Once a child has one problem, it can open up the door to many more.
“Oh, Mom, I’m so bored!”
“Sounds like a problem!” Mom said, as she peeled potatoes for dinner.
“There’s nothing to do!” He squirmed in his chair.
“What are you going to do about it?”
The child sat still suddenly. His eyes widened. He looked at his mom in amazement. It suddenly occurred to him that he would have to be the one to solve his problem.
And in children’s stories, our main characters have to solve their own problems too.
Despite what we may have read in old fairy tales and in a myriad of anthropomorphic novels, most main characters in children’s stories are expected to be children. And in order to star in a children’s story, a child must have a very big problem, and a desperate need for that problem to be resolved.
Put that child to work!
Let’s hope this is a child with an imagination — one that can carry the story to outrageous, surprising opportunities for further depth or greater peril. Your child’s problem should be one he or she is aware of, at least on a sub-conscious level. The problem drives this character to seek out solutions. Some solutions may not pan out, but at least one will save the day in the end.
While resolving the problem certain quirky characteristics will surface. Perhaps this child is afraid of dogs and the only solution to the problem lies inside a ferocious bulldog’s pen. One problem leads to another, know what I mean?
While trying to distract the dog, the child tears his pants leg on the fence. His mother will be furious; she just bought those pants last week.
Worse yet, the tear catches on the fence and he tumbles to the ground, and the dog leaps at him, licking him on both cheeks, desperate for a playmate.
He cannot get the beast off of him and must call for help, alerting the owner, a grumpy old man, who comes out of his house carrying a shotgun.
Once a child has one problem it opens up the door to many, and this can keep your novel or short story pumping out thrills for children who need to know what other children might do in seriously difficult situations.
Children don’t like to read about kids whose lives are incredibly easy and dull. They need to learn about the world, and that is often best done by bonding with the character in a book, and watching that child go through difficult times, yet thrive and succeed.
When developing your plot, always think, “What could make life harder for this child?” Then give the child amazing skills to handle every difficulty and resolve every problem. Do not let them rely too much on others.
Perhaps occasionally an adult might help out, but they won’t resolve the main problem in the book. Your child main character won’t be a hero in the reader’s eyes if Grandma steps in and fixes things up for him.
Give thought to this character’s past. What made him or her able to overcome all sorrows, and to become a hero? Give the child depth of character with both faults and virtues, abilities and disabilities. Let this child be someone memorable, whose life is a force for good.
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