Christian stories for children need to be every bit as good as secular stories – or better! One thing we must do as Christian writers is to create engaging characters.

Whether our heroes save the world or just their mum, we all love protagonists who overcome evil, defeat their enemies, or make it through a dire situation. Danger can be of any kind, from dragons to desperadoes, spies to spiders, volcanoes to violent criminals. dragon cakeChildren especially have a strong sense of right and wrong and love to see baddies get their comeuppance, especially if young people like themselves are the ones who save the day! This must be part of the reason for the popularity and longevity of Enid Blyton’s Famous Five stories – scorned sometimes by educationalists, children everywhere still love them.

So when we are planning our stories, we need to make our main characters inspirational – we need them to be the sort of people our readers would love to be, or have as a best friend. At the beginning of the story our protagonists might be unlikely champions. They must have faults (after all, who likes a know-it-all goody goody?), but they also need to be likeable and engaging. In fact we want our readers to be so absorbed by our protagonist’s activities that they suspend their own lives because they have become so much a part of our stories!

You know all these things really, but I hope I have helped by pulling these thoughts together for you! If this post has helped, please share it with your friends – we can truly make a difference if we work together. 🙂 And if you would like to look at creating engaging characters in more detail, particularly from a Christian point of view, join the Write for a Reason course – there’s still time!

Janet WilsonMay the Lord himself inspire you as your write!

Janet

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We all need a hero!
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