Little Peoples

@anne-of-lothlorien I’ve noticed that little kids are cute as well as bundles full of energy. They don’t easily get mad or sad, and are always giving people the strangest things.
When I write little people, they usually end up making people realize what they want, or bringing up painful things that need to be brought up, and yet they are perfectly innocent. Little people/kids are mainly pure at heart because they don’t know about the bad things of the world yet.

Oh, gee. Little kids are hard. I have a nine year old in my stories, and I’m constantly having to slow myself down to a much more basic view of life when I write her.

Like all human beings, you find such vast differences from one to the next, but they’re harder to write about, probably because their minds and thought processes aren’t as complex as someone older. I think that’s one of the defining things about them. We have much more knowledge, but that can sometimes hinder us from thinking clearly, as opposed to them, who see the world in a much more simple light. This simplicity is probably what lets them see things that we miss because of all the extra stuff in our brains that get in the way of a rational idea. The thing you mentioned about Hillary is a prime example of this.

I hope that makes sense.

They can also be extremely selfish. But I’m sure you’re probably well aware of that. 🙂

@anne-of-lothlorien

Another book written from the view of a nine to ten year old is To Kill a Mockingbird. It specifically shows the innocence, wisdom, and attitude of a young girl.

Something I find hard to remember is that the littler the child the harder it is to tactfully explain hard subjects, and the older we get the more “foreign” vocabulary we use. For example, it may be hard to simply explain things like war, divorce, death, or the buying of a fancy car for no reason other than you liked it a lot; they may, or in most cases, may not understand the meaning of words like exceptionally, tragic, continuous, etc.

One last thing 😉
Have fun when you write from their view. Even if the world around them is full of war and turmoil, kids are, at times, completely oblivious (more so the younger they are).

I’ve got 8 of the little things running around the house, so I’m open to whatever questions you have. *bows* Fire away!

Well, lord of the flies is a good example of a story about kids.

I was about to say I’ve never written a kid, but I guess I’ve actually written two. Their POV wasn’t very strong in those scenes though.

If I were to do a deep POV child character, however, I would start by looking back at how I thought when I was younger. If you don’t remember anything from when you were younger, maybe you could interview people who remember those times

@SleepwalkingMK

But if his parents let him do everything he wants, then he’ll probably be selfish.

Yes. And this is another thing about writing kids. They interact with the world however they have been allowed to interact. When they’re young they can’t see the reality of everything, so if left to themselves they shape their way however it feels best for them; on the easiest path. If they have no one to check that, it continues into adulthood. See, every single thing that happens to a child builds on their foundation, whether good or bad, right or wrong. They don’t naturally have the experience to distinguish one from the other. If there’s no one to teach them that, say, selfishness is wrong and harmful, they grow up selfish and find it perfectly acceptable… then go off into the world and wonder why people don’t like them. 😛 This is actually a good thing to keep in mind writing characters, period. Their childhood, whether you write it or not, literally shapes the way they view life. There’s nothing to say they can’t change that view, (what is a character arc but that) but it’s gonna take a lot of doing.