Short post today.
I experienced an incredible shift in thinking when I started teaching: I realized kids are simple. I don’t know how I thought I was writing for children before I started spending every day with them. But the more time I spent with them the more I realized that I could benefit from adopting their mindset.
Children’s stories are simple and the images are strong. Contrary to what the adult world seems to teach, the mark of intelligence is simplicity, not complexity. Albert Einstein said, “If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.” The critical gaze of children really does test of whether we do or don’t understand something.
Teaching English will force you to think more simply. At the beginning I would rely on complicated examples to define a word. Now I keep it in as few words as possible—If I can put the meaning into one word, I consider that a success. For example, when I started teaching I would define damage as, “When something gets broken but not entirely broken, maybe it still works but there’s parts of it that don’t work anymore.” Now I would define damage as “Hurt or break.”
I’ve started taking the same approach to writing for children. I cut out words and characters if the story can handle it. Simplify. Make bold. Strengthen symbols by cutting off everything that doesn’t need to be there. Kids look at books for the pictures. Make as many pictures with as you can, keep it simple, and don’t flatter yourself with heady diction.
Another thing that helped my writing is to start illustrating again. Here is some of this morning’s work.
jpcabit 