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Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Child For Sale

Yesterday afternoon I took a walk (I do that sometimes). As I rounded a bend, I heard young voices bouncing off the houses.

"Tell your mom to have another baby!"

"No, I want this baby."

"Well, maybe I'll have to sell him for sale and then you can buy him!"

That's an über-weird conversation. To give it a little perspective, the wee speakers couldn't have been more than five years old apiece.

Ah. The world according to a very small child.

Which brings me to my point. When writing for children, it's imperative that the voice of the story -- and of the characters -- resonates in the child's world. Authenticity in dialogue, both internal and external, is a skill to be honed and re-honed in the world of kidlit. If a main character has inner thoughts that seem like they belong inside the head of a thirty-year-old, then something isn't right.

In pondering the snippet of dialogue to which I was privy yesterday, it struck me how "normal" it was for the tykes engaging in it. To them, the idea of selling a baby brother to your neighbor wasn't odd in the least. And as I listened to their amusing exchange, I felt like I was "allowed into" their very real world. I didn't question it; I didn't worry that something was "off."

That's the way it should feel when we read the dialogue of not-quite-grown characters. We shouldn't question it, struggle with it, roll our eyes in dismay at it. And in order to provide this delightful experience for our readers, we need to write with a level of authenticity that accomplishes this.

Adult fiction will often have a youngster or two on its pages, so the same thing applies. Your twelve-year-old secondary character needs to be as believable as your twenty-nine-year-old protagonist. You can't just make him a little shorter with the same vocabulary.

And the bottom line is, if you want to learn how to get into the world of children -- their language, their perceptions, their reactions -- you need to spend time with children. You've heard the ridiculously old adage "write what you know." Well, you have to "know" children in order to write them.

You don't have to give birth to or raise or sign a two-year lease on a child in order to accomplish this. Hang at a playground. Take your hyperactive nephew to the pool. Babysit. Let your hair down and spend some time with small people. Listen to their words, their games, their songs. If they're teenagers, listen to their fears and dislikes and passions and the latest teen-speak. Learn to laugh with them, cry with them, pay attention to the meaning behind their words.

They really are endlessly fascinating. And if you can grab hold of the fascination, regardless of age level, you will transfer that sense of immediacy and reality to your characters.

There's your challenge. Make what you can of it.

I think I'll take a walk!

7 comments:

  1. If you all are desperate to find some children to listen to, I have a chatty 6-year-old and a surly 13-year-old that will certainly give you insight.

    Party at my house. You bring the punch!

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  2. One of the worst cliches in fantasy and sci-fi is the "prodigy", the super child who has an adult vocabulary and does everything on their own without adults, help, or consequence.

    Usually I'm horrified by the parents in those scenarios. And then by the author... but it could go either way.

    A child's world is pretty simple. It revolves around them and what they want. They understand there are some rules. For example, most children by age 3 know that if you want something, you go buy it. The grocery store has everything.

    They don't understand about money perhaps, or farming, or the 3-field system. But they know Mom has a magic device for accessing the sotre and trading something in her purse for the food and toys.

    By age 6 they might understand specilaty stores. My daughter wants a brother so she keeps asking to go to the hospital. After all, that's where her Aunt got Baby Gavin. It stands to reason that Mom and Dad could pick one up there too, no problem!

    I spend all day with a 3 yr old, and the older one will be home from school in an hour or two. If you want, you can borrow them for a day or two. They really like helping in the kitchen... you'll have a blast! (or cry, one of the two)

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  3. I can beat BOTH previous offers!

    I have FIVE kids...yep, you heard me right, I said FIVE!

    I can loan you whatever age range you'd like to be writing in, pick an age, even personality, because they do run the gambit there!

    I will say that the youngest do tend to say the most interesting things, although my thirteen year old asked me today if you were still "horny" if you got a hysterectomy...and that was just a totally RANDOM conversation!

    Kids...gotta love em cause you can't kill em!

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  4. Terriranier -- I understand where you're coming from with the 13-year-old. I had a long conversation with mine the other night about gyno visits.


    So...if someone wants to write about a 13-year-old, have them ask a lot of sex questions.

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  5. My neighbor recently read her 16 year old son's text messages and was nice enough to share the results with me. Um, can you say scary? She was horrified. I was horrified. And her son was totally horrified when he found out. As was his girlfriend :)

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  6. Ahh. I work with children so much. My first published story is in the perspective of a 6 year old. Heh, I think I pulled it off alright or I wouldn't be where I am today. :)
    On the subject of children, today's lot need to read more. I encourage all published and aspiring writers to donate old or new books to libraries or churches or other organizations.

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  7. Excellent advice. Thanks for posting :)

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