o. writing help

HOW TO WRITE: CHILDREN

to help you write

your children

characters

realistically

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child characters are different to adult characters for several reasons which are stated below. however these differences should make no difference to how you develop your character. a child character has likes and dislikes and both positive and negative traits.

INNOCENCE

depending on the age of your child character and the life they have led, they will be more innocent to your adult characters. this does not mean they think that everything is nice and fuzzy but that they aren't aware of a lot of the evils of the world. you have to be careful how you play innocence, for example i bet most 9/10 year old know exactly what sex is. so think carefully about how you portray this!

NAIVETY

children are naive, this does NOT mean stupid. they have less world experience and have no independence so they haven't really seen everything in the world. this makes them naive to other cultures other people. how naive they are depends on their age, personality and background.

IMPULSIVE

children are more impulsive than adults. we learn through making mistakes and children are still learning (aren't we all). so children are more likely to display impulsive behaviour. this involves saying exactly what they think. small children of 5/6 don't really have a dam, they just say what pops into their head.

INTELLIGENCE

children aren't stupid. in fact you can have a pretty good conversation with a small child and be surprised what they say. but children haven't learnt as much as adults and their knowledge grows as they do. intelligence however isn't just what they know but how they apply it.

DIALOGUE

dialogue is where you are going to slip up with your child characters. this could be by making the language too mature or not mature enough. you need to know before you start writing how a child would talk, you may have to do research for this.

it's hard to remember what we talked like when we were that age so you may need to talk to others, watch some movies with children and read books to see how other authors have portrayed characters of a similar age.

SO HOW DO I MAKE MY CHILD CHARACTER REALISTIC?

if you know friends or family with young children spend some time with them, see how they interact with others and take special notice to how they speak and what words they use. The wording in dialogue is the kicker in making children realistic.

think back to when you were a child or look at family videos, how did you act around family? how did you play?

CHILDREN TALKING LIKE CHILDREN

this may be just me, but if i'm reading a story that has a kid who is speaking in a way that seems too advanced, i assume that i'm either reading a parody, the child speaking is a genius, or it's some half-human/half-vampire creature in a certain teen vampire romance novel. if it's none of the preceding, or not intentional, then you need to make sure the child speaking sounds like a child. most kids don't usually have very advanced vocabularies or speak using very complex sentence structure. it's important that the child's way of speaking matches their age or level of education.

this means using a vocabulary that is specific to the child's age – not the same as you, the writer. you didn't sound the same when you were five or three, and neither should the children in your stories.

when writing dialogue for your child characters, try to think of children you've encountered in real life or on television. think about how they form sentences and the level of words they use. a little research, if you're unfamiliar with children, can go a very long way.

CHILDREN BEING KNOWLEDGEABLE AS CHILDREN

similar to vocabulary and how your young character speaks, the age of your character should have some sort of effect on how much they know. think of what you knew at that age (the age of your characters), especially when dealing with character's thoughts in narration and conclusions your young character may draw from the words and actions of others. while a three year old may notice that their parents are acting differently, a three year old may not be able to discern exactly why that is. on that same thread, try not to dumb down your character either.

a ten year old may be more attuned to the actions of their parents than you might think. an eleven year old wouldn't be completely clueless about more "adult" topics like sex or even drugs. when deciding on what your young character should and shouldn't know, try to draw from real life and your past experience of a child that age. it'll help your story be much more realistic and believable.

CHILDREN BEHAVING LIKE CHILDREN

once you've mastered dialogue, you have to attack mannerisms. there are, quite simply, things kids like and do not like doing. for example: children under five are very prone to tantrums. consistently writing a child who is quiet, never complains, and always does what they are told, leads me to hope that you have some brilliant subplot about them being a robot or similar being. otherwise, something is wrong. kids will throw tantrums, they will protest against things they don't like, from complaints against different foods on their plate touching, to their gloves don't let them touch the snow, and everything in between.

kids also play, even if it's not the forefront of the story or scene. if a child is in the room, it isn't likely that they are just standing in the background quietly. they play with toys or friends, they play pretend, they make noise, they knock into things or knock things over, they scream and they sometimes cry. the presence of a child can rarely go unnoticed, especially by a parent. even when a child may not be the point of focus, if you make them present in the scene, be sure to acknowledge them more than once with a mention (even if it is a small one).

the final check in the behavior of children is physical action. in a normal situation, children do not outrun cars. they don't cook three course meals on their own. they don't jump off buildings and turn out okay or lift things twice their weight. unless your child is a superhero, in which case you can feel free to make them jump off as many buildings as your heart desires.

when a child in a story uses advanced vocabulary, when they're perfectly behaved, when they jump off buildings and land unscathed, the reader will take it as a sign that the kid is not normal. they'll read the rest of your story through that lens, constantly expecting the big secret to be revealed, and probably grow hopelessly confused. and, because they're so very confused, they'll miss the actual point and plot of your story, which leaves you, the writer, at a disadvantage. it is to your benefit to make children as realistic as possible. and if you're ever stuck, just get up from your computer and look around. children are everywhere, i promise.

i'm watching ant-man

and the wasp on saturday

and i'm so stoked to watch it.

besides, the after credits scene

is related to infinity war so yay

i hope this helped :'))