Thread: First person narration from a child's point of view

I had the idea of writing a short story narrated by a young child of six or seven years old. The story mainly focuses on the conversations between the child and her mother. It's kind of hard for me to think from the perspective of a six year old child because I am not one. I am also thinking of adding in references to "childish" objects such as cartoons on the television, rubber ducks, wild, imaginative thinking etc.

Does anyone have experiance with such? Any help and tips would be appreciated.

Peace,

Revekka

this is an iteresting concept.
the only way to get as close o as six/seven year old talking /chatting/narrating is to chat to one.
ask them to narrate something then copy the style but you have to spend time getting their narrative style.
maybe get intouchh with a teacher/primary school..suggest your idea then get few kids to narrate story.
this is the only way. you must have to research your material to get the feell right.

That's a great idea.

I got the idea of writing a story in this style from a short story I read by Robert Matheson. I forgot the name of it, but it was with the others in I am Legend.

I am probably going to make a visit to my elementary school once I get out of college for the semester. For the conversations, maybe I could ask my mom what she remembers me saying when I was that age?

Originally Posted by Revekka

That's a great idea.

I am probably going to make a visit to my elementary school once I get out of college for the semester. For the conversations, maybe I could ask my mom what she remembers me saying when I was that age?

humm...yes you could ask your mum too but the best real way is toget in the middle of it all.
give kids a taskw where they first talkabout narrative then they write about it as they were about to write a book then read their stuff then take it from there. but the task must be a fictional one andnot real one.
I am a teacher by profession and so I know what to expect.

Originally Posted by Revekka

It's kind of hard for me to think from the perspective of a six year old child because I am not one.

Presumably you were at one time. Think back to what it felt like, and draw from those experiences.

The trouble with narating as if you're a 6 year old is that there would be no plot. A childs mind does not process plot, only a chain of events. I suppose you could do just that and imply a plot. Read pshycology, that should help.

The plot is to be revealed through the child's conversation with her mother.

Originally Posted by Revekka

The plot is to be revealed through the child's conversation with her mother.

Ok. But you will need to do research on child pshycology to establish how much a child can think about causality. Does the 6 six year old understand that one event can cause another? etc. You can still do it but you'll have to be careful about what the child thinks about the events. The plot can still be revealed to the reader but not via the child, but the child can relay the events to the reader no problem.

I agree with all the poster above. Language is going to be incredibly important. You also need to consider that the child's mother might say things that the child doesn't understand, or doesn't appreciate the significance of. If they don't appreciate the significance then they might leave out important information when retelling the story. Though this could be a useful plot device.

I wrote a short story in first person from the perspective of a child who was perhaps 9 or 10. I didn't want to define an exact age in the reader's mind (for reasons that become clear at the end). I spent a long time thinking about every single word I wrote. Would the child be likely to use a particular word or expression? Would they retell the story in the same words that their mother used or would they put it in their own words? The same with story ideas and concepts.

I had a talk with my English instructor because he has young children himself. He was telling me about all the types of questions children ask at that age and their patterns of thought.

At the age of six, children tend to ask a lot of "why" questions. They reach a stage of "magical thinking" where they believe in fantastical ideas such as tooth faries and Easter bunnies. They are able to think at a somewhat, but not completely reasonable level. They also tend to blame themselves when something goes wrong (daddy came home late because I ate the last cookie from the jar).

If anyone has children of that age, or has been around children of that age enough, feel free to add more.