Writing for children is bloody difficult; books for children are as complex as their adult counterparts, and they should therefore be accorded the same respect.
Mark HaddonRead
When I was writing for children, I was writing genre fiction. It was like making a good chair. However beautiful it looked, it needed four legs of the same length, it had to be the right height and it had to be comfortable.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Writing for children requires balance and structure, much like crafting a well-designed chair.
Mark Haddon compares writing for children to creating a functional piece of furniture, emphasizing that good children's literature needs to be well-constructed, with strong foundations and attention to detail. Just as a chair must be aesthetically pleasing and practically suited for use, children's stories must engage young readers while also conforming to their developmental needs and understanding.
Themes
WritingChildrenLiteratureStorytellingCraft
In practice
Example use cases
In a workshop on children's literature, this quote can be used to emphasize the importance of structure in storytelling.
More from Mark Haddon
All quotes →As to the number of novels I've abandoned... I shudder to think. I have thrown away five completed novels, and that's a gruesome enough figure. But not necessarily a waste of effort.
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At twenty life was like wrestling an octopus. Every moment mattered. At thirty it was a walk in the country. Most of the time your mind was somewhere else. By the time you got to seventy, it was probably like watching snooker on the telly.
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And Father said, "Christopher, do you understand that I love you?" And I said "Yes," because loving someone is helping them when they get into trouble, and looking after them, and telling them the truth, and Father looks after me when I get into trouble, like coming to the police station, and he looks after me by cooking meals for me, and he always tells me the truth, which means that he loves me.
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From a good book, I want to be taken to the very edge. I want a glimpse into that outer darkness.
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And I know I can do this because I went to London on my own, and because I solved the mystery…and I was brave and I wrote a book and that means I can do anything.
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