. It comes from reading books above one. Here are some words from Jane Yolen in her excellent book TOUCH MAGIC, reissued in April 2000 (and expanded with six new essays) from August House: And for adults, the world of fantasy books returns to us the great words of power which, in order to be tamed, have been excised from our adult vocabularies. These words are the pornography of innocence, words which adults no longer dare to use with other adults, and so we laugh at them and consign them to the nursery, fear masking as cynicism. These are the words that were forged in the earth, air, fire, and water of human existence, and the words are: Love. Hate. Good. Evil. Courage. Honor. Truth. |
