Child Characters in Fiction

One of the challenges I'm facing is portraying children in my novel from toddlers to teenagers. There will be a few scenes of my heroine as a 10-year-old and later as a teenager. There will be her relatives and other children portrayed.

When having child characters, it is important to characterize them appropriately and consistently. You don't want a 7-year-old characters who seems to be too mature for her age at one chapter and in another chapter acting like a toddler.

One of the books I admire is Arudhati Roy's God of Small Things. I admire her skill in writing through sophisticated language, sentence structures and adult vocabulary, yet beautifully portrays the mindset of a young person.

When I was working on my Bachelor's in Education, one of the classes I took was Developmental Psychology that talked about psychological development of a person from birth through old age. It talked about the biological, physical, mental, emotional, and social aspects. I wished that I kept my textbook for that class. I can't even recall it. It was straightforward, but not too dry and technical. That class helped me characterize children. I could create a character and imagine what that character will say and do according to his or her personality. If not for the class, a basic college textbook on developmental psychology would be a resource or parenting books. This is for us singles who never had children.

I thought that parent and grandparent writers are at an advantage for having firsthand experience. It is true, but that doesn't mean single writers can't have insights.

According to Flannery O' Connor, "anyone who survived childhood has enough material to write for the rest of his or her life."

Can I recall childhood? Well, if I can't my mother is always more than happy to share stories about my childhood. Even as an adult, I remember distinct memories and remember exactly from my young perspective.

Here's a writing exercise I have done to draw out experiences. Make a three column list, one young child, 10 years old, and teenager. Take 10 minutes the most to list out memories in each column.

As a freewrite, pick only one from the column of your choice. Free write that particular memory either in first or third person point of view as though it is happening at the moment.

I wrote about the time when I was 10-years-old and my 10th birthday party. As I was freewriting I recalled details that I would have normally taken for granted.

Then, on the other hand, what if you are not writing about yourself but a fictional character in a novel. This is where spending time with children, whether family members, kids you volunteer with or kids in general are helpful. Plus, studying psychology helped me put myself in the character's shoes and think about what he or she would most likely say or do at that given age?

Good writing is always rewritten. If you want to get better in portraying child characters, spend more time writing, reading, and giving to the craft.

For my flashback and beginning chapters, I have used a combination of my own memories and creating a scene based on what I know about children that age from psychology class and working with kids.

To top it up, a sound edit or having a critical reader will help keep the characterization consistent.