101 Writing Tips from an Exhausted Reviewer

Writing Children

Guys.

50K reads?

Y'all are spoiling me.

Thank you so much for all the support! To every single reader, for every single commenter, and for every single voter... I say thank you! A bit of self-disclosure: as most of you know, I started this story with a dear friend of mine. She, unfortunately, left Wattpad very shortly after we started this (after the first three chapters were posted), and I wasn't sure if I wanted to even keep going or if it would even help anyone.

But there were a few people who were so invested, who made me cackle with some of their amazing comments, and I just didn't have the heart to stop.

And now we're here. At 50K reads. Sure, it's not a million--but I'm still gobsmacked.

So... thank you! To old readers and new readers. I appreciate every single one of you.

Anyways.

Kids.

One thing I have learnt after reviewing on Wattpad is that even if the author is a kid, they don't necessarily know how to write kids.

Like. Seriously.

I have seen twelve-year-olds driving cars with no issues from parents/police.

I have seen six-year-olds rob banks.

I have seen toddlers say things like, "I would like tap water over sparkling water, please."

Which wasn't so bad, until the toddler added:

"Ugh. I cannot believe the service here. Why are they serving us water when they could be serving us the subtropical flavours of guava juice?"

So, in this chapter, I'm going to be using two hats. The first hat I'm going to put on is my 'writer' hat, where I will just talk about some general tips when it comes to writing children. Then, you can all see the psychologist hat for the first time, as I go through what each age range is like in terms of development.

Of course, some kids will always be exceptions. So much of it depends on upbringing.

Sure, a nine-year-old may be able to speak fluent English. But what if that nine-year-old grew up around penguins instead of humans? Would that be the same?

Anyways. Let's go through some tips first.

Writing hats on!

- KNOW THE MYTHS.

Here are some common misconceptions:

All children are unreasonable and irrational.

Children are incapable of understanding the world.

Children can't care for themselves, no matter their age.

Children are stupid.

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.

Sure, you've seen a kid have a breakdown because their balloon flew away. Or you've seen kids try to bite their toes. Or you've seen them try to drink their own pee.

Heck, we've probably been those kids!

The thing is--kids are curious. It's all about experimenting. And when they are being 'unreasonable and irrational' and crying over small things, that's usually because they're experiencing something where they have either had that response modelled to them, or because it's a novel experience for them so they don't have many experiences to help them decide alternate ways to respond.

And crying is an evolutionary weapon! Don't forget that!

Children are processing millions of things for the first time, and that can be overwhelming. They definitely do dumb things all the time, but that doesn't mean that they are dumb. It's simply them experimenting, or not knowing what they are doing is dumb. Also worth mentioning that their brains are still developing and understanding the concept of 'consequences'. We'll come back to this!