Writing Tips & Guidance

Character: Children & Adult Interaction with Children

Children in Writing

Writing the dialogue and actions of children can be challenging. Most adults don't recall what it was like to be a child and have that younger mindset. Most adults are around children enough that they should have an idea, either they have their own kids or their friends do (or their coworkers complain about theirs all day). However, that alone doesn't make it super simple to characterize a child in writing, and some of us don't even have that advantage.

I found some articles and tools to help with the process of writing children in stories. A couple of simple Google searches can bring up these kinds of guides, generally meant for parents but also super useful for writers.

This website, Understood, lists in a series of sub-articles what to expect from children developing through birth to 4-years-old, and goes into detail about skills during those ages and as they get older. 

https://www.understood.org/en/learning-attention-issues/signs-symptoms/developmental-milestones/skill-development-from-birth-to-age-5

This website, Stanford Children's Heath, goes into detail about what each age is capable of from 6-12 years old. The sections on understanding and interacting may be specifically helpful in terms of writing.

https://www.stanfordchildrens.org/en/topic/default?id=the-growing-child-school-age-6-to-12-years-90-P02278&sa=U&ei=eMq7VNe2I8_4yQSX-oCwAw&ved=0CEIQFjAI&usg=AFQjCNFn5tO-78ISMzUno4_7cO4dCvft1Q

Here are some articles about writing child characters. These aren't necessarily as scientific and exact, but they point out the common problems writers have with child characters. Hopefully that makes it easier to avoid the problem. It might take several more clicks to find the kind of article you want, but well worth it if you're seeking help.

Depicting Child Characters by Mythcreants: https://mythcreants.com/blog/depicting-child-characters/

Writing Child Characters by The Writer's Helpers on Tumblr: http://thewritershelpers.tumblr.com/post/41010584414/writing-child-characters

Most importantly, characters are characters regardless of age or situation. Don't write them in a stereotype or without thought simply because they're not easy or your favorite type of character to write. These are the same excuses people use with people-of-color characters or non-western cultures, and, like, eighty thousand other things. That leaves the hard working and really interesting writer with eighty thousand unused things to make use of in writing, so take advantage.

Kids are fun, make them fun. Kids are little pieces of shit, make them little pieces of shit. Just don't fall into the trap of making them infantile or basically adults. Do your research. Talk to both kids and parents, get those real-life stories for inspiration or just mix them straight into your writing. It sounds creepy to say, but you could watch videos of kids if you don't know anyone with one. There are those toy-review channels on YouTube where kids are just kids, and that isn't super weird to watch. There are family blogs and mum blogs with all kinds of stories. There are clips of kids running around with knives and saying the "darndest things."

As a bit of basic advice, worry about this kind of thing during your second draft. Unless the kid (or any other character) is a main character (or plot-point character), it shouldn't be a priority to get their voice right until after the whole story is laid out.

Adult Interaction with Children

If you get nothing else right, this should be a priority. A "good" character would NEVER be rude to a child. Hopefully, that is completely logical. If not, you might need therapy.

The way a character treats children is always indicative of their character. People who are terrible to children are the scum of the earth, and it should never appear otherwise in any writing. I say that as someone who doesn't deal in definites, but this really should be logical. Think of it in terms of "kicking puppies and yelling at children." If this character would kick a puppy, they'd probably yell at a child. They're not a good person and are probably also evil. That doesn't mean they think they are, but your readers will know this. You should definitely know this.

That doesn't mean that a "puppy kicking person who yells at kids" can't be on the good-guy team. In the anime Fate/Apocrypha, Gilles de Rais (Bluebeard) was a general to Jean d'Arc. In the French story of Bluebeard he killed women, and children too in many versions of the story (like the Fate versions). She still cares for him and trusts him as her commander, but the horrors committed by that man haunted her evermore, even in retrospect as a hero long dead and gone. This could be an interesting twist on the character type in a story containing the Catholic Church (or a fantasy version to avoid anger), which has a history of systematically protecting child rapists. Also, there are tons of violence in the church's past. A historical fantasy piece with war and religion would be the perfect place for this type of evil, horrible character who MUST NOT GET A REDEMPTION ARC. We'll cover proper and improper usage of redemption arcs later.

I also don't mean to say that people who don't like or don't want children are "evil." I don't want kids and don't particularly like kids, but I make it a point as an adult to listen to and be kind to children. Why? Because I was one of the idiots who was a kid once. I don't want the next generation to think we're all terrible. I would pull one aside if they hurt my dog, but that's about what it would take.

Which is something to consider. Is the child a "puppy kicker"? Society allows that if a child is a "puppy kicker", then most people should be willing to "yell at children". Which is fine. Puppies are far more morally innocent than kids. Kids can be terrible little monsters on purpose. However, it might be best to consider why they are little monsters and why that kid thinks it is ok to kick puppies. Do their parents kick their dogs? Do their parents kick them? Have they simply not been taught? Show off an in-tune and passionate character by having them pull the kid aside and teach how to properly play with and pet a dog.

There are stories like this everywhere. I remember reading an open letter or something, a Facebook post I think ... Here it is, the first thing that came up. Character inspiration for a better world, if I might hint-hint.

Still, do as you will. Just consider properly how you depict characters at all times. Wouldn't want some innocent young reader learning that it's totally fine to kick puppies and yell at the children of strangers, would you?