Children's Literature Writing: How to Write Interesting Stories?

Some netizens who like to write fairy tales asked me a question: How to write children's literature is interesting?

In fact, when I first started writing fairy tales, I was puzzled for a long time on this issue. When I first started writing fairy tales, I wrote many fairy tales out of sheer interest. I'm not very satisfied with it myself, so I think it's a practice. Even now, sometimes I feel that my writing is not fluent enough, but it is much better than when I first started writing.

Because I didn't understand children's literature at all before, I can write some decent fairy tales now, so I have some experience in writing children's literature. Just because I have had the experience of being a novice, I have some personal experiences. I would like to write my own feelings, hoping to help friends who have just started writing children's literature.

Back to this question: How interesting is children's literature?

To answer this question, we first need to know whether the word interesting has a definition.

Literally, children's literature is literature for children. If we want to define it as interesting, we should limit it to what children find interesting, not what adults see. Although some books are interesting to adults and children, children's literature is not entirely like this. In my own experience, the younger the work, the greater the difference between adults and children's understanding of fun.

I once wrote some short fairy tales myself, which were boring when I wrote them, but when I read them to my son, he found them very interesting.

This is the difference between adults and children's understanding of fun.

I have always thought that when adults define the concept of fun for children's books, they will add such a concept: this book (story) is very interesting and tells such a truth.

When adults recommend an interesting book, it seems that a book should be meaningful rather than interesting. But the books that children really like are purely interesting, so sometimes when writing fairy tales, I will overcome my idea of preaching and only write stories that are purely interesting, but may not have any educational significance.

Of course, an interesting story without theme and educational significance does not mean that you can write those spoof stories. Although that kind of story can also make children laugh, it is not really interesting.

We all experienced it from childhood. On the bright side, we know what kind of interesting stories we liked as children and what stories our children might like. The downside is that we think we have experienced childhood, and take it for granted that children's literature is simple, for children to see, and easy to write.

If we put China and Four Great Classical Novels in front of us, I'm afraid The Journey to the West is the one we watch the most. Knowing this, we can think back to our childhood, write our works to ourselves in childhood, write stories and plots that we find interesting, and stop writing if we feel boring.

On the other hand, although we have experienced childhood, children and children's literature have their own laws. Just because we experienced childhood doesn't mean that we understand these rules. It can't be said that someone has raised a child just because that person knows what is the right way to raise a child. These all need to be studied. Specifically, in addition to knowing a little about children's psychology, we should also know some children's literature.

If you can understand some knowledge of children's psychology, you will know the importance of games in children's lives, understand the reasons why children are keen on games, and understand why small things that look inconspicuous in adults' eyes will be interesting to read to children in stories.

The knowledge of children's literature is the same.

Children's literature is a big concept. It doesn't matter if it is written just for fun, but if you want to write interesting stories, you must at least understand the characteristics of children's literature and who the readers are. When you write like this, you should write in a targeted way so that children of different ages will find it interesting to read.

For an obvious example, works like The Grass House are not suitable for children in primary school, especially those in lower grades. Similarly, many children in the upper grades of primary schools disdain reading fairy tales. In addition, children in primary schools are generally willing to read stories in which the protagonist is older than himself. For another example, children in the third grade are more willing to read books whose protagonists are children in the fourth and fifth grades, rather than books whose protagonists are the same age or younger than themselves.

Liu Zhu, a critic of children's literature, has a book Three Mothers of Children's Literature, which mainly tells that children's literature can be divided into three categories: love theme, nature theme and urchin theme. More interesting books written in China are basically the motif of urchins, that is, the theme of urchins. This is because the theme of urchins is better, the characters are easy to write interesting, and they can exert their imagination, which is also in line with the lively nature of children.

Just started writing fairy tales, and want to write interesting stories, you can try to start by writing such stories. However, it should be remembered that urchins are not Xiong Haizi, but children with childish characteristics.

There are many fairy tales in this kind of children's books, and my favorite is Tang Sulan's "The Story of the Stupid Wolf" series (the story of the stupid wolf actually has these three themes at the same time). You can start by reading these books and think about why they are interesting. Read more books and you will know how to write when you write.

However, when writing this kind of story, it is very important that although you don't write a sermon, you still have to take a stand when writing it. Otherwise, although the stories and characters written are interesting, they may be difficult to be really interesting.

For example, Yang's "Ma Xiaotiao Series" is quite interesting. Children like to watch it, but this kind of fun is just the fun of performing. In many plots, Ma Xiaotiao shows that children are not really cute, but he makes readers laugh by playing tricks on others, even some mentally handicapped children. In an equally interesting work, two children brag about each other in the short story "The Illusionist" by the Soviet writer nosov. Obviously, these are two children who talk big and have unknown addresses, so there are many jokes in the story. But these two children have strong sympathy and can comfort a little girl teased by her brother. Although the author didn't say anything, his position was clear. His works have a sense of hierarchy and several implied metaphors (for example, fantasy is not a lie, but an ability to enrich imagination), which is obviously deeper than Yang's works.

1. Know something about children's psychology and children's literature.

In children's psychology, you can read developmental psychology books, just any book. Because developmental psychology is about the psychological development law of a person's life, we can only look at children and children. In this way, we can understand the psychological characteristics of children at different ages.

In the knowledge of children's literature, it is enough to know the different characteristics of children's literature, children's literature and youth literature, at least knowing the stories that children of what age are reading.

2. Write what children like to watch, not what they like to watch.

3. Write about what happened around children and stories they can understand.

4. The story of urchin type is more interesting, but the author should keep the correct point of view.

The above are some of my thoughts on this issue, which is a bit confusing. After writing, I found that there is still a lot to say, so I have time to continue writing in the future.

You are welcome to put forward your own suggestions. If you have any thoughts or questions about children's literature writing, please contact me.