  Action/Adventure
This week: Young Characters Edited by: Kitti the Red-Nosed Feline  
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By creating young characters you can inspire younger readers. But it can be a challenge to develop them...
This week's Action/Adventure Newsletter is all about child characters, and the risk or either overestimating them or underestimating their capabilities.
Kitti the Red-Nosed Feline |
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Young characters in action/adventure stories are quite common. Harry Potter is a popular example, but I remember the characters from my youth, who made me believe that one day I, too, would be chosen to enter another world filled with magic and dragons and awesome friends of all kinds of interesting species. For some reason unknown to me I would be the one they needed to save the day. Obviously, I would succeed. I had a bag ready for just such an occasion, and amongst what other things I packed there was a piece of string – because apparently you’ll always need a piece of string – and a roll of toilet paper which my mom had told me you never wanted to go without when travelling. That advice has served me well over the years, even though no wizard ever showed up to take me on a multi-dimensional journey.
Thank you, then, to the authors using younger characters in their stories. It’s not always easy to create them. Whilst we were all young, once, it’s very easy to have a child character do things and say things beyond their age. Or to underestimate them.
As readers, we pick up on these things. A four-year-old who can write a coherent letter, for example, might raise some eyebrows. Perhaps some four-year-olds will be capable of this feat, but I know that I wasn’t the only child who could just about write my name and a few other words at that age, and even then I got some of it the wrong way around. That means that it might be a very cute image, someone that age writing an appeal to Santa, but it’s not exactly realistic.
The same goes for vocabulary. My niece will turn five next month, and I am impressed with how well she expresses herself. She can chat your ears off. She’s not going to use very lengthy words, however, of the kind many people would have to look up in a dictionary. Perhaps a child will pick up a word or two from their parents, and receive a positive reaction when using it, so they’ll proudly use it again and again, but they’re not going to sound like an overly-pretentious academic. Now would I, for one, want them to.
Each child develops at their own pace. This is true. I know a ten-year-old who sounds very mature. And then she’ll happily play games with her younger brother and I, and have a laugh. Children should be allowed to be children, both in real life and in our stories.
Some children, of course, live in circumstances that many adults would struggle with. They might live in a warzone. They might have been mistreated. This will have an impact on them.
Other children have adult responsibilities. They might be a carer for their siblings, or their parents, managing a household in addition to keeping up with their education.
When writing about a child growing up under such circumstances, one needs to keep this impact in mind. Otherwise, a good way of judging how to portray a child of a certain age is to look at your own children, or the children of friends and family, or to do some research on child development – this depends on your own circumstances. I do not have children of my own, but I am fortunate enough to have my little niece and to be called upon to babysit the children of friends on occasion. It’s always a fun time, and it reminds me of the different challenges children face today compared to when I was their age.
Technology makes a big difference. When I was a kid I didn’t have a mobile phone, or a laptop, or other such items. The Internet wasn’t a thing for the wider public. We only had one TV in the house, and there were only a handful of channels to choose from. I remember the days when MTV was a music channel. 
Whilst there are these changes, there are also things that stay the same. A toddler I know loves to splash around in puddles. All the kids I know love to draw – and not on a gadget but by using pencils and paper.
To create a young character takes looking through young eyes. This may not always be the easiest challenge, but it’s a worthwhile experience. There is a lot we can learn when looking back at our younger selves and at what it is to be young now.
Kitti the Red-Nosed Feline
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Wishing you a week filled with inspiration,
The Action/Adventure Newsletter Team
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Action/Adventure: November 15, 2017 Issue [#8603]
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