Tuesday 16 November 2004

Pic of the day: Even when playing Sims2, I like to have kids. Of course, things might have been very different if I had any in real life. It would probably be a daily struggle to not kill the little parasites outright. Somehow most people manage to overcome, though. (Then again, most people don't try to write a novel in a month.)

Writing and kids

Today I had a blast with my novel, writing the most interesting chapter so far ("Night vision"). Sadly, I finished it and still have no more than a vague idea about what to write next. Of course, that was the case before I started writing this chapter too.

I suspect it will be harder to write again when my main character comes home. Rita, the 13-year-old, is quite an inspiration. She is kinda childish for her age (then again, this is not so unusual as to be unrealistic, I've met quite a few of those). I like children, and not in a bad way I might add. The fun thing is how direct they can be: The distance from thought to words or actions is so short that they sometimes come in the wrong order. ^^

Come to think of it, back when I had friends, I guess pretty much all of them were people I had befriended as children, or their parents. It is easy to become friends with children if neither you nor they are evil. All you need to do is be there. This is what so many adults fail to, spectacularly: Even when their body is parked right there, their mind is far away, and the kids notice this very quickly. They are not amused. Since I don't spend much time making plans for the future (it is mostly limited to keeping the fridge from going totally empty) and don't dwell much on the past (unless I am running dry of ideas for my journal) I have by default nothing better to do than to listen to the people I am with. Kids are really starved for that, usually.

It also struck me that kids don't debate easily. They can quarrel, but then typically over things or prestige. They are more likely than adults to either ask or tell. As if life was one big Wikipedia. I am a lot like that too.

I'm never going to write children's books though. That's a completely different things. And I could not handle the language. Back when Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote the Tarzan books, he never perceived a need to dumb down the language, but boys loved the stories anyway. Today, it is considered essential to use a very limited vocabulary to get the "kiddie" feel. I hate and resent that. I could never do it. Kids are smart and love long words. Or if not, I want nothing to do with them. They are probably going to grow up to be dumb jocks or presidents anyway.