Some books for children remain ever-popular. Did you read novels by Enid Blyton or Patricia St John when you were younger? Children are still reading these books and enjoying them now, fifty or more years after they were first published!
However, if either of these authors had included references to the celebrities of their day in their novels, the stories would have quickly become dated. Film stars, pop stars, fashion models, famous sportsmen, politicians and celebrity chefs . . . how quickly they are forgotten, to be superseded by a new generation of stars (Mary Berry excepted; I think she may go on forever :-))!
It may be tempting, if writing a novel for today’s boys who love football, for example, to include references to Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi, but in 50 years’ time they will be old men!
So if you want your novels to be relevant for more than a year or two, and you need a celebrity for your characters to follow/avoid/adore, make one up. Give your new celebrity a fabulous name and set them off on their new adventure. (You could even model your celebrity on yourself or a loved one, how fun would that be? :-))
Trust that helps!
Happy creating . . .
Janet
P.S. Registration for the next Write for a Reason course is now open. If you want to go deeper into your writing in the new year, click here for more details. Writing better stories will help you reach more readers, plus doing the course is lots of fun (as well as hard work!). 🙂 I love seeing writers’ confidence growing as they go through the course and I’d love to help you, too. Any queries, please don’t hesitate to contact me.