There is no better school for learning to write for adults than learning to write for children.
Here are five reasons why:
1.Sentences have to make sense.
“She was crying so hard, tears spilled from her eyes and bounced off her jeans.”
I wrote it.
I was in a week-long writing intensive at Sarah Lawrence. One of the instructor’s lessons was to pull out one sentence from an unidentified manuscript and read it aloud. She started by reading the beautiful, unique sentences she had chosen. Next she read –not unkindly– the unwieldy, poorly structured, incomprehensible, clichéd, or entirely ridiculous sentences. The anonymous writer either smiled proudly, burst out laughing, or tried to keep a deadpan face as to not give themselves away.
“Could a tear really fall from your eyes and bounce off a pair of jeans?” the instructor asked by way of explanation. “Or would it get absorbed immediately into the material?”
That’s all she said before going on to the next chapter. I never again wrote a sentence that didn’t make sense, no matter how beautiful or poetic or lyrical I thought it sounded.
2.Plot is actually important.
There are certain story tropes. The reader expects them and there is nothing wrong with that. Every story has already been told, either by Shakespeare (or whoever you believe truly wrote those plays) or in the Bible. So it is not what story you tell, but how. The reader can be confused for a while— or even mislead, as red herrings appear — but the writer cannot be. Every conflict, every question you layer into your story needs to be answered. If you’ve got too many unkept promises, go back and simplify. Follow the tried-and-true storytelling techniques: Create believable characters, give them something they need and something they want, put them in situations they can’t seem to get out of, give them obstacles, write toward the climax, get rid of everything that doesn’t belong in the narrative, and resolve the story with an “expected surprise.” The resolution doesn’t have to be happy, but it needs to be satisfying.
3.No one buys coincidence. Not even young readers.
I see it often in the manuscripts I receive for reviewing. Nothing to be ashamed of, just learn to recognize when it’s happening. It’s a pretty easy to fix, as well. Go back to the start of your story, and make sure to layer in the hints and facts to support why your main character can suddenly play the clarinet, or drive a motorcycle, or whatever it is you suddenly need to have happen.
4.Write what you really care about.
Kids books are usually shorter than adult books, but don’t let that fool you into thinking you can bang out a story that you’re not passionate about. You will sit with that work, edit it, reread and re-edit it, and read it again, and you will need to sustain your interest in that story for probably a year or more. Even if you think this is book that the whole world wants to hear, if it begins to bore you, it will bore them. But if it really interests you, don’t worry, it will interest someone else. Promise.
5.You need to read. Sorry, there’s no getting around this one.
Some kids, like some adults, devour books. Some kids are forced to read books in school, but don’t really like to write. This is perfectly fine. Not every kid is going to find joy in the process of creating stories. But there are no kids who want to write that don’t love to read. There are, however, adults who want to write even if they don’t love to read. This is a problem.
