At one level, nothing changes when telling stories for younger audiences. A show that is designed for kids has all the same requirements, with regard to good storytelling, as shows for other audiences. The story must have conflict, compelling characters, a strong structure with plenty of interesting incident, a great setting, and a well-explored theme. That said, for younger audiences our show-design needs to take account of some unique requirements.
The Multiple-Audience
In writing for a younger audience, you must recognize that there are gatekeepers around what young audiences are exposed to. Not only should you be writing for the younger audience itself, but also for the gatekeepers who must be won over in order to get your content into the hands of younger audiences.
In practice you must, while delivering what a younger audience is looking for, write a show that appeals simultaneously to parents, teachers, librarians, and reviewers. These individuals are the filter that your content must pass through before your target audience can be reached (something well understood and mastered by companies such as Pixar and others primarily focused on the “family” market). This is, of course, less of an issue with a young-adult audience.
Appealing to the gatekeepers
None of the following rules are set in stone. You can make any choice you desire when creating your work, but you need to be aware that some choices will limit the full extent of the audience you can reach.
Stories for younger audiences should be as free from profanity as possible. Parents are quickly turned off by the presence of profanity in content their children are likely to consume. Likewise, schools, libraries, and critics will quickly focus on the presence of profanity when it comes to making a recommendation about a show. No-one ever lost their audience by leaving profanity out of a work that aims at a younger audience, but the presence of profanity is a clear limiting factor with the regard to the size of the audience a show can potentially capture.
Likewise, sex and sexuality is best avoided in material aimed at a younger audience (and for the same reasons).
Lastly, though less significantly, death tends to be a “no-no”. It is possible to create material that deals with death in a way that is sensitive to both children and their gate-keepers (Bambi, Old Yeller, and others) but the presence of death in a story encourages immediate caution in parents and gatekeepers.
As a younger audience gets older, it becomes easier to explore some of these more taboo issues in our stories, but they MUST be dealt with sensitively and responsibly (and will always narrow the audience that can be reached).
To satisfy a young audience, we must satisfy the older gatekeepers who decide what a young audience has access to. For this reason, there needs to be elements in our shows that appeal to older demographics. This includes older characters that the gate-keepers can identify with, and a certain amount of romance, mystery, and adventure. If these elements are not present, then the story is unlikely to pass from your first audience’s hands into the hands of your target audience.
Consider, the first Harry Potter novel. The Hogwarts teachers were, as characters, deliberately designed to appeal to the gatekeeper demographic. The elements of mystery and adventure supplied were sufficient to appeal to the adult audience as well. J. K. Rowling instinctively understood that she had to appeal to the adults around the younger audience (of eight to twelve year olds that were her target audience) before her stories would find their intended audience.
Incidentally, Rowling was a genius at writing for an audience that aged in tandem with her characters, introducing death and romance, etc. to her stories in a way that was appropriate to the increasing age of her characters and audience.
Appealing to kids
Children aren’t attracted by drama (of the interpersonal variety). Conflict is still essential, but soap-opera is frankly boring. They are primarily attracted by wonder, especially wonder that leaks into the everyday. Generally speaking, the dialog delivered by characters in a show aimed at 8 to 12 year-olds should involve simpler sentences and word choices. Characters should generally be less complex and more readily identifiable (in terms of archetypes). This doesn’t mean that stereotypes cannot be subverted, or that complex themes cannot be explored. It does mean that clarity and simplicity in the presenting of the story is paramount.
Children also like a degree of horror (when leavened with humor) as part of their attraction to wonder. The story can be spooky and atmospheric, but must not cross the line into the genuinely frightening or gory.
Humor is essential, younger audiences love to laugh. A child’s sense of humor is fairly unsophisticated. They love slapstick, verbal humor, and humor that arises from a surprise or twist. Adults tend to dislike kids jokes and need more sophistication. The brilliance of a company like Pixar arises in its capacity to build layered jokes; jokes that appeal at the simplest level to children, but contain layers of meaning that will appeal to the adults who encounter them. This is not an easy balance to achieve, but the mass appeal of a children’s program often depends on this very factor.
Adventure (particularly exploring) is always a safe bet with younger audiences. Romance is “icky” but if hinted at (but never consummated) between adult characters will act as a draw to the gatekeeper audience.
Structural Requirements
It is generally true, that younger audiences have decidedly shorter attention spans than their older counterparts and bore easily. Shows should probably aim at being from 15 to 30 minutes in length. Long form story-telling will work with a younger audience, if introduced as a B-plot, and can be especially effective with an episode by episode cliffhanger. The A-plot, however, should be self-contained and resolve each episode in order for younger audiences to feel satisfied. A children’s show should always aim to surprise the audience with a “wow” moment. Originanlity is key.
Children are far more resilient and sophisticated than many adults give them credit for. They are capable of comprehending and processing deep themes about life and friendship and the nature of the world. But adults tend to underrate children and will often, unnecessarily, try to protect them from content that they feel requires too much of them. This is largely overcome by writing for a dual audience of adults and children. The adults will tend to think that the more sophisticated material is aimed at them (and to a degree it is) but it will remain accessible to the youngsters who are the primary audience of the writing.
Poetry and metaphor are key elements in writing for younger audiences. I am not, when I refer to poetry, referring to rhyme. What I mean is that children are particularly open to the use of language to evoke emotion, paint pictures in the imagination, and create atmosphere. They also love the way metaphors can be enjoyed for their surface and deeper meaning. Employ both to the best effect that you can.
Conclusion
When it comes to writing for younger audiences, all of the principles of good writing still apply. We should never talk down to or be afraid to challenge younger audiences. In deference to the more limited vocabulary and life-experience of younger audiences we should aim to be especially simple and clear in our communication. And we should also be mindful of the fact that younger audiences are primarily attracted to wonder, humor, and adventure (rather than romance or drama).
Of greatest importance is the realization that before we can reach our target audience, our show must appeal to the older gatekeepers who control access to that audience (parents, teachers, librarians, and critics). Unless we can appeal to these individuals as well (with characters and themes and humor that satisfies their tastes) we might never reach the intended audience of our works.
Copyright Philip Craig Robotham © 2022
