Good morning. I hope you and yours are well. It now seems that at last the Covid virus is loosening its grip a little. I’m delighted to tell you that our minister’s wife is starting to feel better, and the dad in our church who was in intensive care is making good progress. I know some of you will have lost loved ones – if you have, please accept my sincere condolences at this difficult time, and if you’re not able to write right now, tuck this thought away for the future. There’s a time for everything under the sun.
As children’s writers, we need to know our target readers’ interests, likes and dislikes, fears, hopes and dreams, so we can make sure our stories are relevant for them.
So I have a quick, but important writing tip for you today.
At a suitable time, ask some of your target readers how they feel/felt about the virus and the crisis.
The simplest way right now would be to ask friends/family with children, if they would ask your questions for you, such as: what were the best and the worst things? What were they afraid of, and what helped them cope? How did they spend their time during the lockdown?
Not only will this help young people feel heard, but their thoughts and feelings may be useful for future character development in your stories, so you can bring hope to a new generation of readers.
Trust that help!
See you next week,
Janet
P.S. If you’d like to join our closed facebook group for people who are determined to write their stories for children, let me know and I’ll let you in! 🙂