Better Late Than Never

Recently I've been in a bit of a slump with my writing, largely due to one big-old dark cloud that's been hanging over my long-term work Moonleaf, which I started in high school. This is a story that I've been writing and rewriting for years, now, with the dream of someday getting it published as a children's novel. And therein lies the dark cloud... My children's story has a grand-total of one child in it, and he's not particularly the main character.

I didn't think too much of this when I started Moonleaf, but a few university courses on Literature, on Children, and on Children's Literature, as well as a couple years working at a children's bookstore have really shoved a certain fact into my face: A successful children's book centres around A) children or B) animals. There are pretty much no exceptions. (And the exceptions that exist are pretty much exclusively classics.)

I suspect this fact has been lingering around in the back of my head for a long time (and it might be at least part of the reason I've taken so long finishing this thing), but it's only truly sunk in for me in this past week or so. And after a few days of quiet brooding, wondering if I should alter the story to better suit children or alter the content to better suit adults, I've finally come to an understanding: I thought I was writing a children's story. I wasn't. And it's a simple as that.

I've now nearly finished the last of my big-story-edits, and then I expect to do one last perfect-the-wording edit and then I might just be ready for step 2 in becoming an author! (Step 1 being "Write a story") I'll probably use my last edit to make sure that it doesn't sound like I'm writing to children, but apart from that I realize I don't have to change vast amounts. That's my epiphany for the day: writing for adults does not in fact equal "lay on the sex and violence!" The joy of writing for adults is that there are no rules. Grown-ups have such varied tastes that there are bound to be some who find my story interesting, and for my first novel that's good enough for me.

And if a few young teens take an interest in Moonleaf too, good on them. But I no longer have to worry about tailoring my writing to suit them, and that's kind of freeing.