“You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.”
“You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.”
First and foremost, you have to write with a sense of love and free will. You can’t force words on a page; it has to flow directly from your mind. Second, some adults with more vivid imaginations than some, begin to write exploratory text that other adults will not be able to decipher. The beautiful thing about a child’s mind is that it’s limitless in a way that they receive information. They’ll believe almost anything and that beauty will take them deep in a story. Their imagination will help guide them of the impossibilities that they might lose as adults. Its crucial to a healthy young mind to reconnoiter their imaginative state as long as they can to be able to uncover their own way of living as they get older. This sort of writing that Madeleine is talking about will only be appreciated, wholeheartedly, by a child who is open minded to the possibilities of time travel, other realms and magic; that sort of thing that adults seem to disregard as too childish.
Salma went over some of the same points, but yeah… Children are simply more open-minded than adults. Once you reach a certain age you have some preconceptions that are almost impossible to shake. As a child you can read something far outside the norm but you don’t really have a concrete idea of what the norm is yet so you’re not all that bothered.
Madeleine’s quote sounds to me like she she’s telling writers that you need to write from the heart and express what you truly want regardless how the reaction might turn out. The first sentence encourages authors to stick to their guns no matter how outlandish or odd it may be. Many times people are influenced to change their ideas because they’re scared that it will be received negatively or ridiculed. What’s ironic about this is that many creative books are typically the most acclaimed. You would figure authors would be searching to outdo each other with who could write the next best original story. Yet it seems how that book is going to get judged gets to the better of people and ultimately people fall back on playing it safe by writing what’s popular or common.
The second sentence stems from children being more open minded and accepting to what’s new and different than adults are. This is the “too difficult for grown-ups” that L’Engle is talking about. Children have a far more wild and vivid imagination than adults. Making it easier for a writer to gain success and a fan-base with writing an original piece of work as a children’s novel than if it was targeted to adults, who might dismissive it to quick or underappreciate it.
Maybe because a child’s mind hasn’t been molded yet like adults that allows them to be more open to things that are unusual to the norm in our society. Or because once people reach to their teen years their more focused on how they’ll be perceived by others to embrace something that’s different that could lead to criticism. Or a mix of both that factors in. Either way Madeleine’s quote speaks to a truth that no matter how far left, north, or reverse a writer decides to take their ideas, it’ll be more accepted if it’s geared towards children.
The quote seems to mean that writing has to stem from a story you’ve created and are really passionate about. There are writers who feel as though they must write in order to appease an audience rather than create a story that they truly enjoy. For example, some authors will follow a trend such as vampire/human romance because the theme resonates with young readers. This could be described as a “cookie cutter” approach to gaining a young audience.
As for the second part, it does appear that children often do not have the same questions and doubt that adults would have when it comes to fiction. It is easier to write freely when the readers are young; this doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a rule-free environment, but authors do have more room to be as creative as they want with younger readers.
I agree with the ideas above, but to me, the quote is simple. It’s simply saying not to hide the story inside of you that is begging to come out. And if the story doesn’t suit an adult audience, make is so it suits a children’s audience; but whatever you do and whoever it is for, write the story. I’m sure often time writers are deterred from writing a story because of fear of how the audience would accept it. But as she said, if it’s too much for adults, children will always accept it. As some of my classmates mentioned above, kids are open-minded. Authors always have a chance with children if they can’t get through to adults.