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Author: Devapriya Mukherjee
A child is a Godsend. and so is the author he author he loves to read. However, a keen observer can become popular with children if he knows how he should go about this special craft of writing for them.
If you are planning your book, there are five things you should keep in mind to ensure a warm welcome from your young readers.
- Your target age-group – A writer must absolutely clear about whom he is writing for – infants, early readers, advanced readers, teenagers. This will give him an insight into what this particular group prefers to read, and why.
- Proper research – Reading a few popular books by current children’s authors and taking a closer look at their tone, words, themes, style – will also help a new writer in judging the intellect of his audience better. Some idea of what publishers really want from a children’s author is also important. So, your groundwork must be comprehensive and strong.
- Your characters – Be careful about weaving your story around the characters and not the other way round as that usually tends to decline into a poor storyline. Give clear descriptions of the main characters, their physical appearances, behavioural patterns, background, emotions. Your protagonist should ideally be a few years elder to your target age-group, as children tend to be more curious about the activities of a senior, than someone of the same age.
- Child heroes – Do not give out easy answers to the conflicts faced by your central character, rather let him gradually arrive to a convincing resolution. Children are smart thinkers and prefer to see their heroes resolve tricky situations WITHOUT help from adults. Let them think through solutions.
- Read aloud in public – Once your first draft is ready, call some kids over, give them some lemonade and read out your story. Note their reactions – things they enjoyed, things that failed to startle them as you had expected, things which made them smile, yet could have prompted laughter – everything. Did they fathom what you wished to convey? Read them as they listen to you. Consulting a few good authors before you hand over your final manuscript to the publisher will surely add that last minute refinement to your book.
Board books, activity books, storybooks, picture books, teenage novels – each has its own set of readers. Whichever form you choose to express yourself in, reading it should be like an excursion, which not only stirs curiosity, also answers them perfectly, with clarity and logic.
Good Luck!
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A good article. clear and comprehensive. will help new authors surely.