Writing for Kiddos vs. Writing for Grown-ups: the experts weigh in

Like many of my fellow Gen-Yers I've filled many a quotation book with interesting bits and pieces. Blame in on our abysmal attention span. Blame it our need to find purpose in each and every sentence we read. Regardless of the root, as a generation we like our insight like we like our Starbucks order--delivered in 5 minutes or less. That being said I was beyond thrilled when I found these gems at the end of the most recent post from Collecting Children's Books.

The question posed: Is there a difference between writing for children and writing for adults?

Essentially, though, when I am writing for children, I feel a certain responsibility toward them and the kinds of stories I find myself wanting to tell them likely reflect that. When I’m writing for adults, the characters are old and seem to curse a lot. - Gabrielle Zenvin 


I love writing for kids because I'm a person with an agenda usually. I should've been a preacher. I usually have something on my mind that I want to talk to people about, change their mind about and writing for kids, you still have that opportunity. You don't have much opportunity when you write for adults of changing their minds. - M.E. Kerr


I guess one thing that is handy about writing for children is that books tend to be shorter, so I've written a large number of books in a short amount of time, and that's good training. - Lemony Snicket


Writing for children brings you down to basics.- Kevin Brooks


I don't really believe that writing for children is very different from writing for adults. What makes good children's books is putting the same care and effort into them as I would if I were writing for adults. I don’t write anything—put anything in my books that I'd be embarrassed to put in an adult book. - Louis Sachar

Happy Monday afternoon!