Hello everyone. This is something I've been wondering about for a little while and figured I'd bring up here to get your opinions on the subject. Basically, in one story I'm working on, I have, along with three other major characters, Lily. Lily is nine years old, orphaned, and on the run from the main antagonist corporation. She pretty much kicks off the plot, but also develops as her own character throughout the story. Eventually it's revealed she's actually been hiding the fact that she was experimented on by the antagonist corporation, giving her enhanced combat ability but also rendering her almost incapable of emotion. She's a pretty tragic character, definitely not someone I'd put in a children's story. This story also only centers perspectives on one character. The second story I started on a little more recently has in its set of main characters Lanaliah Vilthear. (Lana). Lana is, at the start of the story around nine or ten, and generally has no idea about her actual background. Early the story her surrogate family is killed, leading her on a journey which causes her to become apprentice to the main antagonist, and eventually the main protagonist/one of the main protagonists. This story, unlike the other one, will switch perspectives across the main characters, which includes Lana. Generally I've never thought much of it. Their age is just a part of the characters to me, just like any other trait they might have. Recently though I've started to wonder if there is some sort of unspoken rule that children don't exist as main characters outside of children's literature, so I thought I'd get some thoughts from the rest of you. Am I right in my belief's that the character's age doesn't matter as long as they're interesting characters? Is there a point where most adult readers aren't going to be interested in the character regardless of what else I do with them? If so, is that going to be an issue with either or both stories? I'm probably over thinking this, but I figure it's better to discuss my concerns now and not when I'm almost finished with a novel.
The only way in which age matters is that you're not going to find many adults as main characters in YA, MG, or children's literature. Anything goes for stuff aimed at adults.
I won't really comment too much on the backstories, but rather focus on the main question. I think writing children can be easy, yet so difficult at the same time, especially in the scene of adult fiction. I think with children characters it's important to preserve one or some traits that a child should have, whether that's purity, innocence, naivety, etc. Otherwise, you're just writing an adult character in a child character's body, which isn't bad in itself, if if suits your story. But even then, why not make them an adult in the first place? I think there are some important questions to consider before actually writing them into the story, as with any character. Why do I want a child mixed in with a party of adult figures? Does this child serve a purpose that an adult could not? You stated that your first character Lily is a child who has been stripped of emotion and possibly quite a few other important traits. If you've taken so much personality from her, is there anything that remains for a reader to be able to say "Okay, she's still a child after all."? If she has nothing that defines her as a child, other than her body, I'd find it a bit hard to sympathize and see her as a child in the context of the story. So, I don't know that age itself is a problem in adult fiction, but I do think that characters of a certain age should be written appropriately, lest they come across as unbelievable.
Thanks you for the responses everyone. @MythMachine You make a good point. Lily's age is definitely important to the story. I've thought about what would happen if she was an adult, and the plot pretty much falls apart. Her normal personality is also still in there. For one, her reason for hiding what happened to her is part of an attempt to have a "normal" life. Over the course of the story she forms a sort of father/daughter relationship with the main character, and after he learns her secret he does work to help bring her actual personality out.
Of course you can have a child character but you have to make it work. First of all you have to make sure, that they actually feel like kids and not 9 year old teens or adults. Also they have to have a compelling storyline and personality but it looks like you have that one down. The only other thing would be to make sure, they don't come off as annoying (as kids sometimes can be). Otherwise I see no problem.
To Kill A Mockingbird is not a child's book, yet a child tells it. Just because a character is young doesn't mean that it's a children's book. If the character was well written, then no one would mind. I suggest reading A Day No Pigs Would Die. There are lots of innuendos in there that the child character does not quite get but we as adults do; such as his aunt 'laughing in the dark' with her new male friend, and when the MC had do go into the public bathroom and thought he was being warned of 'preverts' which he thought was some kind of clarinet. He said 'if there was a prevert in the place they kept it pretty well hid'.
