Bedtime Stories.

 Who hasn't enjoyed having bedtime stories read to them?  I was delighted to find that some of the stories that I loved are still popular, such as The Tiger Who Came To Tea by Judith Kerr (is it only me who sees a double meaning to it, by the way?) My son loves this book just as much as I do. We also have firm favourites by modern authors, such as The Gruffalo, The Wibbly Pig books and  Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!

I have to confess that I had thought that it would not be too tricky to write a bedtime story. After all there are not too many words to find, and the plot and character don't need a great deal of development. However, having taken up the Mslexia submission challenge to write a 400 word bedtime story, https://mslexia.co.uk/fiction/  I'm finding that it is much harder than it looks to achieve something that will delight both child and adult! It feels a little like writing flash fiction to me. All the same elements of a good story need to be there but in a proportionate quantity and with fine attention to language. I'm also trying to visualise my characters and scenes intensely, to imagine how a child will receive the story.

Have you written any bedtime stories? Were you successful? How did you approach the challenge?

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