Prescription Six

"What would happen next? The novelist droned on, and as soon as the audience guessed what happened next, they either fell asleep, or killed him..."

Today's Prescription continues the discussion of writing for children.

A story has a shape; it has a frame, a climax; you listen in confidence because you know that something is going to happen, it will work out in the end. Something must certainly happen in a children's story, and it must happen in a casual way; in answer to the question, WHY?

PLOTS FOR SMALL TO MEDIUM AGE GROUPS -

What is a story? It is a form of authority. If I tell you a story, you are almost certain to listen. One event leads to another. A story has a shape; it has a frame, a climax; you listen in confidence because you know that something is going to happen, it will work out in the end. Something must certainly happen in a children's story, and it must happen in a casual way; in answer to the question, WHY?

HOW TO GET IDEAS -

1. A working writer is always on the alert. Even a short walk to the post office may contain material for fiction.

2. There are conversations, always a fruitful source of conjecture.

3. Newspaper items and small ads eg. Wanted- bearded man prepared to keep shaving and re-growing beard.

4. Notices seen in the street or in shop windows.

5. Experiences and events happening to friends and acquaintances.

6. Dreams hold ideas.

Our surroundings are composed of basic materials for plots, once the habit of recognizing them has been acquired.

THEMES -

1. A character's intention, an obstacle, attempts to overcome obstacles, preliminary failure and ultimate success are all valid themes to write about.

2. Some opening situations are surefire winners: a deathbed promise; a horrible piece of injustice; somebody in disguise which instantly evokes the question WHY is he in disguise, what has been happening to him?

3. Take a look at basic myth and folktake plots;

4. Perhaps begin your novel in the middle of a very bad situation;

5. Or begun your novel in a situation of idyllic affluence and happiness, a kind of Golden Age, just a glimpse of it, and then your characters abruptly are jolted out of it into the grimness of reality.

6. Children love revenge and are delighted when the villains are ground in the dust and humiliated;

7. Children are intensely interested in morality, and if you can actually display, episode by episode, the corrosive effect of something like a revenge impulse on a personality, they will be with you every step of the way.

8. The redemption of an unpleasant character is a theme that appeals strongly to children.

BUILDING THE READER'S INTEREST -

Having your basic idea and your theme and opening situation, how do you go about building and maintaining the young reader's interest?

1. Children won't stand to be bored. To keep his attention you have to bait your hook with cunning and play him with all the angler's skill.

2. You must keep the action continuously moving.

3. Furthermore, you have to strew little intriguing clues and nuggets of information along the way to keep his interest from flagging.

4. The main character should suffer hardships.

5. Another means of heightening interest is to issue some warning eg. 'there is a traitor among us, but I don't know who it is.'

6. An element of mystery is always valuable - something glimpsed, overheard, remembered; a hint dropped, something to puzzle both hero and reader to make them feel that there is more here, than meets the eye.

7. Make sure that wherever the action is taking place, you yourself have the scene in which it is happening completely visualized in your mind's eye.

BEGINNING

1. It is impossible to be too speedy with the beginning of a children's book. You have to rush the reader off his feet, if possible, with the first paragraph.

2. If you can toss your hero into an exciting predicament right at the start, then, by seeing him through it, the reader will have time to get used to him eg. Tom Sawyer opens with Aunt Polly chasing Tom who has been stealing jam.

3. If you can startle your readers with your opening, do that too. eg. The most memorable day of my life was the one when my father hit me with a haddock...

ENDING

1. Have a firm and clear picture of the end in your mind before you ever begin to write; even, perhaps, have the last paragraph written down.

2. To children, the end of a story represents chaos and uncertainty, being faced with emptiness, with something insoluble, with death itself. The book has been their friend, a living entity.

3. A flat and unsatisfactory ending is the worst sin a writer can commit. The end, when it comes, must be strong, satisfying, yet perhaps with an element of surprise in it, so that the reader may feel 'Yes, I see; yes of course. Yes, it had to happen that way.'

4. It is not a bad idea to cheer the end of your book with a bit of light relief. Let them down gently after the climax by perhaps bringing back a minor character and allowing him to perform his act for a moment or two eg, losing his spectacles again, asking the time. You need to close the door of the story gently, not with a violent bang.