Wednesday 4 November 2015

Bea-ing Kidded

I kid you not: my eight year old granddaughter likes telling jokes. She also likes playing tricks on the adults in her life. Kids do enjoy trying to catch us out, don’t they?

My daughter (when much younger!) feeding the kids
Writing for children is not as straight forward as it seems. I won a competition a few years ago with a short story for children. I didn’t find it easy to write.

Last weekend I asked my granddaughter Scarlett for help with another competition entry I was working on. The brief was to draft a book for very young children. Although older than the target age, Scarlett was very helpful and we spent a happy couple of hours exchanging ideas, with her sharing some of her favourite books with me. So fingers crossed for this one.

Writing about children is not easy either, trying to capture their speech and the speed with which they can switch from one topic to another. The story I am writing at the moment involves an eight year old who plays a trick on her grandfather. I wonder where I got my inspiration?

7 comments:

  1. Good luck with the competition.

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    1. Thanks, Patsy. And good luck with your new novel Firestarter's launch today.

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  2. I've just found you via Patsy's blog. Good luck with all your short stories. I love flash fiction and I have started to write poetry so I think I'll have a go at the competition.

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    1. Thanks for the good wishes, Maggie. Good luck to you too if you enter this competition. I may have to buy one of the prize mugs even if I don't win as I have my eye on one (or two).

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  3. Time for a quick update. I won the competition with which my granddaughter Scarlett helped me. Who says you ought not to work with children?

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  4. Congratulations. What a team you are. Keep on Writing!

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    1. Thank you, Linda. I think she definitely deserves a lollipop.

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