I’ve never tried writing for kids before. It’s a completely different kettle of fish that my normal writing. By kids, I am not refering to the plethora of material for ‘young adults’ that is out now, which mostly seems to be a study in mediocrity and cliches. Yet the teens devour it and I know I did when I was that age. Looking back on it I can’t believe some of the stuff I thought was good which on reading in later years turns out not to haev been.
By kids I mean younger than teens. The thought of writing for them was spurred by being an uncle. I have a niece who is two and a half and loves reading, a nephew who is a bit over two who loves, well, chewing on books and a third due to make an appearance in five months or there abouts.
Given I enjoy writing, I thought why not write some books for them? The idea (which I may have mentioned before) was from reading JRR Tolkien’s Christmas Letters. He wrote (and illustrated) for quite a few years a series of letters purportedly from Father Christmas that he then left for his kids to discover.
So my plan is to write for birthdays and Christmas and the like stories for them, of adventures with their eccentric uncle. The down side is my artistic talent is rather mediocre, and at the age they are illustrations are fairly important.
The other consideration is how to prepare the stories to give them. I’d rather not just print them out on a printer. One option is to try and get them ‘published’ through one of those POD types, just to give out to them (and other families members who may want them.) They wouldn’t really be done to sell, more for personal enjoyment. I’ll have to look into it a bit more, see what is available.
Mist and Shadows 