Keeping Kid Characters the Heroes of their Story

Writing for kids

Writing for kids is a really fun job. You get to relive your childhood and write the kinds of stories that made you a reader. You also get to come up with conflicts that put your kid characters front and center as the heroes of their own story. However, there’s an added challenge to how your characters deal with the conflict: keeping kid characters the heroes of their story.

If kids choose to enlist their parents or other trusted adults to help them solve their problems, they tend to take a back seat in its resolution. You want your kids to be the heroes of their own story.

You want them to learn how to solve problems and take responsibility for their actions. But what if the conflict is bigger than school or friend-related problems? What if they are in real danger and are putting their lives at risk? When is it okay to recruit adults to help them overcome their obstacles?

Leave adults out of it

I am currently in the process of writing my sixth middle grade novel. In each book I’ve written, the conflicts have been different. However, one question always comes up while plotting out my conflicts. Why don’t the kids find an adult to help?

My answer is to come up with a reason not to get parents or adults involved.

• Maybe the adults in the story won’t understand the dilemma. 
• The kids don’t want to get in trouble. 
• It’s the adults who are in danger.
• There’s no time because the characters are in a situation where they can’t go for help.

Either way, I have to find different ways of answering this question that will make sense to the story. The reason behind this is to keep the kids the heroes of the tale. After all, the story is meant to be read by kids.

How boring would it be to simply call Mom and Dad to take care of everything? But in doing that, am I contributing to a trend in children’s literature which is to paint adults as villains or foils?

Problem solving

It’s important for children to learn conflict resolution. They need to figure out how to solve their own problems. But some situations are more extreme than others. It’s one thing to try to win a contest on your own. It’s another to take on a gang of trained assassins.

My books, even if they incorporate fantasy elements, are always grounded in the real world. They’re typically set in little suburban neighborhoods where the stakes may feel high to my characters but usually won’t result in any life-threatening consequences. So, the situations that apply to my characters typically apply to my readers. They go to school, hang out with their friends, and happen to get caught up into situations that challenge their decision-making skills.

However, a few of my stories have become pretty intense at the end. There have been dangerous villains and life-threatening situations. In these cases, I’ve kept the adult characters at arm’s length while the kids face and overcome dangerous situations. However, I’ve also questioned what message that is sending to my readers.

Mistrust and miscommunication

The most popular middle grade novels encompass a wide array of situations, from personal, character-driven stories to epic sci-fi adventures. In all cases, you can see the author’s challenge to create conflicts for their young characters to resolve. Is it putting ideas into readers’ heads that adults are not to be trusted or that they won’t understand the dilemma if called upon to help?

Depending on the situation, maybe there is some truth to this fear.  As kids, sometimes we don’t feel heard or that we are taken as seriously as adults. These stories reflect this.

Many times, we see situations in stories get worse before they get better, mostly because of the sneaking around that characters have to do. Sometimes they even get caught before the climax of the book, either by the villain, their parents, or the authorities. Then, they have to break out or defy their verbal orders to stand down in order to save the day. 

It reminds me of a soldier disobeying orders. They’re doing it for the right reasons.

Factoring in character

A main character may be an orphan who never had an adult to rely on or lay down rules. They could be a delinquent who has been labeled a trouble-maker by adults and doesn’t trust them, even when their intentions are well-meaning. Or, they could just be a headstrong kid who simply wants to handle things on their own. They just to see if they can. They also want to be taken seriously, or maybe even be respected, by adults.  

Whatever the case, authors simply want to tell exciting stories from a kid’s perspective. Like adults, there are many different types of children, and many different types of situations and choices for them to make. Those choices help to serve the specific story that is being told.

When adults do get involved

When a writer makes the choice to let adults take the helm in a story, it’s still important that the kids stay involved in some way. Either they ignore orders to stay out of danger, or they convince the adults to let them come along.

A daring enough adult will even encourage the kid to step into the path of danger to help save the day. It may be just what a timid character needs in order to learn a lesson and grow as a person.

Children’s authors are aware that the young age of their readers makes them very impressionable. So, the tone that we use to tell the story is always important. These stories let kids know when to defy orders and when to respect authority.

It teaches them to do the right thing and to make good decisions. The kid heroes, even if flawed, should still be admirable in the decisions they make and the lessons that they learn from those decisions.

It’s just a story

We authors question so many elements of the story we are writing, but it’s important to question the influence that our tales have on what our readers will take away from it. Maybe the lesson is to empathize with children who don’t feel that they are heard or to show them that it is better to ask for help than to shoulder the burden of major conflicts themselves. In the end, we have to trust our readers to recognize these life lessons and appropriately apply them to their own lives.

If nothing else, readers should take it simply as entertainment, using these fictional characters as avatars to live out their wildest fantasies in a safe and comfortable yet exciting place. After all, it’s just a story.

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