Writing for kids - commence with your main character. by Ellie Dixon

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Writing for kids - commence with your main character.
by Ellie Dixon

There are are an enormous variety of methods in which � according to their own accounts � writers get to work. Some say that they never put pen to paper until they�ve worked out the complete story in their head. Some will have a indistinct idea of the outlines of their story and will �unearth� its complexities as they write. Yet other writers begin with a character and allow the plot to expand around that character�s development. Some will start with an occurrence and then find that other events follow naturally; or they may have found a pattern which can be repeated, with variations, to make up a book of short stories.

Often, by looking at the finished product, we can tell which of these different processes was applied by a certain writer; but often we have to rely being informed by the author themselves. It seems likely that Richmal Crompton embarking upon her first story about �William, A A Milne with Christopher Robin and Pooh and Dorothy Edwards with her �Naughty Little Sister� stories realised that they had hit on a recipe for great stories which when varied, could be used over and over with enormous success.

The successful formula or recipe in all of these examples depends upon a main character whose idiosyncrasies dominate any scenario in which the writer decides to place him or her. William is the subversive schoolboy, manipulating his environment, when possible, to his own advantage; Pooh is a bear of very little brain, with a large belly and a large heart; and the little sister�s behaviour goes against the rules of polite society. An extra bonus is that in Richmal Crompton�s and Dorothy Edwards� books the mischievous behaviour with which the child reader can easily identify, is presented as amusing rather than unacceptable.

Sometimes the idea of a clearly defined character can result in not repetitive incidents but in a long story with a beginning, a middle and an end. Frances Hodgson Burnett wrote: ��. One day I had an idea. I will write a story about him, I said, I will put him in a world quite new to him and see what he will do.� It was a inspired idea and, because she was already a knowledgeable storyteller, Cedric Errol, the character based on her charming young son, accumulates around him the other characters and happenings that make Little Lord Fauntleroy a good, but now rather dated read.

The above passage from Frances Burnett�s autobiography suggests that she was one of those writers who begin with a vague idea of the plot, but who have an idea of a situation which requires development. Without knowing exactly how the story ends, the author must have thought of Sara Crewe, the generous little rich girl who is suddenly reduced to extreme poverty, but behaves throughout like �A Little Princess� or, in her greatest book, �The Secret Garden� of ugly spoiled child Mary Lennox, transported from her luxurious existence in India to silence and a harsher reality in cold Yorkshire.

Author's Biography:

Ellie Dixon lives in deepest rural Devon, England with her husband and two very large Newfoundland dogs. She is passionate about vintage illustrated children's books and loves to restore and edit them for today's kids to rediscover. Visit

Posted on: October 5,2007

Email: ellie@scruffysbookshop.com
Website: https://www.scruffysbookshop.com