Writing for Children vs. Writing for Adults

A polite response to Martin Amis...

Martin Amis writes compelling, complex prose. That doesn’t make his oral arguments convincing. 

 

During a recent interview on the BBC’s Faulks on Fiction, Mr. Amis dismissed writing for children as “anathema to him.” Why? Because in his view, “fiction is freedom and any restraints on that are intolerable.” Fair enough. Of course, by not writing for children, he’s placing restraints on himself. He writes for adults, generally a certain kind of adult, which is its own restraint.

 

Of course, in fairness to Mr. Amis, he did say he’d write for children if he had “a serious brain injury.” Well, I hope it wasn’t too serious, but I think there must have been a small brain injury somewhere along the line.

 

Follow me here…

 

Writing for Adults vs. Writing for Children 

1. Mr. Amis, I doubt any editor has ever said to you, “This is juvenile! Are you writing for seven year olds?” but I have had my editor say, “This is a bit too adult. Could you tone it down?” And do you know why no editor has told you that, Mr. Amis? Because you’re writing with an audience in mind, and that audience is adults. Otherwise your work would be a scattershot, cob-jobbed piece of fiction. It’s not, because you place restraints upon yourself. Your audience may be a reflection of you, or it may be a wide range of adults you wish to reach or offend or transform, but they’re certainly all out of short pants. Now, I know my audience, too, generally boys 3-8, but like Mr. Amis, I like when people outside that narrow demographic read my work. Yes, Mr. Amis, we children’s authors write for a particular audience, just like you, even if you don’t recognize it (and yours doesn’t curl up with a parent to enjoy delightful stories and breathtaking artwork).
2. I am sure, Mr. Amis, that most parents sensibly shield their children from your work, even their teens, but writing Young Adult means getting to have an adult fan base. Sometimes a rabidly adult fan base. Just ask J.K. Rowling, Stephanie Meyer, Rick Riordan and plenty of others. We get to transcend audiences, rather than write for that specific audience you openly crave.
3. Anything you can write, we can write, too. Oh, the language is different, but the subject matter can be just as difficult. You can be serious? So can we. Funny? Yep. Satirical? You betcha. Dramatic? Of course. Our characters run the gamut of emotions, and if you read YA, you'll notice they have plenty of adult thoughts on sex, suicide, revenge, drugs, alcohol, you name it. If you want to dismiss picture books as unworthy, they've covered death, disease, gay marriage, gay adoption, racism, sexism, physical challenges, mental challenges and well, you get the picture. Yes, the stories are aimed at children, but for children to enjoy and discuss with adults.
4. You write for minds that are already shaped; we write for minds that are being shaped. Psychologists say our personalities are hard-wired by the age of four, no later than six, anyway. You're generally writing for people who agree with you; we're writing for those experiencing the world anew. As a case in point, someone who reads one of your books but doesn't like it is unlikely to pick up another one you've written. A child who doesn't like one of our books may love the next one. That next book is new to them, or perhaps they grew into it.
5. To sum up, Mr. Amis, one can easily extrapolate your argument to say that you don't write for a specific audience. That you write for adults, correct? Adults of every shape, size, and stripe, while we foolishly limit ourselves to children. Oh, and their parents. And grandparents. And teachers. And librarians. Of all shapes, sizes, and stripes. Sounds to me, Mr. Amis, like you're writing for a very narrow audience, while we keep a very large audience in mind.

Of course, that's getting a bit far away from your original point. You meant adult fiction provides freedom within the context of the story, and perhaps we are a bit limited in what we can say and how we can say it, but we are less limited in imagination and far less limited in audience. I will take that trade.

I'm sorry this is so long-winded, Mr. Amis, like one of your novels. I write pithy, sparse picture books where every word, every punctuation and pause, has to matter. I feel they do here, too.

I've written for children and adults, without casting aspersions on either. I enjoy both. All I will say is that the audience is different and the stories are different, but then you know that because you restrain yourself by writing for adults. Good luck with that. I'll keep writing for children, with this caveat -- your audience is not anathema to me because I welcome them. You cannot welcome mine.