WRITING FOR CHILDREN
1) Children need fantasy/adventure. They need to be transported into an experience they cannot normally have.
2) Children need familial or peer-group bonding. Normal children (those who grow up in loving families) require plot points that strengthen a bond between parents and child, between siblings, or a bond with peers — in spite of difficulties. Make sure to add lots of magic/adventure into what the characters have to do, otherwise the conflict, although of interest, will not hold the child’s attention.
3) Children require linearity. A story that jumps around too much does not work well. Keep the plot limited to one core conflict. More than one magical concept/adventurous experience, however, is encouraged.
4) Children require overarching morals. Bravery is the most entertaining one. But there are others such as honesty, being hard working, not giving up and so on.
THE CARDINAL RULE FOR A STRONG PLOT
Each and every sequence must be an increment on previous events and an indication on future events.
For example, let’s say Sequence 1 is about a mother who has to care for a disabled child and, in the process, put her love life on hold. Now, what should Sequence 2 be?
Well, it should be an increment on previous events. In this case, that means it must touch on two main ideas: A) The mother is tense about choosing between love and her child and B) There will be consequences to not making the right choice at the right time.
Now, say, Sequence 2 is: the mother meets a man and the man makes her feel good. This is a WEAK development. It does not touch on either of those ideas strongly enough.
Alternately, say, Sequence 2 goes: mother meets a man that makes her choose between being there for her child that evening, and finally getting some love in her life. Eventually she chooses the man, because the child can survive one evening without her (although it will not be easy), and she NEEDS some love in her life. Now this touches on ideas A) and B) very strongly. It follows strongly from the previous sequence, and is therefore a strong development.
Notice that, with the alternate Sequence 2, you also get a stronger indication on future events, when compared to the first Sequence 2. The reader will be eager to see how the consequences of choosing the man on that evening, and not the child, bear out.
Now let’s restate the rule: Each and every sequence must be an increment on previous events and an indication on future events.
CREATING SOMETHING TEAR-JERKING
All authors want their readers to shed a tear for their stories. So how does one do it? The idea is actually quite simple. But, the execution is where it gets tricky.
The idea is simply to convey to the reader that something beautiful might be lost.
Why are proposal scenes tear-jerkers? It’s because they give you a sense of what a beautiful thing would be lost, if not for that proposal. That’s also why deaths are tear-jerking, why longing reunions are tear-jerking, why recovering after a long battle from cancer is tear-jerking. You can make just about ANYTHING cause the reader to cry if you can invoke in them something beautiful on the verge of being lost.
Now, when it comes to execution, the most common mistake authors make is that they don’t inject enough “loss tension” into the scene. Either the paragraph describing the feelings is too short, or the dialogue too rushed. Thankfully, us editors have your back. Should you want to take a crack at it yourself, keep the main idea in mind. As for execution, read it out loud to someone else and see if it’s doing to them what you wish for it to do to the reader.
Roy Editing and Critique 