Science Fiction and Fantasy For Younger Readers – Part One – Suspension of Disbelief
Posted by admin on 24 Feb 2010 under books, writingWriters of science fiction or fantasy have something of an advantage over those who work in other genres in that virtually anything you can imagine is possible. Your stories may feature time travel into the past or future, alternate realities, parallel universes, alien worlds, other dimensions and so much more.
When writing for younger readers, the phrase ‘writing what you know’ takes on a whole new meaning. In crafting your narrative, you need to be able to see through a child’s eyes whenever possible. You have to try and recall events and experiences your own formative years, in particular how did things actually feel to you when you were seven, ten or twelve years old. Who were your most constant friends when you were that age? Were there memorable incidents, family vacations, emotional dramas, books, TV shows or movies that shaped your childhood and early adolescence? Do some of your memories from that far off era truly linger in your mind and are they likely to stay with you for the rest of your life? You may even find yourself remembering events, people and places that you always assumed you’d irretrievably forgotten.
One of the best things about writing for children is that it allows you to create stories about the kinds of things that both fascinated you and absorbed your imagination when you were young. Our childhood, for most of us, is normally a lost, magical time from before we grew up. Even if we have children of our own, it’s difficult to remember just how things truly felt to us and how our thought processes operated when we were young. For science fiction and fantasy authors, stories for young readers can be very imaginative, which makes writing them so much fun.
Simon Rose is the author of science fiction and fantasy novels for children, including The Alchemist’s Portrait, The Sorcerer’s Letterbox, The Clone Conspiracy, The Emerald Curse and The Heretic’s Tomb. He offers a wide variety of workshops, presentations and Author in Residence programs for schools and libraries around the world, covering such topics as where ideas come from, story structure, editing and revision, character development, time travel stories, history and research and more. He is also available for presentations, workshops and public speaking engagements with a wide range of adult audiences, offers creative services designed for writers, including editing, critiquing and manuscript evaluation and also freelance writing services, including website content and copywriting, for the business community. Details of school and library programs, plus online readings, excerpts from his books, reviews, and reader, student and teacher comments may be found at http://www.simon-rose.com/ You may also visit his blog at http://simon-rose.blogspot.com/
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