In the midst of this pandemic, I am trying to work on my own writing as I continue with my freelance writing.
I’ve come across a few helpful articles as I’ve thought about how to write better for children:
https://www.writing-world.com/children/backes1.shtml
I found these articles to be helpful and validating. I am a highly imaginative person, but can be timid in putting forth my wild, unique ideas, thinking that they will flop.
But then I remember my favorite books as a child were the creative, off-the-wall ones. Kids love unique and silly books!
I remember I loved the “Dumb Bunnies” books, (by Dav Pilkey, also author of the Captain Underpants books) with the clever word play and unexpected, “dumb” plot twists at every turn. I recall the delight to find such clever humor, and enjoyed the silliness of it even if I didn’t fully understand it at that young age.
The Wayside school books (by Louis Sacher, also author of Holes and other books), about a school with strange happenings, built in a high rise building that didn’t have a thirteenth floor, was fascinating to me.
The last off-the-wall type of creativity I will mention was the Bailey School Kids books, with their focus on clever, logical, mystery-solving kids who always had some adult in their school, neighborhood, or summer camp that they suspected of being a mythical creature. From Werewolves Don’t Go to Summer Camp to Dracula Doesn’t Drink Pink Lemonade and Elves Don’t Wear Hard Hats This series always had enough interesting, unique content to keep me engaged.
As I think about and practice my own writing for children, I have to turn off that critical, logically-driven part of my brain that says everything has to make sense and be a certain way. Just relax and let it flow!
It’s much more enjoyable to write without judgment, not making an assessment and second guessing everything I’m writing, but rather letting the ideas come and connect, letting characters develop a life of their own and have a say in where the plot goes.
Any other children’s writers out there? I would love to connect!
Classic Reads 