In today’s episode, Josiah joins staff members Mariposa and Lori as they take an in-depth look at kidlit. They discuss what makes the genre unique, how the age of your audience affects the writing process, and the lessons authors of any genre can learn from children’s stories. Listen to their conversation below!
Do you read children’s fiction? If so, what techniques has the genre taught you? Let us know in the comments!
View the show notes for this episode here, and don’t forget to subscribe to the Story Embers podcast on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and more.
Ah, I loved this! I’m also a children’s/middle grade writer (and I could also geek out all day about books in this genre!) I loved hearing everyone’s thoughts.
I’d say that something I’ve learned as a children’s writer is to tighten my prose/pacing and create an opening line that grabs readers’ attention from the start (because it’s really hard to keep a kid’s attention sometimes).
I’ve also learned that even though a young protagonist has their limits, it challenges the writer to think creatively about the plot line and how the character can resolve the story’s conflict (or at least a major portion of it.)
Yay! So glad to meet another children’s book writer, Lily! What are some of your favorite children’s books?
Ooh, those are some great points! Kids definitely need stories that grab their attention even more so than adults and teens!
Loved this. Lori and I are in a critique group together. She is such a gem!