Creating believable characters in stories

When I write stories for children, the first thing I must do is develop believable characters. Kids these days are so different to the kids of my day, and I’m very aware of the gap. I struggle to understand the latest gadgets they use to play interactive games, the “virtual reality” games they swoon over on the computer, let alone the complex language of text messaging.

But do the characters in my stories have to be so generation x or y, or whatever the latest classification is? Do some of the pleasures of my childhood still exist in kids today?

The answer is yes! Just the other day, my friend (same age as me, and no, I’m not telling) brought around his daughter and son aged 11 and 8 years. I offered the kids a drink and they chose cold milo. And that’s when I got excited. The 11 year old girl eats/drinks her milo exactly the same way I did as a kid, and still do, when the child inside me gets out. You put the milo in first, pour over the milk, and watch the milo come to the top. The fascinating thing is that the milo is still dry. So you dunk it under with a spoon and eat the now wet clumps of yummy milo. You take your time over this and you must never, never dig out the stuff that has stayed on the bottom. That’s for last. You drink the milk and then eat the stuff at the bottom. Yum!

I was so pleased to se that old traditions don’t always die out. Kids these days love having their milo the way kids in my day did. Yippee! I can use that in my stories, and my character will be believable.  

 

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