26 Fruits

The talk at The Writer was about adult-to-adult communication. Which is what most business writing is about. But it made me realise that a lot of my work recently has involved writing for children. Not only has that been interesting but I also think it has had a positive influence on my writing for adults.

For example…I’ve recently worked on the tone of voice for a brand that is aimed at eight-year-olds. It was great to do, and it gave me the excuse to reread and be influenced by Roald Dahl. There’s such energy in his writing. And, of course, although written for an eight-year-old the words would be read first by a parent as a gatekeeper. There’s no problem with this – it simply clarifies the issue that actually applies to all writing. We write for multiple audiences but need to address our writing to an individual. I find it refreshing that the individual was not the archetypal businessman.

Writing for children, or with children in mind, helps you develop your ability to step outside your own writing and look at it with another’s eyes and ears and feelings. This is something we all need to do. It’s certainly part of the Other Worlds project I’m involved in at the Story Museum in Oxford. And it will be part of 26 Treasures of Childhood that will start soon with the Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green.

Seeing things through the eyes of a child is one of the great bonuses of being a parent – or a grandparent. At Christmas I gave my granddaughter Aimee a story I had written called Aimee’s New Year. My son reported back by text message after reading it to her: “She loved it. She asked how granddad had written such a good story.” The best review I’ve ever had.

I love feeling and recreating that sense of wonder experienced by a child. Technology can be part of that wonder, and a five-year-old, like Aimee, can find her way around mobile phones and computers. But I was reminded this week that the greatest wonder still lies in old technology because books contain stories and spur the imagination in ways that technology doesn’t quite achieve.

I was sent an advance copy of a new children’s book by Lane Smith (to be published by Macmillan on World Book Day, 1^st March). It’s a simply told, charmingly illustrated story called It’s a book. It features a book-loving ape and an IT-savvy donkey who can’t quite get his head around the concept of a book: “Do you scroll down? Do you need a password? Does it text or tweet?” No, it’s a book, repeats the ape. Eventually the jackass starts reading too, gripped by a tale of a pirate who jumps out of the page into his imagination. It’s a book.

Treat yourself to it when it comes out. Then give it to a child because a book can change a child’s life for the better.

And don’t forget www.unbound.co.uk/books/26-treasures