Writing for children on the subject of war ...

Bomber Command Memorial
London, 2023

 

My current Work in Progress (WIP), is a middle-grade story set in England in World War II, inspired by lived experience of family members.

I have travelled to England to research this story, thank you to the Canada Council for their generous Research and Creation grant which allowed me to visit archives in London, Yate, Gloucester, Bristol, Chipping Sodbury, and elsewhere. I have written in this space about my research trip.

I have also recently visited the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton, Ontario, where I received a very intense tour of a Lancaster Bomber. Thank you to them for their time and expertise.

It was quite an experience, being inside a Lancaster. 

It was much narrower, less sturdy, harder to move around in, more claustrophobic, than I had imagined. It was like being inside a metal dragonfly: all powerful wings, and a slender, long, paper-thin sheaf of a body. It really brought WAR home to me, the pinnacle of human technology at the time (1941), the Lancaster Bomber was death from above and was also the final end for over 55,000 allied airmen, most of them barely out of their teens. I visited the Bomber Command Memorial at Hyde Park in London UK too, more than once, incredibly moved.

Lancaster Bomber,
Hamilton, Ontario

During the course of research for this book, not one but two wars have taken hold in the world. It would be easy to stop writing this book because frankly it's overwhelming, all the death and destruction right now and the horrible terrors of WWII. But I can't stop, because I think children today may need age-appropriate books about war more than ever, which is also incredibly sad. In the 80 years since the end of WWII, very little has changed.

One promise to myself, the next book I write is going to be about something sweet and funny! (More soon!)

Also, please note that my book OCULUM ECHO (available now), is also about children surviving a war, as well as climate collapse. It has had fabulous reviews and sadly timely, I feel it may be another important war read for kids.

Spitfire and V2 rocket,
Imperial War Museum, London

So, here are 6 things I've learned about writing for children (ages 10+) on the subject of war:

1. Less gore, more helpers. I have avoided graphic details about the dead and dying, but have not left out the fact that people die, or the fact that there are helpers even in the worst situations.

2. First person narrative can help control the fear. My main characters tell their story in first person, which gives readers the sense that the characters CAN cope, they DO cope, and we as readers can and do cope along with them.

3. One best buddy who lives. Not everyone dies.

4. Balance. No one wins in this story, but there are many connections and similarities between the characters, borne out through research. We are all more similar than we are different. As E.M Forster said, only connect.

At the Archives
in Gloucester

5. Historical technology is cool. Specifics are better than generalizations. I haven't shied away from using the exact WWII term for things. Old technology shows us how far we've come, too.

6. Old patterns of speech don't age well! Old terminology seems fine, but language and idiom gets old fast, both writing and reading it. As much as possible, I try to keep my language timeless, neutral, with very few (or no) period-specific or accent-imitating touches. I would choose "Bye" to " Cheerio", or "Hello" to " 'ello." There are enough barriers to reading, why make it harder?

Hope you find this helpful. I'll try to do more "writing things I've learned" this year. Go forth and write, uncover the truth as you see it, and tell those stories. One day soon perhaps the last war story will have been told.