by Michael Lydon
When we write, whom do we write for? The biggest and wisest answer to that eternal question, hinted at by the name of this site, is anybody and everybody in the world. As soon as we put a few words on paper or online, there’s no telling who may read them and where and when that reader may live. Scholars have long chuckled over the little jokes that bored monastic scribes jotted in the margins of their parchment Bibles a thousand years ago.
Yet we nearly always have a particular audience in mind when we write, and who we are writing for does much to determine what we write and how we write it. That’s true of something as personal as letters between friends and family, and true for authors of all writing genres—from sports writing, to romance writing, to comedy writing and of course, writing for children—writing is always a conversation between the writer and the reader.
A trip to a bookstore will soon show you that books aimed at children have a place in contemporary writing and publishing large enough for any young writer to think, “Could I write books for kids? Do I have a Where the Wild Things Are, a Wind in the Willows, a Charlotte’s Web in me just waiting to get out?”
Maybe you do! The responses to the “Writing for Children” prompt are so good that I sense a new generation of A. A. Milnes, Lewis Carrolls, and Beatrix Potters growing up to continue the work of the masters of days gone by. And I do mean masters: the English writer C. S. Lewis who wrote profound books on religion also wrote The Chronicles of Narnia, fantasy tales beloved by readers of all ages. “A children’s story which is enjoyed only by children,” Lewis declared, “is a bad children’s story.”
Embrace Your Wacky Side
American Bryson Bugdon’s portrait of a hopeful young musician, for instance, evokes the wacky humor of a new Doctor Seuss:
Brian was great, Brian was grand,
Brian could play any instrument with one hand!
Brian finally decided to take his talents and join a band.
Brian’s band was very bad.
People would come, people would boo,
And every night Brian would go home sad and blue!
I’m instantly cheering Brian’s courage, hoping that by the time we get to “The End,” people will have come to love him and his nutty music. Imagining Brian playing “any instrument with one hand” makes me laugh, and I find Bryson’s rhythms and rhymes endearingly off kilter:
Brian just wanted to become popular and famous
But how was he supposed to do that when people were calling him the lamest?
Defy Expectations
Many stories for children blur the borderline between human and animal life sometimes happily, sometimes not. American MG Gowan’s Mother Wolf teaches her children to beware of us:
“Mother,” asked a wolf pup one sunny morning in Redcreek Woods. “What are humans?"
"You know what humans are,” snapped Mother, as she had been enjoying the sun.
“Yes, but I have never seen one."
Mother flicked her tail.
"Twig, that is good. We avoid humans. They hunt us. You don’t want to see a human.”
“Oh, but I do. Surely not all humans hunt us,” Twig said.
“Maybe not. But they are all dangerous. Avoid them.”
Evoke Curiosity
Children experience deep and complex emotions, and there’s no need in writing for children to be gooily sentimental or to create characters, human or animal, who are unrealistically perfect. ThomasT2’s description of this little monster makes me grin, eager to know more:
Jonny never liked sharing anything. He was a selfish kid due to his parent’s nature. He would bite people, yell at his parents, and even steal from school.
On the other hand, good writers for children know that their readers are just starting out in life, and they encourage youngsters in their curiosity as they begin to explore the wide world around them. This lovely poem, Doors, by American Sarah Leying, hits a tender note between support and silliness:
You can count on every door
To lead to something new –
Your bedroom, the outdoors,
Or a giraffe wearing your shoe!
Doors can also lead to other things,
Like hope, and life, and light;
We only need to open them
To let others inside.
Try First Person Perspective
Writing in the first person can help a writer show what the world looks like through a child’s eyes. In A Teddy Bear Named Martin Antonia, from the US, perfectly catches the drowsy mood of a five-year-old at bedtime:
"It’s time to go to bed, Angela,” Mommy said. I already knew it was time for me to go to sleep. I might only be five but I knew a lot for my age. I know when it’s dark like this outside, it’s time to go to bed. I was pretty sleepy too. Mommy and daddy tucked me into bed and they read me my favorite story about the Three Little Bears….
Embrace the Magical
Young readers love magic, and responses to the Writing for Children prompt tell fantastical tales of everything from beds that can fly to socks who live on top of the fridge commanded by General Left Blue Sock. Yet my favorite magical writing in this prompt comes from the Philippines, Worriedwiredweirdo’s wide-eyed vision of the natural wonder going on all around us every day:
What gets me curious is how magical trees are. How do they grow from small seeds? How do they produce leaves, flowers, and fruits? How do they even give off the air we breathe? The paper, where we write and draw our dreams and imaginations, did you know they too came from trees? It’s just so enchanting! Trees are awesome!
If you’ve never thought of writing for children, take this prompt as a challenge to give it a try. Writing for children can help you to bring your own childhood to mind, and at the same time connect you to a new generation of young and eager readers. You can also give yourself the fun of being the millionth writer to start a story with your own version of “Once upon a time,” writing’s most universal opening phrase. Here are a few that I found in your recent works-in-progress that whirled me happily into your stories:
Once upon a time I was happy. (Camryn)
Once upon a time, there was a regal leopard who loved to bathe in the sun. (Mac1234)
Once there were nine harmless mice. (ARS7)
Oh, I can’t wait to read what happened to those harmless little mice!
About Michael
Michael Lydon is a writer and musician who lives in New York City. Author of many books, among them Rock Folk, Boogie Lightning, Ray Charles: Man and Music, and Writing and Life. A founding editor of Rolling Stone, Lydon has written for many periodicals as well, the Atlantic Monthly, New York Times, and Village Voice.
He is also a songwriter and playwright and, with Ellen Mandel, has composed an opera, Passion in Pigskin. A Yale graduate, Lydon is a member of ASCAP, AFofM local 802, and on the faculty of St. John’s University.
