Writing a Children's Book

Lesson 2: Planning Your Book.

Characters.

Once you have the basic idea for your story, you need to make some decisions about characters. If you’re writing a picture book, an RS novel, or a JCB, then you’re going to have to limit the number of characters you use. If you have too many characters, it is difficult to give them enough to do. It can be difficult for young readers to keep a large cast of characters straight, and there is a danger that you, as writer, might forget one or two of them for quite large chunks of the book.

It is usually sensible to have one or two major characters. Three or four is also possible, but this works best if the characters are grouped together in some way. In real life, children seem to fall naturally into two groups: some have one “best friend”, while others will be happier with a gaggle of less intense acquaintances. Both set-ups suggest inbuilt conflict, which can be useful for you as a writer.

Best friends (often two girls) provide foils for one another. Chalk/cheese partnerships are rewarding to write about, and quite common in real life. Children and teenagers often find in a best friend elements they think are missing from their own characters. There are two inherent forms of conflict present in a best friend partnership.

(1) If the friends are divided by internal or external circumstances (a quarrel, illness, relocation of one of the families) then both partners will suffer loneliness and unhappiness. More distant acquaintances can’t fill the gap, and will probably be unwilling to try.

(2) If one of the partners makes an additional friend or takes up an absorbing interest the other doesn’t (or can’t) share, then one will feel left out and abandoned, while the other will probably feel guilty and resentful.

Group friendships often involve four or more children and teenagers. There are obvious advantages in having more than one friend, because if one is unavailable or disagreeable, there are always others to fill the gap.

The disadvantages are equally obvious. The group dynamics will be complicated, as it is unlikely that every member of the group will be equally happy with the company of every other member.

There will probably be one or more natural leaders, and it is quite likely there will be one or more natural victims or butts.

It might be difficult to organise social occasions, and adding or subtracting one person from the group can upset the dynamics.

If a member of the group is in trouble, s/he might feel isolated because of the lack of close and specific friendship.

Traditionally, many children’s books had four main characters. These were often mixed sets of boys and girls, even in books at the SCB level where romantic pairing was unlikely. Mixed foursomes (almost always two boys, and two girls) occur in the following vintage series. Approximate decades of first publication are shown.

Four Pevensies in “Narnia” series by C.S. Lewis (1950s.)

Four Walkers in the “Swallows and Amazons” series by Arthur Ransome. 1940s.

Four siblings (plus a baby brother) in E. Nesbit’s “Five Children” series. (1910.)

Four Thorntons in Monica Edwards’ “Punchbowl Farm” series. 1940s-1960s.

Four Melendys in Elizabeth Enright’s “Melendy” series. (1940s.)

Four siblings in Edward Eager’s “Magic” series. (1960s).

Four children (2 siblings, 2 cousins plus a dog) in Enid Blyton’s “Famous Five” series. (1940s-1960s)

Four friends (two are cousins) in Monica Edwards’ “Romney Marsh” series (1940s-1960s)

Four teenagers (two are siblings) in Geoffrey Trease’s “Bannermere” series. (1940s-1950s)

It is easy to see why authors and readers favoured this kind of foursome. Siblings or not, a group of four children or teenagers offered a strong possibility for reader identification. They were usually strongly characterised, and included such character types as the “dreamy believer”, “natural leader”, “spoiled baby”, “practical quiet one”, “professor” or “eccentric”. Despite this, it was rare for all four to be equals. Usually, one or two were featured more than the others.

Using the foursome still works today, but it is probably better in SCB and YA than in JCB. It is more difficult to use the four-sibling arrangement, because few modern families produce four children close enough in age.

Four-handed boy/girl friendships are rare in SCB territory, although they might easily occur among younger children. One way of producing a viable foursome is to include one pair of siblings and a complementary pair of unrelated friends

What about books with one protagonist rather than a pair or a group? These can work well, because the focus of the story isn’t diluted. However, there is a danger that the balance between narrative and dialogue can come unstuck if the protagonist spends too much time alone. It is possible to have one or two protagonists from a book with a larger family, such as "Alien Dawn". Famous single protagonist books from the past include L.M. Montgomery’s “Anne” and “Emily” series.

Other character patterns and some tips on character development will be covered later in the course.

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