Me and kids

[nonionay]

Nanowrimo is going pretty well. Yeah, yeah, I was going to post it on LJ, but it's messy. It's always messy, but for some reason I think every year that this is the year I'm going to spit out a nice neat readable manuscript right off the bat. I don't know why I thought that the year I decided to work with my own writing style and write a NON-LINEAR NOVEL!!

Anyway...

Kids.
There's one child in my Nano, (age six) who really only exists because logically his dad, a main character, should have a kid. I'm terrible when it comes to kids. I'm an only child, I don't want a child, I know nothing about kids. I was happy with my portrayal of a seven-year-old in one of my books, until last Christmas when I met my cousin's three-year-old daughter and discovered she acted like I thought my seven-year-old character should.

The kid in my story doesn't have anything to do, but I still don't want to neglect him. Poor objectified child. I hate in tv shows where a baby is a prop you can easily turn off and on as needed. I figure I just need a couple lines where you're like, "wow, that's a real child!" and that's that. My exposure to children: spencimusprime's daughter (cutey, cutey. Knows ASL and hisses when you ask her what sound a cat makes. Also vomits in her mother's hands).

Maybe I'll just make the kid a boy version of Adia. I'll have him hiss and everyone will fall in love.

Comments

[shadesofmauve]

Adorable! My cousin used to hiss when you asked her what sound geese made. I also knew a little kid who'd pant if you asked her about dogs.

Btw, I don't have kids or want them, but I did grow up with umpteenbillyun cousins, and am happy to read story bits and tell you what age I think the character is!

Actually, I'm just happy to read story bits. Other people working to make entertainment wins!

[mimerki.livejournal.com]

Other kid thoughts: My father once asked me how Muffin (our dog) barked. I answered, "Fine." Because, well, Muffin's bark was perfectly fine. He'd been expecting a "woof-woof-woof" answer, so found it really funny.

But that's another really little kid thing. At 7, modern kids are typically into dinosaurs, if that gives you any ideas.

[awriter.livejournal.com]

Ugh, the age thing is something I've had trouble with too.

Somehow my tired eyes read your last sentence as "Maybe I'll just make the kid a teen version of Adia." which brought up all kinds of funny mental images.